Healthy Instant Pot Mongolian Beef

This Instant Pot Mongolian Beef with carrots and green onions is flavorful, delicious and so easy to make. This pressure cooker Mongolian Beef recipe is not as sweet as other versions of Mongolian beef, which allows for the savory notes to come out more.

I've been using my Instant Pot more and more lately. It just makes meat SO tender and I love just tossing things in there and having them come out so flavorful.

My latest favorite thing to make is this Instant Pot Mongolian Beef. And it's so easy. This is delicious served with broccoli, with carrots, or simply with rice. It really is the best Mongolian Beef I've ever had.

This is a low-sugar Mongolian Beef recipe. I love that this is a healthy Instant Pot Mongolian Beef since it does use less sugar than most versions, but still just enough to get the sweet flavor.

What is Mongolian Beef?

Mongolian beef is not actually from Mongolia! It's a Chinese dish that has thinly sliced meat that is seared and typically cooked with a brown soy sauce. Most versions are sweet, and sometimes spicy. It's usually paired with cooked vegetables and scallions (green onions).

Ingredients:

• Beef - Sliced thinly. This can be flank steak, round steak, or other steak you have.
• Canola or vegetable oil
• Garlic
• Carrots - Grated. If you like, you can just slice the carrots too. They get pretty soft when cooking in the Instant Pot, which I like.
• Brown sugar - I use light brown sugar for this recipe
• Soy sauce - You can use coconut aminos in place of soy sauce if you wish or tamari
• Water
• Sesame oil - I love the flavor sesame oil gives this dish, but if you can't locate it, you can leave it out.
• Cornstarch - The cornstarch combines with water to thicken the sauce at the end.
• Green onions - This is optional. For topping!
• Rice, cauliflower rice, or quinoa
• Broccoli/green beans/veggie - If you like, throw in some broccoli or other vegetables at the end

Equipment:

We used a 6 quart Instant Pot to make this recipe. I have the Instant Pot Lux model, but if I were to get a different model, I'd get this Duo (you can make yogurt in this one!)

How to serve:

I'd recommend serving the Instant Pot Mongolian Beef over white rice, brown rice, quinoa, or cauliflower rice. If you're making white rice, brown rice, or quinoa, I've found a half cup per serving works well. (So for this dish, I did 2 cups dry rice).

I love serving with a steamed vegetable like green beens or broccoli to make this even healthier and get in some more vegetables! There are two options.

1. Steam the vegetable separately and then throw in at the end. I've done this and works well!
2. If you have something like broccoli, after the Mongolian beef is all cooked, place the Instant Pot on saute mode and throw in your veggie. Cook until the vegetable is at the desired level of tenderness. This is the method I take lately so I don't have to dirty any extra dishes! I usually throw in some fresh or frozen broccoli and simmer until cooked.

Want to make it spicy?

If you want to make the Mongolian Beef spicy, add 3-4 dried chili peppers when cooking, or you can also add some red pepper flakes at the end.

Looking for more Instant Pot recipes to try?

• Instant Pot Chicken Risotto
• Instant Pot Parmesan Risotto
• Instant Pot Chili
• Instant Pot Potato and Leek Soup

How to Make:

First prep all the ingredients. Mince the garlic, cut the steak into strips, and grate the carrots. That's honestly the hardest part of this dish. Then you turn the Instant Pot onto Saute mode and add the oil, once it's hot (basically 30 seconds later), add the steak and then the garlic, stirring occasionally while the steak browns.

While that's cooking, mix together the water, soy sauce, sesame oil, and brown sugar and mix/whisk together until combined. Add the grated carrots to the pot, then pour the soy sauce mixture over the top, stir, then it's time to close up the Instant Pot!

Set it on manual mode and high pressure for 10 minutes, then quick release and turn off. Add the water/cornstarch mixture and stir in, then have it on saute mode for 2-3 minutes until sauce has thickened. Serve over rice/quinoa/cauliflower rice and top with green onions and a steamed veggie (if desired).