Simple Oxtail Soup

Prep time: 25 mins      Cook time: 1 hr 15 mins      Rest time: 10 mins     Total time: 2 hrs 40 mins

Macronutrients per serving: 80g fat | 10g protein | 12g carbohydrates

Servings: 4

Make it…

AIP or Dairy-Free: Use animal fat other than ghee or butter

Sugar-Free: Don’t add the purple potatoes

Carnivore or Zero Carb: Don’t add the cilantro or purple potatoes (make my Perfect Instant Pot Oxtails instead)

With slightly charred tops, fall-off-the-bone-meat, and extra ghee to make the broth buttery, the oxtail soup base is nearly perfect. Top with crunchy purple sweet potatoes and a dash of coarse salt and cilantro to taste for a hearty meal your gut will love.

What you need to make Simple Oxtail Soup

Ingredients:

For Perfect Instant Pot Oxtails:

• Beef oxtails
• Grass-fed ghee (or butter)
• Sea salt (ASHLEYR for 15% off)
• Water

For Crispy Sauteed Purple Sweet Potatoes:

• Purple sweet potatoes
• Cilantro
• Sea salt (ASHLEYR for 15% off)
  

Equipment:

• Pressure Cooker (Instant Pot, preferably)
• Cooking pan

 

How to make Simple Oxtail Soup

To start – make my Perfect Instant Pot Oxtails. To do this, begin by prepping the oxtails. Salt both sides liberally with sea salt. I salt the hell out of mine. I’ve made this plenty of times and I haven’t oversalted yet, although I do trend toward salty when it comes to my palette.

Next, char the oxtails. Press Saute on your Instant Pot for 30 minutes. (Note: for older versions, press ‘Saute’ button then ‘Adjust’ button; for newer versions, press ‘Saute’ button twice.)

While the Instant Pot is warming up, place 2 tbsp of ghee (or fat of choice, although I do highly recommend ghee with this due to its buttery flavor) inside of the Instant Pot.

Once the unit displays “HOT” on the LED screen, swish around the melted ghee to get an even layer on the floor of the Instant Pot. Place the oxtails inside in an even layer. All bottoms should be touching the floor.

Saute the oxtails on one side for 5 minutes. To get an even char, rotate the oxtails 180 degrees about halfway through.

Flip the oxtails and repeat on the other side: saute for five minutes and rotate 180 degrees about halfway through.

Unplug the Instant Pot (I do this to reset it and change function – I haven’t figured out how to change function midway through without unplugging it).

Set it to Manual/High Pressure for 50 minutes. Add 3/4 cup of water. Close and allow to cook.

Once the oxtails are pressure cooking, make my Crispy Sauteed Purple Sweet Potatoes.

To start, skin a purple sweet potato and cut into 1/2 inch x 1/2 inch cubes. For the best char, make sure sweet potatoes have been resting for about a day at room temperature.

Note: this recipe calls for 120g (by weight) of purple sweet potatoes. I usually cut an entire sweet potato and put the excess in the fridge for another day. If you don’t count carbohydrates, feel free to add more purple potato to your soup if you prefer.

Heat up 1/2-1 tbsp of ghee in a pan at medium heat.

Once the ghee is hot, throw in the sweet potatoes. Turn the potatoes every couple of minutes to allow each side to get a nice golden brown color.

The volume of potatoes you make and the heat of your pan will determine the cooking time. A best practice is to watch them for color to determine when done. They should be golden brown and crispy on the outside, and bright purple and soft on the inside.

Salt the potatoes with sea salt if you like a crunch, and transfer to a bowl and set them aside to cool.

Once the potatoes are cooling, chop the cilantro.

When the Instant Pot turns off, let it slow release for 10 minutes. Once slow release is complete, vent the pressure cooker. The oxtails are done!

Divide the oxtails and broth in two, and place in bowls. Top with 50-60g (by weight) – or more if you don’t count carbohydrates – of purple sweet potatoes per bowl. Top with chopped cilantro.

Serve, savor, and enjoy!

Tips to make the best Simple Oxtail Soup

• Make sure to saute the oxtails before pressure cooking them. Don’t skip this step. It gives them their charred/crispy tops and edges which provides for a great texture with the fall-off-the-bone feature the meat gets from pressure cooking.
• Do not salt the oxtails inside of the pressure cooker. If you salt them on the inside, the salt residue that misses the oxtail will go into your broth, and the broth will likely come out way too salty. I have made this mistake more than once. Salt both sides of the oxtail outside of the pressure cooker, then saute them inside of the pressure cooker.
• Rotate the oxtails horizontally (spin them around, basically) while sauteing. The pressure cooker doesn’t saute evenly (mine is hotter in the center). If you rotate the oxtails, this will give them an even char.
• For a nice char, make sure the purple sweet potatoes have been resting at room temperature for at least one day. When cooking them, make sure the oil is hot before placing them in the pan.
• For a carnivore option, you could skip out on the cilantro and purple sweet potatoes. The soup comes out amazing and hearty on its own.

A word about macronutrients

Considering bone makes up a large part of oxtails, it was a challenge to calculate macronutrients precisely. I found a resource online that said every 2 kg of oxtail yields 1 kg of meat, so for this recipe, if using 2 lbs of oxtails, I calculate macronutrients based on 1 lb of meat. Rough at best, but oxtails are quite fatty, so you shouldn’t have to worry about meeting a 2:1 fat:protein ratio with this meal, especially with the added ghee or animal fat.

A few of my other favorite recipes with a hearty & buttery feel:

Perfect Instant Pot Oxtails

Serve with my Carnivore Baguettes!

Simple Oxtail Soup

What I used for this recipe:

Looking for some more hearty meals? Try one of these recipes:

Perfect Instant Pot Oxtails

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