This easy Instant Pot minestrone soup recipe is full of flavor! Healthy and vegetarian too, my kids raved that this was their favorite pressure cooker vegetable soup made in our Ninja Foodi with noodles and canned beans.
It’s soup season! This easy pressure cooker minestrone soup recipe has become one of our favorite healthy Instant Pot recipes because it’s full of flavor. With three kids and both of us working full time we need all the help we can get. Especially when it comes to making quick and healthy dinners. (affiliate links present)
Ninja Foodi Minestrone Soup
Ok so we are a little obsessed with our new 7 in 1 device. It just makes my life so much easier! Once I got my IP we started having more family dinners together. Then I added a Crockpot Express and Ninja Foodi so I had 3 pressure cooker pots to use to make all the things!
Believe it or not my girls actually prefer vegetables over a plate of meat any day, so they were all ready to try this vegetable soup I made.
Jump to:
- Ninja Foodi Minestrone Soup
- How long to pressure cook Minestrone soup?
- Instant Pot Vegetable Soup with Pasta
- What is the difference between vegetable soup and minestrone?
- Weight Watchers Minestrone Soup Pressure Cooker
- How do you make minestrone soup from scratch?
- Easy Instant Pot Minestrone Soup Ingredients
- Does Olive Garden Minestrone soup have meat?
- Can you make minestrone soup on the stove?
- How to Make Instant Pot Minestrone Soup with Sausage
- Can you cook soup in an Instant Pot without pressure cooking it?
If you are new to pressure cooking we have a lot of easy one pot meal recipes for you here. To begin with let’s start with a few basic tips:
- Make sure to Bookmark our InstaPot recipes page. We add new ones each week!
- Then PRINT this —–> Instant Pot cooking times cheat sheet that will help you understand how long meat, vegetables and beans take to cook in your pressure cooker.
- I HIGHLY recommend you buy this non stick pot.
- You should know how to deglaze a pressure cooker after sautéing but it won’t have as many issues with this better liner.
For reference, this is the model I have (a 6 quart) and use for all recipe creations.
How long to pressure cook Minestrone soup?
Just 3 minutes is all you need if you use canned beans, diced tomatoes and your favorite small or medium noodles. All shapes and sizes work for this but elbow macaroni or shells is what we like. Red kidney beans and slices of fresh vegetables all get tender in this short time!
I bet you have had this at your favorite Italian restaurant and wished you could have it a lot more often than when you went out to eat right?? I remember eating a big bowl of this at our favorite pizza joint growing up. It was a choice every single time vs. salad and you just had to get it.
Packed with kidney beans and white with zucchini and small shell pasta noodles I even loved it as a kid. Fast forward um 40ish years and now with my own kids soup is an acceptable dinner. In fact it isn’t just acceptable but desired if I asked them what they would want on a cold evening.
Heck, even when we lived in Ca. and it was summertime I would make this. Why? Because it’s healthy, and if you don’t make it on the stovetop it won’t heat up your kitchen at all. That is the wonderment of this “magic pot” of mine.
Instant Pot Vegetable Soup with Pasta
If you’re looking to eat healthier and/or a vegetarian pressure cooker recipe this is a good one! Made with fresh vegetables, canned beans, and some noodles, it is on our list of cheap Instant Pot recipes we love. That always helps when you have a big family!
What is the difference between vegetable soup and minestrone?
It’s kinda’ obvious by looking at them but basically one has pasta and beans where the other one doesn’t. It’s essentially just a hearty version but you can decide for yourself which you like better. Of course if you need a gluten free version you can either find gluten free pasta, or eliminate them all together.
Weight Watchers Minestrone Soup Pressure Cooker
Let’s talk about watching your weight and still eating tasty meals that are full of flavor. It is totally possible! Portion control is always a big part of losing weight and staying in shape (which is sometimes hard). There are simple devices out there though, like this EatSmart Precision Digital Kitchen Scale that help you with that!
It’s an ultra accurate, precise, and perfect for calorie or carbohydrate counting. It allows you to stop guessing about portion sizes and start living healthier. You can use a container and it will calculate automatically, subtracting the weight of the bowl or place food directly on the scale.
Super easy to use and very well priced. It fits right in my drawer and I can pull it out when I need it. I’m all about easy!
How do you make minestrone soup from scratch?
All you need are veggies, you can make Homemade Chicken Broth in Instant Pot if you want to go all out and then noodles I wouldn’t even venture a guess on how to make those fresh, that isn’t in my wheelhouse.
Choose what is in season I say. Squashes usually you can find year round. If you like them all then throw ’em on in. If you prefer to leave out the zucchini…no problem. Make it to your liking!
- I used a can of petite diced tomatoes because that is what I had on hand but dicing your own fresh tomatoes (use the juice that comes out of them too) is wonderful.
- Using fresh vegetables are always best if they are in season for sure.
If you’re making it vegetarian soup just swap out the chicken broth for vegetable broth! I typically use what is in my cupboard but we do eat meat so I am not too picky as far as that one goes. I have made it with all 3 different types I think they all turn out wonderful.
Easy Instant Pot Minestrone Soup Ingredients
This is what you’re going to need in order to get our pressure cooker soup recipe started. Of course if carrots let’s say aren’t to your liking then cut them out entirely if you want. It is very forgiving and versatile as far as that goes. I like some parmesan cheese on top when it’s served.
- Kidney beans are a great choice
- Garbanzo beans
- Chicken broth, vegetable broth or water if that is all you have
- Onion
- Carrots and celery
- Zucchini
- Diced tomatoes
- I like petite variety
- don’t use crushed tomatoes as they’ll turn to mush, not a great texture
- Noodles
- medium shell pasta is great
- Salt and pepper to taste
- some like adding a bay leaves might be good
- feel free to add any other seasonings you like
When you’ve tried this give these other Instant Pot recipes a go! We also have a list of easy Instant Pot pasta recipes and soup recipes to choose from. They all make for wonderful meals in about 30 minutes or less so you can’t go wrong with any one of them. Work your way thru and have something new every day for the whole year!
Does Olive Garden Minestrone soup have meat?
Nope. It’s like ours. They now make it vegan at all locations now actually. So if you want the previous version you’ll have to make it yourself, adding cooked ground beef into the mix. You can do this first using the saute function to brown, drain the grease and then continue with directions below in recipe card below.
Can you make minestrone soup on the stove?
You could make this on the stove top on low to medium heat. You would all all of your ingredients and then just boil until noodles are tender. Season and taste along the way with salt and pepper but you shouldn’t need much since broth has sodium in it already.
I personally love to pressure cook ALL THE THINGS on a winter day because it makes the cook time so short using high pressure! You can certainly use any brand of pot you have, they all work basically the same. I have a few myself.
- TIP: If you’re new to this type of cooking, know it takes VERY little time for pasta to get tender.
- Use my recipe notes and the exact timing I provide you or noodles will turn to mush with even 2 minutes longer.
- Pay attention to the timer and quick release right when it’s done. Sitting in the liquid much longer will make them too soft too.
How to Make Instant Pot Minestrone Soup with Sausage
Now if you want to make this with meat I would use the ground spicy variety. Use the same instructions as above, sauteeing the meat at the beginning until it is no longer pink. Then proceed with the other ingredients. I like the Jimmy Dean brand personally. Or with ground beef I’d follow our Instant Pot vegetable beef soup directions.
Can you cook soup in an Instant Pot without pressure cooking it?
Yes you can certainly just use the saute function which is essentially the same as if you had a pot on the stove over medium high heat. Just “boil” until all ingredients are tender to your liking and not have to put the lid on at all. We have done this with our Instant Pot chicken noodle soup in about 8 minutes.
If you too are huddled up at home with snow outside, or just want a bowl of warm comfort food in your belly we have more! Start with a delish bowl of Pressure cooker french onion soup with warm melted cheese on the top. Here are a few other quick soup recipes we think you’ll like as well.
- Creamy Pressure cooker broccoli cheese soup is the easiest way to make this favorite dish
- Our fave Instant Pot potato corn chowder is widely popular. I suggest adding lots of bacon to it so it’s over the top delicious!
Best way to save leftover soup – Always make sure it is cooled completely at room temperature before transferring it to a container. Then set into the fridge and reheat within 3 days. Transfer to a microwave safe bowl and heat for 1 minute, stir and then 45 seconds beyond that or so until it is as hot as you’d like it to be. Then enjoy away.
Instant Pot Minestrone Soup
Equipment
- 1 pressure cooker
Ingredients
- 1 can kidney beans, drained
- 1 can garbanzo beans, drained
- 32 oz chicken broth, (for vegetarian just use vegetable broth, if you want a darker richer soup use beef broth)
- 1/2 onion, sliced or diced, your preference
- 2 stalks celery, diced
- 3 carrots, sliced thin into dials so they become soft, or thicker dials if you want them to stay a bit firm
- 1 small zucchini, cut into dials, I usually cut dials in half as well – the smaller the pcs. the softer they will be but zucchini cooks fast in the IP!
- 1.5 c petite diced tomatoes
- 1 c uncooked shell noodles
Instructions
- Dice all of your vegetables and put them into your Instant Pot or pressure cooker. Add your broth, cans of drained beans, and uncooked noodles, stir gently and add any herbs/spices you'd like (I usually just add salt when it is done if I feel it needs a bit).
- Close lid and and steam valve, set to pressure high, for 3 minutes.
- Do a quick release.
- Carefully lift lid and serve topped with shredded parmesan and parsley if desired.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I used chick pea pasta instead a can of chickpeas lol
The directions for #1 say add the veggies and it never says anything about the beans in the instructions. I assume you add them in with the veggies but that was forgotten in the direction steps to add the beans too with the veggies. Just FYI in case you can edit it.
Thank you! Fixed
Great receipe. The video shows adding all ingredients into the instapot, but the receipe leaves out some items. It took me about 45 minutes from start to finish. I added oregano, thyme, basil and salt.
Am I missing something with cooking time. My Instapot pot took abou 10 to 15 to preheat, and then the 3 minute cooking time.
Good but a bit bland. I’ll try it again with some Italian seasoning mix.
Just made this and absolutely love it! Very easy recipe with so much health in one bowl. Tastes amazing! Ty so much.. At this point my grocery list looks identical to your recipes for some reason 😛 So far in love with the chili,tuna casserole and this. Next on my list is your spaghetti recipe.
So glad you loved it!
Delicious soup recipe! Will definitely make again. Thank you!
@cantstopcooking
Yeah!!
I’ve come back to this blog many times to make this again and again! So simple and so good. Perfect for warmer weather too when you don’t want to heat the house up cooking. Literally start to finish it’s a 10 minute meal, if I’m taking my time 🙂
So glad I can help!
Should I add any pepper or salt? Should the canned beans be drained and rinsed before adding? Should the tomatoes be peeled? What sort of tomatoes are recommended?
@Diane K, salt and pepper to taste at the end. Canned beans are to be drained (I also always rinse). Use canned petite diced tomatoes as they are, an brand.
So like and versatile…Can be down in crock pot, pressure cooker, just stove top but love InstantPot direction. I am so amazed at how calm food bloggers are to not tell people to think for one moment. A recipe is a guide not craved in stone or test. Thank you I could not do it.