This easy Instant Pot Minestrone Soup can be on the table in less than an hour! Loaded with healthy veggies, fiber-filled beans, and tender pasta in a light and delicious tomato-based broth, top with grated parmesan and crushed red pepper for a cozy, comforting weeknight dinner.
Easy Instant Pot Minestrone Soup Recipe
It’s raining outside, so we need soup.
If there is one soup recipe I highly recommend making in your Instant Pot, it’s this minestrone soup recipe.
I don’t know what it is about this recipe specifically, but pressure cooking vegetables, pasta, and beans all together under high pressure somehow results in a more flavorful and better-tasting broth.
In this recipe, you’ll find vegetables like onion, carrots, and celery, but also green beans, zucchini, and tomatoes. There are red kidney beans and cannellini beans and macaroni pasta.
It’s a great soup to make with any veggies wasting away in your refrigerator or half-opened boxes of pasta forgotten about in the back of your pantry. As with many of the soup recipes here on the site, modify with your favorite vegetables, or with whatever you have on-hand.
If you’ve never heard of minestrone soup, it’s an Italian vegetable soup made with various veggies, beans, and usually some kind of short-pasta.
What Kind of Pasta Do You Use In Minestrone Soup?
Your best choice is some kind of short, tube-like pasta. Here you’ll kind macaroni, but ditalini pasta or small shell-like pasta will also work. Larger pasta or longer pasta noodles are more likely to turn mushy if overcooked.
However, if you need to make this minestrone soup gluten-free, you’ll need to swap the wheat-based pasta noodles for your favorite gluten-free pasta.
You can also skip the pasta noodles altogether and add cooked quinoa or rice instead.
Instant Pot Minestrone Soup Tips and Notes
- This soup is very versatile. Add your favorite veggies and use one or several different types of beans.
- If you plan on freezing leftovers, I highly recommend cooking the pasta separately. Pasta noodles, when frozen within the soup, do not freeze well.
- If you notice any stuck-on brown bits in your pot after cooking the onions and veggies, be sure to deglaze the pot with a splash of white wine, water, or broth and scrape them from the bottom. If anything is stuck to the bottom of the pot before pressure cooking, you run the risk of setting off the burn warning (this has never happened to me with this recipe).
- This soup is delicious with a little cooked Italian sausage, chopped bacon, or pancetta. For best results, sauté any meat before adding the onions.
- Leftovers will keep when stored in an air-tight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
What Can I Serve with Minestrone Soup?
Serve this soup with a side salad and sop up the broth with your favorite crusty bread.
More Instant Pot Recipes You May Enjoy,
Instant Pot Pork Green Chili Stew
Instant Pot Mashed Sweet Potatoes Recipe
Perfect Instant Pot Black Beans – No Soaking Required
Easy Instant Pot Risotto with Butternut Squash
Easy Honey Mustard Chicken Thighs (Instant Pot)
Have you tried making this easy Instant Pot Minestrone Soup Recipe?
Tell me about it in the comments below! I always love to hear your thoughts. And tag me #theforkedspoon on Instagram if you’ve made any of my recipes, I always love to see what you’re cooking in the kitchen.
RECIPE CARD
Instant Pot Minestrone Soup Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon butter - or additional olive oil to make this recipe vegan
- 1 large onion - minced
- 3 large carrots - peeled and sliced
- 4 ribs celery - chopped
- 4 cloves garlic - minced
- 1 (15 ounce) can diced tomatoes
- 1 (15 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 4 cups vegetable broth - or chicken broth
- 1 cup green beans - trimmed and chopped
- 2 small zucchini - chopped
- 1 (15 ounce) can kidney beans - drained
- 1 (15 ounce) can cannellini beans - drained
- 1 bay leaf
- ½ cup macaroni pasta - or other small pasta
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- grated parmesan cheese - for serving (optional)
- crushed red pepper - to garnish (optional)
Instructions
- Set your Instant Pot to sauté mode, medium heat. Add the olive oil and butter. Once the butter has melted, add the onions and sauté for 3-4 minutes, stirring often. Stir in the carrots and celery and continue to cook for an additional 3-4, stirring often.
- Stir in the garlic, tomatoes, Italian seasoning, salt, and black pepper. Mix well to combine and continue to cook for 30 seconds or so before adding the vegetable broth.
- Mix in the green beans, zucchini, kidney beans, cannellini beans, and add the bay leaf. Add the macaroni (or other small dried pasta) and mix thoroughly to make sure the pasta didn't sink to the bottom of the pot.
- Remove from sauté mode and secure the lid on top of the Instant Pot. Make sure the valve is in the "sealing" position, then set your Instant Pot to "manual". Set timer for 6 minutes and press start.
- Remember: it takes about 10-15 minutes for your Instant Pot to reach full pressure and start counting down.
- Once the countdown has finished, carefully do a quick release. Carefully remove the lid and stir in the tomato paste. Season with additional salt and pepper, to taste.
- Serve garnished with grated parmesan cheese, fresh chopped parsley, and crushed red pepper, if desired.
Jessica's Notes
Nutritional Information
(Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and specific brands of ingredients used.)
Delicious! Thank You! I added potatoes and blackbeans and used PC beefless broth. I also cooked pasta seperate so that they don’t absorb in the leftovers.
Thanks for the delicious feedback 😀
Delicious, I started by cooking some diced smoked bacon, then followed the recipe. Will definitely be making again. Thank you Jessica.
How can I use dry beans for this recipe? Thanks–looks really good!
Great question Doug. Unfortunately no, as the cooking time is not long enough.