Instant Pot Minestrone Soup

instant-pot-minestrone-soup-featured-image

Soups are incredibly versatile. They can be light and refreshing for a springtime lunch or hearty and satisfying for a winter supper. They can be great to put in a jar and throw in your bag when you’re on the go, or you can spend hours simmering and concentrating their flavor. We love soups of all kinds, and we especially love making them in the Instant Pot. There’s nothing like the hands-off convenience of throwing everything into the pot, sealing it, and going about your business. If you’re a fan too, you’ll love our Instant Pot Minestrone Soup. Packed with vegetables and loaded with flavor, this soup comes together easily and is great for all ages. Don’t own an Instant Pot? No worries, we also include stove top directions.

Instant Pot Minestrone Soup ingredients 

oil free minestrone soup ingredients

Onion, garlic, celery, carrots, parsley, and canned diced tomatoes: these are the more traditional minestrone ingredients you’re familiar with, and they give this soup a delicious base of flavor. 

Zucchini, bell pepper, green beans, eggplant, potatoes, and garbanzo beans: these veggies are less traditional, but still super yummy. They also help pump up the nutrition. 

What’s not included: many traditional minestrones include pasta, but we’ve elected to turn the veggies up to 11 instead, which gives this soup the added benefit of being gluten-free. If you’re missing the starch, serve your soup over cooked pasta or brown rice for a super satisfying meal. 

healthy minestrone soup

How to make Instant Pot Minestrone Soup

First, prep and measure your ingredients. You can throw everything into the same large bowl as you prep to minimize cleanup.

Next, press the saute button on your Instant Pot and let the inner pot warm up for about two minutes. 

When it’s nice and hot, add all of the onion, garlic, zucchini, bell pepper, green beans, eggplant, celery, potato, parsley, garbanzo beans, tomatoes, basil, oregano, black pepper, and salt to the inner pot (all of the ingredients except for the water). 

oil free instant pot minestrone soup

Saute your veggies for about five minutes, stirring regularly and adding a small splash of water if things start to stick. This will be our only chance to add a bit of caramelization and brown the veggies, so don’t skip this step.

Once you’ve softened your veggies a bit, turn off the Instant Pot, add the water, and give everything a stir. Alternatively, if you’d like a deeper flavor, you can substitute oil-free veggie broth for the water.

Add your lid, lock into place, and be sure the steam nozzle is in the sealed position.

fast minestrone soup

Use the manual setting (high pressure) and set the timer for 10 minutes. Use your downtime to read that book you’ve been meaning to finish.

Once the time is up, allow the pressure to dissipate while leaving the steam nozzle sealed, this is called the natural release method. After the pressure is released and the locking mechanism is disengaged, you can remove the lid.

instant pot minestrone soup

If you’re serving immediately, ladle your desired amount of soup into bowls and enjoy! We like serving this soup with some toasted sprouted bread. 

gluten free minestrone soup

If you’re planning on serving later in the week, allow the soup to cool completely before storing it in the fridge.  

minestrone soup recipe

Instant Pot Minestrone Soup

Makes about 6 cups
Author: Molly Patrick

Ingredients

  • ½ cup yellow onion, chopped (80 g)
  • 2 teaspoons garlic, minced
  • ½ cup zucchini, chopped (62 g)
  • ½ cup red bell pepper, diced (75 g)
  • 1 cup fresh green beans, string removed and cut into thirds (100 g)
  • 1 cup eggplant, cut into cubes (80g)
  • ½ cup celery, diced (50 g / about 1 stalk)
  • ½ cup carrot, chopped (65 g)
  • ¾ cup russet potato, diced (peeled or unpeeled) (112 g / about 1 small potato)
  • ¼ cup parsley, choped (15 g)
  • cups garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained well (1 15.5-oz. can / 225 g after draining)
  • cups diced tomatoes (1 14.5-oz. can / 365 g)
  • 2 teaspoons dried basil
  • 2 teaspoons oregano
  • ¼ teaspoon black pepper (about 10 turns)
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3 cups water for Instant Pot method (710 ml / sub with oil-free veggie broth for a deeper flavor)
  • 4 cups water for stove top method (946 ml / sub with oil-free veggie broth for a deeper flavor)

Instructions

Instant Pot directions

  • Prep and measure out all of the ingredients first. This will make it super easy to throw together.
  • Press saute on your Instant Pot and let the inner pot heat up for 2 minutes.
  • Add all of the ingredients except for the water (onion, garlic, zucchini, bell pepper, green beans, eggplant, celery, potato, parsley, garbanzo beans, tomatoes, basil, oregano, black pepper, and salt) and saute for 5 minutes, stirring regularly so that nothing sticks to the bottom of the pot. Add just a splash of water if the veggies start to stick.
  • Turn off the Instant Pot, add the 3 cups of water (or veggie broth, if using), and stir. Lock the lid into place, making sure the nozzle is in the sealing position.
  • Use the manual setting and set the timer for 10 minutes. When time is up, use the natural release method. When all of the pressure is out of the Instant Pot, take off the lid and ladel into bowls.
  • Serve on it's own or over pasta or brown rice if you'd like. Enjoy!

Stove top directions

  • Prep and measure out all of the ingredients first. This will make it super easy to throw together.
  • Heat a large pot over medium heat for about 2 minutes.
  • Add all of the ingredients except for the water (onion, garlic, zucchini, bell pepper, green beans, eggplant, celery, potato, parsley, garbanzo beans, tomatoes, basil, oregano, black pepper, and salt) and saute for 5 minutes, stirring regularly so that nothing sticks to the bottom of the pot. Add just a splash of water if anything starts to stick.
  • Add the 4 cups of water (or veggie broth, if using) and stir. Place a lid on the pot at an angle and simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the veggies are soft to your liking. Turn off the heat and serve immediately.
  • Serve on it's own or over pasta or brown rice if you'd like. Dig in!

Extra info and substitutions

Our Instant Pot Minestrone Soup recipe makes about six cups and will keep for up to five days when stored in an airtight container in the fridge. 

This recipe is absolutely full of veggies, so feel free to use pre-cut ones from the store if it makes things easier. No judgment!

Substitutions

This soup was originally created to use leftovers in Italian kitchens. It’s incredibly forgiving and flexible, so don’t be afraid to get creative. If you have lots of one thing and none of another, that’s cool! Use what’s leftover from your garden or co-op this week, or only purchase and use what’s on sale.

You can’t mess this up and dinner will be delicious no matter what. The only thing we recommend is that if you’re using canned vegetables (other than tomatoes) or very quick-cooking veggies (like corn), you may want to use the stove top method and add them towards the end of simmering. You got this!

whole-food plant-based minestrone soup

Have you used this Instant Pot Minestrone Soup to absolutely slay weeknight dinners? Have you made creative substitutions and blown yourself away? Let us know in the comments below! We want to celebrate your plant based wins.

Here’s to dinners that are tasty and easy. 

Xo 
Team Dirty

Get a weekly dose of inspiration to eat more plants and celebrate imperfection

Our Sweary Saturday Love Letters are written by our ex-boozer, ex-smoker, plant-loving co-founder, Molly Patrick.

7 Comments

  1. Mistie on April 21, 2017 at 4:45 pm

    Oh wow, this soup looks delicious. Still haven’t got my hands on an instant pot yet but will have to give it a try.

  2. Susan on June 19, 2017 at 7:09 pm

    Your minestrone soup really was my very first IP recipe! (And the first recipe I made from the meal plans)
    I loved the soup, and I love my Instant Pot!!

  3. Nathalie on August 24, 2017 at 6:13 am

    5 stars
    Omni husband asked if I could add this to our family favourites list… it’s THAT good.

    • Team Clean Food Dirty Girl on August 24, 2017 at 8:57 am

      Hi Nathalie – Glad he is down with some good plant based deliciousness!

      Karen
      Team Dirty Girl

  4. Lynn on September 8, 2019 at 7:58 pm

    5 stars
    I love this soup! I personalize it by omitting the eggplant and adding pot barley and red lentils. Thanks for the recipe!

  5. Jon on February 10, 2020 at 6:49 pm

    5 stars
    This stuff is incredible. Feels like eating a big old bowl of good stuff. Great for a cold day.

    • Team Clean Food Dirty Girl on February 11, 2020 at 7:03 pm

      High fives on the good stuff! Thanks for the recipe love, Jon!

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