Busichka’s (Grandma’s) Beef & White Bean Soup {Electric Pressure Cooker Recipe}

This recipe is for the most simplest and rustic beef soup you will ever find and it’s delicious!!!  It is one of my HB’s favorite soups and his Russian grandmother makes it for him frequently.  She makes it on the stove the old fashioned way, which will take about 2 hours or so.   I started making it for him at home in the pressure cooker since he loves it so much.  Takes less than an hour for me!  😛  It’s also one of his 8yr old son’s favorite soups as well.  He calls it “chicken-boy” even though it has no chicken in it at all whatsoever!  Actually, he’s been calling anything his great-grandma makes for him to eat “chicken-boy” ever since he was little so now the name just stuck.

I was so excited to make this soup that as soon as my HB came home with the ingredients, I quickly ripped all the packages apart and dumped the items into the pot.  I totally forgot to take photos.  So I apologize, the photos below are from google images.

I swear it’s only got FOUR whole ingredients.  Simple, rustic, hearty, and wonderful!!!  All you need is a nice piece of rump roast beef, one whole yellow onion, 2 cups of baby carrots, a bay leaf and a whole bag of Great Northern White Beans.  That is all.  The end!  Okay, just kidding.  You probably want some salt and pepper to taste.  And oh yeah, you definitely need water for the soup.  I’d say about 1.5 gallons of water or about 5 quarts.  Just don’t over fill your pressure cooker.

I always rinse the beans a little bit in fresh drinking water and I put them into the pot of the pressure cooker first.  Then I trim the rump roast, salt and pepper it real good and place that into the pot on top of the beans.  Peel the onion but leave it whole and put it into the pot as well.  Now I’m not sure why we’re not cutting up the onion but that’s how my HB’s grandmother showed me how to make it, is to leave it whole.  So I leave it whole.  Next come the baby carrots.  Either chop them up or leave them whole and dump them in with the rest.  Finally, pour in the fresh water as full as you can until you are 1-2 inches away from the rim of the pot.  I really prefer to use filtered drinking water so I always buy a jug of water from the store instead of using water from the sink.  Sorry, but I don’t really want chlorine with soup, thank you very much.

Program the pressure cooker for 45-minutes to start.  Set it and forget it!  That is pretty much it!  This is a short and sweet recipe.  I told you so.  Usually if you cook this in a pot on the stove, it will take about 2-hours to really cook the rump roast thoroughly so it falls apart.  But with the pressure cooker, it will take less than an hour.  Horray!

When the pressure cooker beeps and let’s you know the soup is done, I would let the cooker drop down in pressure by itself instead of manually releasing the pressure.  Once the pressure has dropped (it may take about 10-15minutes), open the lid and stir the soup a little bit and let it sit for another few minutes or so.  When it’s ready to serve, take the whole rump roast out of the pot and cut it into smaller chunks separately.  Then put it back in with the rest of the soup.  Serve with a little bit of freshly chopped dill if you like.  As the soup sits or is refrigerated overnight, the beans will soak up most of the water from the soup so the consistency will thicken and become stew-like.  You can either add more water and heat it up some more with more salt since the water will dilute it.  Or just leave it as is.  This soup is perfect for the upcoming Autumn season.  Enjoy!

Coming up next week……a recipe for a White Bean Chicken Chili for a Tailing Gating Party!!!