Instant Pot Minestrone Soup

Instant Pot Minestrone Soup is an easy Italian soup recipe made with fresh vegetables, beans and pasta in a light tomato broth. Perfect for a quick lunch or dinner!

I made this super easy minestrone soup in the Instant Pot pressure cooker for lunch the other day, and it was absolutely delicious! It's loaded with fresh veggies and plant-based protein, so it's healthy, too!

Minestrone has always been one of my favorite soups to order at the Olive Garden and other Italian restaurants. But like my Zuppa Toscana and Broccoli Cheese Soup, it's incredibly quick and easy to make at home -- a lot cheaper, too!

What's in Minestrone Soup

This is pretty much a clean-out-your-pantry kind of soup recipe that's very easy to customize. You can also use fresh vegetables in season or frozen if that's what you have. Here are the ingredients I use:

• Chopped onion, carrots, celery and garlic for flavor
• Vegetable or chicken broth
• Canned diced tomatoes
• Tomato paste -- you can control the amount
• Canned beans -- canellini and garbanzo or kidney beans
• Fresh kale and green beans, or spinach or zucchini
• Short pasta -- shells, ditalini or tubetti
• Spices

How to Make Minestrone Soup in the Instant Pot

First, sauté the onions, carrots, celery and garlic until just soft. I use olive oil, but vegetable oil or butter would also work.

It helps to have all of your fresh ingredients chopped and ready to go. To save time, you can even chop up the veggies earlier in the day. I like to keep chopped onions in the freezer -- it's a huge timesaver!

Then, hit cancel to turn the pot off while you add the other ingredients. Note that cannellini beans get super soft. If you want firmer beans, add them after pressure cooking.

I love garbanzo beans, so that's what I used. Red kidney beans also work well in this soup.

Add the fresh green beans last, and don't stir them in. This helps keep them from getting too soft.

Pressure cook the soup for just 3 minutes. It does take about 15 minutes to reach pressure and the soup begins to cook as it heats up.

Stir the fresh kale into the soup after it's done. Kale wilts quickly, and the heat from the soup is enough to cook it. Same goes for fresh spinach or zucchini if you're using that.

I use just a quarter cup of dried pasta here, so I pressure cook it along with the soup. If you want to use more pasta, I recommend adding already cooked pasta after the soup cooks.

That way, the pasta won't absorb too much liquid. If you have leftovers, the pasta tends to absorb the broth as it sits!

Or, you can serve the pasta along with the soup and let people add as much as they want.

How to Store the Soup

Store leftover minestrone soup in a covered container in your fridge. It will keep for about 4 days, although the fresh beans and kale will get softer the longer it sits.

For longer storage, freeze the soup in a freezer safe container or freezer bag. You can thaw it in the fridge and reheat on the stove or in the microwave for smaller portions.

Stovetop Directions

Mom and Grandma always made this classic vegetable soup on the stove, but it's a lot faster to make in your Instant Pot!

To make minestrone soup on the stove, you can follow the same basic process. After you sauté the first few ingredients, stir everything together except the fresh kale, and allow to simmer on the stove until hot. Stir in the kale before you're ready to eat!

More Instant Pot Soup Recipes

• Easy Instant Pot Turkey Soup
• Hearty Instant Pot Kielbasa Cabbage Soup
• Instant Pot Cabbage Roll Soup
• Instant Pot Lemon Chicken Soup