Instant Pot Vegetable Soup

Electric pressure cookers are amazing gadgets for quickly making hands-off meals, but they’re extra handy for speeding up stew and soup recipes. This Instant Pot vegetable soup is ready to eat in 40 minutes and is full of colorful and nutritious veggies, including onion, carrot, celery, potatoes, green beans and spinach.

One of my favorite things about vegetable soup is that you can throw almost any vegetable into the pot and it will still turn out great. This recipe is just as customizable, so it’s easy to make with your favorite veggies or surplus items from a crop-share or farmer’s market haul.

Ingredients for Instant Pot Vegetable Soup

• Mirepoix: Sauteed onion, carrot and celery form the base of this vegetable soup. Mirepoix is usually made with yellow onions, which are sweeter and milder than other types of onions.
• Garlic: Freshly minced garlic cloves have the most flavor, but you can use a couple of teaspoons of jarred minced garlic in a pinch.
• Tomato paste: Tomato paste adds a rich, tangy flavor to the tomato-based broth.
• Spices: The soup has plenty of complex herbal flavor from Italian seasoning. If you’ve run out, mix up a quick batch of homemade Italian seasoning.You could also swap in a blend of dried herbs, like basil, thyme, parsley or rosemary. Salt, pepper, garlic powder and a bay leaf round out the savory seasonings.
• Sugar: A touch of sugar helps balance the acid from the tomatoes.
• Vegetable broth: Store-bought veggie broth is convenient, but learning how to make vegetable broth allows you to customize its flavors, use up veggie scraps, and adjust its salt content. If you don’t need this soup to be 100% plant-based, you could use chicken or beef stock for a meatier flavor.
• Diced tomatoes: A can of undrained, fire-roasted diced tomatoes adds tender bites of tomato to the soup with no chopping required. Fire-roasted tomatoes have a slightly smoky flavor that adds depth to the soup. Use a can of fire-roasted tomatoes with green chiles if you want a slightly spicy soup.
• Potatoes: You’ll need one pound of potatoes, usually equal to one or two large potatoes. White potatoes are the best type of potatoes for soup because they don’t fall apart when boiled, but Yukon golds and sweet potatoes should hold up as well. As for the potato skins, you can peel them or save yourself some time and leave them on.
• Green beans: Fresh green beans will retain their tender-crisp texture and bright green color during pressure cooking. Frozen green beans are the next-best choice. Most store-bought frozen veggies are pre-blanched, so they might become mushy or turn olive green during cooking.
• Spinach: This recipe calls for fresh or frozen chopped spinach, but you could also use other leafy greens like baby kale or escarole.
• Parsley: Fresh chopped parsley adds a bright, herbal flavor to the finished soup. You can use the fresh to dried herb conversion for dried parsley flakes, since dried herbs have a more concentrated flavor.

Directions

Step 1: Saute the aromatics in the pressure cooker

Select the saute setting on a 6-quart electric pressure cooker. Adjust the settings for medium heat and add the oil. When the oil is hot, stir in the onion, carrot and celery and cook for three to four minutes or until the vegetables are crisp-tender. Stir in the garlic and tomato paste and cook for one minute longer. Press the cancel button.

Editor’s Tip: Use the adjust button to select the cooking temperature. On most Instant Pot models, the “normal” setting corresponds to medium heat, while “less” equals low heat and “more” equals high heat.

Step 2: Add the remaining ingredients

Add the broth, tomatoes, potatoes, green beans, Italian seasoning, salt, sugar, pepper, garlic powder and bay leaf to the pressure cooker. Stir to combine.

Step 3: Pressure-cook the soup

Lock the pressure cooker lid and close the pressure-release valve. Adjust the pot to pressure-cook on high for two minutes.

Editor’s Tip: Electric pressure cookers take 10 to 15 minutes to pressurize fully. The timer starts when the cooker reaches high pressure. Although we’re setting the soup to pressure-cook for just two minutes, plan for the soup to be in the pressure cooker for 12 to 17 minutes.

Step 4: Release the pressure

Let the pressure release naturally for eight minutes. Then, turn the steam valve to quick-release any remaining pressure.

Editor’s Tip: To protect your hands from steam, use oven mitts or long-handled tongs to release the pressure valve.

Step 5: Stir the greens into the soup

Remove the bay leaf from the soup and discard it. Stir in the spinach and parsley.

Editor’s Tip: After stirring in the greens, wait a minute before serving the soup. The residual heat from the soup will quickly wilt the greens.

Josh Rink for Taste of Home

Instant Pot Vegetable Soup Variations

• Customize the veggies: This soup is delicious with any assortment of veggies. You could swap corn, peas, zucchini, mushrooms, bell peppers, cauliflower, sweet potato or any other vegetables you prefer. If you add more veggies than the recipe calls for, you may need to adjust the amount of broth, but be mindful of your pressure cooker’s max fill line.
• Add beans: Canned beans are an easy addition to make this soup more filling and higher in protein. Kidney beans, cannellini beans and chickpeas are good options to try. Drain the beans and stir them into the soup after the pressure-cooking step. Otherwise, the beans can turn mushy. To warm the beans, select the saute function on low and heat them in the soup for about five minutes.
• Finish with acid: Squeeze fresh lemon juice or stir a teaspoon of red wine vinegar into the soup just before serving to brighten its flavors.
• Turn up the heat: Add a pinch of red chili pepper flakes with the other seasonings to give the soup a spicy kick.
• Make it creamy: After cooking, stir in a bit of half-and-half, heavy cream or coconut milk. You can also use beans to make soup creamy without any cream. Puree canned cannellini beans in a blender or food processor and then stir them into the soup.
• Garnish: Kick up the flavor with a sprinkle of grated parmesan, a dollop of plain yogurt or a spoonful of pesto.

How to Store Instant Pot Vegetable Soup

If you want to make a pot of vegetable soup ahead of time, or if you have leftovers, the soup can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to four days.

How do you reheat Instant Pot vegetable soup?

To reheat Instant Pot vegetable soup, microwave a portion in a microwave-safe bowl or warm it in a saucepan on the stovetop until the veggies are heated through.

Can you freeze vegetable soup made in the Instant Pot?

Yes, vegetable soup freezes beautifully! To freeze soup, let it cool to room temperature, then transfer it to an airtight freezer-safe container and pop it in the freezer for up to three months. The day before you want to eat it, transfer the container to the fridge to thaw overnight. Then, warm the soup on the stovetop, in the microwave or in an electric pressure cooker set to the saute function.

Instant Pot Vegetable Soup Tips

Josh Rink for Taste of Home

What vegetables work best in this recipe?

Fresh or frozen vegetables, or a combination of the two, are your best choices for making vegetable soup in the Instant Pot. This soup is very forgiving, so you can mix and match the veggies to include your favorites or to clean out odds and ends from the fridge and freezer.

Canned vegetables are precooked, so pressure-cooking can turn them mushy. If you have a can of peas, corn or string beans you’d like to use, add it to the soup after pressure-cooking and heat until warmed through.

You can also try a different approach and make creamy cauliflower soup or split pea soup.

Can you make this vegetable soup without an electric pressure cooker?

You can make this vegetable soup on the stovetop if you don’t have an electric pressure cooker. The steps are similar to those in this hearty vegetable soup recipe.

Heat the oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat and saute the aromatic vegetables. Then, add the tomato paste, seasonings, broth, canned tomatoes and potatoes to the pot. Bring the soup to a boil, stir in the green beans and reduce the heat to medium-low. Simmer the soup for about 30 minutes or until the vegetables and potatoes are tender.

How can you make this vegetable soup more filling?

To make this vegetable soup more of a complete meal, try adding some protein. Saute ground beef or turkey with the onion, carrots and celery in the pressure cooker before adding the broth and remaining ingredients. Or, stir in a can of drained beans or some shredded rotisserie chicken after pressure-cooking, and heat until everything is warmed through.

What can you serve with Instant Pot vegetable soup?

A steaming bowl of vegetable soup is the perfect pairing with a grilled cheese sandwich, buttery crackers or slices of crusty bread for dunking. You can even serve this soup as an appetizer or side dish to easily add more veggies to a meal!