Instant Pot gnocchi soup is comfort food in a bowl! Add chicken and it’s like an Olive Garden copycat soup you order when you’re out to dinner.

Instant Pot gnocchi soup is creamy and delicious comfort food I tell you! With just a few ingredients and some bread on the side you too can enjoy this Instant Pot soup too tonight. (affiliate links present)
Ninja Foodi Gnocchi Soup
- Yes you can make this in your Ninja Foodi too of course. BUT you can also make a lot more since this has the air crisp feature like air fryer gnocchi.
Any pressure cooker brand you might have will work just fine.
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.
- This is a great InstaPot cookbook and set of wooden utensils are great to grab too.
- I HIGHLY recommend you buy this non stick pot. It is easier to clean and will avoid the burn message too.
For reference, this is the pressure cooker I have and use for all recipe creations.

There are only about 8 ingredients you need to make this gnocchi soup recipe. Chicken thighs were used this time but you could easily swap that out for boneless skinless chicken breasts if you preferred.
Let’s start with the ingredients that were used for this batch. There were NO leftovers after this meal.

As you can see, to make things easier and faster we used pre made packaged gnocchi as well.
What are gnocchi made out of?
The name literally means “lumps” in Italian. They are essentially small dumplings made with potatoes and flour.
- Cooked potatoes are mashed and combined with flour to create a dough that’s then formed into small pieces for boiling.
If you wanted to make them homemade you’re free to do so. I haven’t done this so I am unsure of how this may alter cook time but I imagine it would be the same.

Other than that you will need the following ingredients to pressure cook this creamy soup
- Olive oil
- Chicken
- breasts, thighs, or could use leftover sous vide or rotisserie chicken
- Celery
- Onion
- Chicken stock or chicken broth
- Carrots
- Half and half or heavy cream
- Spinach
- Seasoning
- Gnocchi
If you do make it yourself, or want to buy it packaged in bulk, it is best to freeze it uncooked as soon as they are shaped. Arrange the gnocchi in a single layer on a baking pan.
Then place the pan in a level position in the freezer. Freeze until solid which will take about 3 hours. Frozen gnocchi packaged correctly in airtight containers or bags can be stored for 4 to 6 weeks.

This is a favorite Instant Pot soup amongst my kids next to our Instant Pot clam chowder recipe. I think it’s because it’s really packed with flavorful ingredients and so creamy.
What does gnocchi taste like?
It’s a simple dumpling made from potatoes, flour, and egg yolk. With that you probably have an idea of what they’d taste like.
- They’re dense, chewy, and bland eaten on their own. A bit like little gummy potato pellets, they frankly aren’t worth eating on their own.
Done right though gnocchi flavorful in the sauce you add them into, are pillowy, tender, and practically melt in your mouth.

Want to make Olive Garden chicken gnocchi soup? This is very close to it. You could omit the meat entirely if you really wanted following the same directions too.
Can you freeze gnocchi soup?
Can you freeze this copycat recipe for Olive Garden soup? Yes! You can freeze this easily. The soup stays well in the freezer for a couple of months when stored in an air tight container
We love this soup, here’s how to make it:
- Set pot to saute with onions and diced chicken to brown the outsides
- Turn pot off and add all other ingredients other than the heavy cream, gnocchi and spinach
- Close lid and steam valve and set to high pressure for 4 minutes followed by a quick release
- Open lid, add last 3 ingredients on saute function until gnocchi is cooked
The whole process should take about 15 minutes with time to come to pressure.

Looking for other pressure cooker recipes?
- Our Instant Pot lasagna soup is so good when it’s chilly outside.
- Feeling under the weather? Try our feel good soup to get you going.
- Sausage soup in a pressure cooker with kale is fantastic.
This is our favorite soup that’s Instant Pot creamy delicious in less than 30 minutes.
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Instant Pot Gnocchi Soup
Ingredients
- 1.5 lbs chicken thighs boneless, skinless, cubed
- 1/2 c celery chopped
- 1 c onion diced
- 2 c chicken broth
- 1 c carrots thin dials
- 1 tsp thyme
- 3 c half and half
- 16 oz gnocchi
- 2 c spinach
Instructions
- Set pot to saute and add olive oil, chicken, onions and celery. Cook unitl outside of chicken pieces are no longer pink. Turn pot off.
- Add chicken broth, carrots, thyme and stir.
- Put on lid and close steam valve. Set to high pressure for 4 minutes. Then do a quick release.
- Lift lid and set to saute again. Stir in spinach so it softens, pour in half and half then stir and lastly add your gnocchi. Heat until soup is boiling, stir frequently and turn pot off once gnocchi is cooked.
Baili
Monday 18th of October 2021
I was a little disappointed, it’s good, but it needs more flavor. I added Italian seasoning, but I still think it’s missing something!