Instant Pot Minestrone Soup
Instant Pot Minestrone Soup is so fast and easy, you’ll never make it the old fashioned way again!
Instant Pot Minestrone Soup is so fast and easy, you’ll never make it the old fashioned way again!
Why Make Instant Pot Minestrone Soup
Minestrone soup is the perfect meal for a cold fall or winter day. (Happy first day of winter, everybody!) The classic Italian soup, minestrone is an odds-and-ends dish you make when you want to get rid of all the produce in your fridge that’s about to go bad.
Or just when you feel like making a quick soup and you haven’t been to the store. This is a soup you can whip up at the last minute with some frozen bone broth, a can of diced tomatoes, carrots, celery, potatoes, and other pantry staples.
This soup goes great with sandwiches. I love a cup of minestrone with half of a grilled cheese or a tuna melt. And kids love minestrone. Which is great because soup made with bone broth is very nourishing for growing children. Bone broth is rich in minerals and gelatin which help to build strong bones and teeth and strengthen immunity.
I feed it to 14-month old Baby Ollie in a sippy cup. I take out the pieces of vegetables and put them on his tray so he can feed himself. Then he drinks the soup from his sippy.
Why Cook With a Pressure Cooker?
Best of all, this minestrone is super fast to make in the Instant Pot. Just chop everything up, set it for 4 minutes, and soup is on. Yes, you read that right, I said 4 minutes. And this is why I love my pressure cooker!
I don’t recommend just any pressure cooker. I bought and recommend the Instant Pot because it has a stainless steel bowl instead of Teflon, which is toxic.
Pressure Cooker Minestrone Soup
Here’s how you do it… (scroll down for the printable recipe — and please let me know if you like this new recipe plugin I’m using!)
Start by dicing an onion.
That’s my favorite knife, which I received in the mail this spring from Ergo Chef. They sent me one so I could try it, and I love it so much it’s now the only knife I use.
Next you’re going to chop up your vegetables. Start with the carrots and celery because they’re going to go in the pot with the onion first.
I use my Nicer Dicer to chop everything. It makes everything so fast. (Yes, you can do the onion with the Nicer Dicer, too. So much easier!)
Instead of having to hand-chop everything, I just cut the veggies into quarters and then put them into the Nicer Dicer and it dices everything perfectly and it’s super fast. It’s safe enough for kids to use (with supervision), too.
Now plug in the Instant Pot and push the sauté button (lower left).
Melt the fat (butter, lard, or what-have-you) in the pressure cooker bowl, then add the chopped onion, carrots, and celery. Sauté until soft, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes.
Now dump in the chopped tomatoes, diced potatoes (I dice them on a larger setting but you can do what you like – that’s the beauty of a minestrone), and whatever else you got in the way of produce.
Next add the broth. You can add it frozen if you like. I freeze my bone broth in ice cube trays, then I just pop it out when I need it. (Each cube equals 1 ounce. How easy is that?)
Add the dry pasta, put the lid on the pressure cooker and set it to MANUAL for 4 minutes.
When it’s done, you can use either steam-release method. If you’re ready to eat right away, turn the steam valve to “venting” and let the steam out. Or if you’re busy with other things, just let it naturally release the steam. It will stay warm until you’re ready to eat.
When you are ready to eat, strain and rinse the beans. Add to the soup and stir.
Serve with extra grated Parmesan. Because yes, cheese is a health food (vitamin K2, baby!)
Pressure Cooker Minestrone Soup: Equipment Needed
Recipe Notes
As you can see there are lots of optional ingredients. That’s because I don’t know what you have that’s about to rot in the fridge. If you have kale, add kale. Or cabbage.
You could also add green beans, zucchini, and you could use sweet potatoes or squash instead of potatoes. Pasta is also optional.
Oh, and you could definitely add meat to this if you like. Leftover chicken, beef, pork or ham would be great in this recipe.
I honestly don’t think you need to add any spices so don’t despair if you don’t have fresh rosemary growing in your garden. But if you do, throw it in!
If you want, you can toss in that old rind of Parmesan that’s been sitting in the back of your cheese drawer. You know, the one that you don’t want to throw away but you can’t figure out what to do with it. This is what they do with it in Italy. (If you don’t have a cheese rind, don’t worry about it. You don’t need it.)
If you want to make this recipe gluten-free, just use rice pasta instead of regular pasta.
Instant Pot Minestrone Soup
| Servings | Prep Time |
| 6 people | 15 minutes |
| Cook Time |
| 4 minutes |
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The classic Italian soup, minestrone is an odds-and-ends dish you make when you want to get rid of all the produce in your fridge that's about to go bad. Or just when you feel like making a quick soup and you haven't been to the store. This is a soup you can whip up at the last minute with some frozen bone broth, a can of diced tomatoes, carrots, celery, potatoes, and other pantry staples.
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- 2 TBS Butter, ghee, coconut oil, lard, or beef tallow
- 1 Onion Yellow or white
- 3 Carrots Medium
- 2 Celery stalks Medium
- 2 Potatoes Russet, medium to large
- 1 can Chopped Tomatoes 15 oz
- 7 cups Bone broth (chicken or beef broth, preferably homemade & organic)
- 1 can Cannellini or Great Northern beans 15 oz
- 1 cup, dry Pasta (optional) Corkscrew, macaroni, bowtie, shells or the like (not spaghetti) -- if gluten-free, use brown rice pasta
- 1 bunch Rosemary (optional) (1 bunch fresh OR 1/4-1/2 tsp dried)
- 1 bunch Basil (optional) (1 bunch fresh OR 1/4-1/2 tsp dried)
- 1 bunch Thyme (optional) (1 bunch fresh OR 1/4-1/2 tsp dried)
- 1 1/4 head Cabbage, kale or Swiss chard (optional)
- 1 clove Garlic (optional)
- 1 rind Parmesan (optional)
- 1/2 cup Parmesan (optional) grated
- Sea salt To taste
- Freshly grated black pepper To taste
- Dice the onion.
- Peel the carrots.
- Chop the carrots and celery.
- Plug in the Instant Pot and push the sauté button (lower left).
- Melt the fat (butter, lard, or what-have-you) in the pressure cooker bowl, then add the chopped onion, carrots, and celery.
- Sauté until soft, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes.
- Dump in the chopped tomatoes, diced potatoes (I dice them on a larger setting but you can do what you like - that's the beauty of a minestrone), and whatever else you got in the way of produce.
- Next add the broth. You can add it frozen if you like. I freeze my bone broth in ice cube trays, then I just pop it out when I need it. (Each cube equals 1 ounce. How easy is that?)
- Add the dry pasta, put the lid on the pressure cooker and set it to MANUAL for 4 minutes.
- When it's done, you can use either steam-release method. If you're ready to eat right away, turn the steam valve to "venting" and let the steam out. Or if you're busy with other things, just let it naturally release the steam. It will stay warm until you're ready to eat.
- When ready to eat, strain and rinse the beans. Add to the soup and stir.
- Serve with extra grated Parmesan if desired.
As you can see there are lots of optional ingredients. That's because I don't know what you have that's about to rot in the fridge. If you have kale, add kale. Or cabbage. You could also add green beans, zucchini, and you could use sweet potatoes or squash instead of potatoes. Pasta is also optional.
Oh, and you could definitely add meat to this if you like. Leftover chicken, beef, pork or ham would be great in this recipe.
I honestly don't think you need to add any spices so don't despair if you don't have fresh rosemary growing in your garden. But if you do, throw it in!
If you want, you can toss in that old rind of Parmesan that's been sitting in the back of your cheese drawer. You know, the one that you don't want to throw away but you can't figure out what to do with it. This is what they do with it in Italy. 🙂 (If you don't have a cheese rind, don't worry about it. You don't need it.)
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