Instant Pot Garden Fresh Minestrone Soup
Instant Pot Minestrone Soup is fresh, healthy, and packed with beans, pasta, and garden produce like tomatoes, zucchini, and corn.
So this one-pot garden minestrone soup recipe is packed with fresh tomatoes from my vegetable garden and fresh corn from a nearby produce stand.
Fresh tomatoes have so much more flavor than store-bought, so the broth features whole, ripe tomatoes, sweet corn, zucchini, onions, and celery.
Update: I always look forward to the first minestrone soup from garden produce. We’ve updated the post to answer your most common questions and added a new how-to video to walk you through the process!
Making Garden Minestrone Soup in an Instant Pot
This Minestrone Soup recipe will work in any brand of electric pressure cooker, including the Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi, or Power Pressure Cooker XL
You’ll start by sautéing to soften the veggies first. Then, just add the remaining ingredients, seal up the lid, and walk away.
After a 4-minute cook time at high pressure and a 5-minute natural pressure release, the fresh Italian smells of minestrone will draw your crowd to the dinner table!
Add a dusting of your favorite cheese and a side of crusty bread, and you have a complete garden-fresh dinner.
How to Remove the Peel and Seeds from Fresh Tomatoes
I prefer to remove the tomato seeds and peels before adding the tomatoes to the pot.
Here is the best way to de-seed and peel fresh tomatoes:
- Bring a medium pot of water to a rapid boil on the stove.
- Score a small “X” on the bottom of each tomato with a paring knife.
- Submerge the tomatoes into the boiling water for 30 seconds.
- When you remove the tomato, the skin around your “X” should be peeling away slightly. Grab hold of the peel and the tomato skin should come right off.
- Then slice the tomato in half and easily scoop out the seeds.
Note: We’re posting a how-to video on Barbara Bakes in the next few weeks—we’ll link to it as soon as it’s up.
Can I Use Canned Tomatoes For Instant Pot Minestrone?
Yes! While I designed this recipe to make the most of fresh garden produce, there’s no reason not to make minestrone in your pressure cooker during cooler months of the year.
You can substitute the fresh tomatoes with two 14 ounce cans of diced tomatoes.
You can also substitute fresh corn with frozen if you’re making the minestrone out of season. Just add it in at the very end and allow to heat through before serving.
Tip: I often use add the frozen corn to individual bowls to cool down my kids’ soup more quickly. (Why won’t kids eat food when it’s warm?!) 😆
Can I Make A Double Batch?
If you have an 8-quart pressure cooker, this is a great big-batch recipe.
Simply double all of the ingredients and reduce the cook time to 2 minutes with a 10 minute natural pressure release.
Finish with a quick pressure release and serve it up!
Make-Ahead Instant Pot Minestrone Soup
You can easily make this summertime soup recipe ahead of time. It also freezes well.
🛑 If you’re planning to freeze your minestrone, I recommend cooking the pasta separately. (Cooked pasta can get mushy when frozen and reheated.)
If I’m making a big batch to freeze, I’ll cook the pasta on the stove while the soup cooks in the Instant Pot. Then freeze the cooked pasta in one zip-top bag or container and the soup in a separate container.
When you’re ready to serve the soup, combine the two to reheat. You can reheat the soup on your stove or back in the Instant Pot using the Sauté function until heated through.
More Pressure Cooker Soup Recipes
No matter the season, there are plenty of reasons to make healthy soups in your Instant Pot / pressure cooker. Here are more of the best Instant Pot soup recipes to try:
- Instant Pot Spicy Chicken Soup has just the right amount of kick, balanced by a generous sprinkle of shredded cheese.
- Instant Pot / Pressure Cooker Ribollita is another classic Italian soup with beans, vegetables and flavorful broth in the Instant Pot.
- Instant Pot Chicken Curry Soup from Paint the Chicken Red includes warming Indian flavors.
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Leave us a review below to tell us why!
Instant Pot Minestrone Soup
Instant Pot Minestrone Soup with fresh garden tomatoes, zucchini, corn, onion, and pasta is a quick and easy dish that celebrates summer produce.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 large onion finely chopped
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 2 large carrots, diced
- 1 stalk celery, diced
- 1 cup fresh corn kernels (about 2 ears)
- 1 small zucchini, chopped
- 3 pounds of tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped*
- 2 cans (14.5 ounces each) chicken broth
- 1 cup uncooked ditalini pasta
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups baby spinach
- 1 can (14.5 ounces) of kidney beans, drained and rinsed
- 2 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 cup (4 ounces) grated Asiago or parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Select Sauté and add the oil to the pressure cooker pot. When oil is hot, add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally until the onion is tender, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, carrots, celery, corn, and zucchini. Keep stirring and cook for about 5 more minutes.
- Add the tomatoes, chicken broth, pasta, Italian seasoning, and salt. Lock the lid in place, select High Pressure and 4 minutes cook time. When the cook time ends, turn off the pressure cooker and perform a 5 minute natural pressure release, followed by a quick pressure release.
- Add the spinach, beans, and basil. Taste and season with pepper and salt if needed. Serve in individual bowls topped with cheese.
Notes
*You can substitute two 14.5-ounce cans of diced tomatoes for the fresh tomatoes in the recipe.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 10 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 194Total Fat: 4gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 4mgSodium: 412mgCarbohydrates: 32gFiber: 5gSugar: 8gProtein: 9g
Nutrition information is calculated by Nutritionix and may not always be accurate.
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I made this recipe using canned tomatoes (so a bit more liquid?) however, all the broth seems to have been absorbed by the veggies and 1 cup pasta (GF Barilla elbows btw, cooked fine). Is there a way to add more broth now that won’t dilute the flavor from original seasonings? Love the recipes!
Thanks Amy! Generally, I’ll just add more chicken broth and the flavor is still great.
Absolutely love this recipe and make it quite often. Any suggestions as to what I could add instead of pasta for a more low carb version ??
Thank you
Sarah
Thanks Sarah – so great to hear you love the recipe. Have you tried any of the low carb pasta? https://www.mashed.com/350409/vegetarian-recipes-the-whole-family-will-love/
Any suggestion for tomato varieties to use in this soup?
Hi Valerie – you can use any kind of tomatoes, plum or Roma tomatoes have more flesh and fewer seeds, but use the ripest, reddest ones you can find.
Would this recipe be ok to can without the Pasta and Potatoes and add them later? Sounds like a great recipe and good to have throughout the winter months her in the Northeast!
Hi Suzanne – I’m sorry I don’t have any experience canning. I did find this recipe you could use and add the seasoning. http://www.freshpreservinguk.co.uk/recipes/homemade-vegetable-soup
Made it as written only less onion as hubby does not like onion. Very good. Maybe too much pasta tho which makes it a bit more bland. The recipe also makes a lot so next time I will cook pasta separately so I can freeze the leftovers. Definitely a keeper.
Thanks Bonnie – glad it was a keeper!
One of the absolute best soups I have ever made in my instant pot. Perfect recipe. Awesome!!
That’s so great to hear – thanks Donna!
This is hands down one of my favorite soups to make when my garden vegetables are coming in faster than I can use them. We just love it!
That’s so great to hear – thanks Carol!
Can this recipe be doubled to feed a crowd over the Holidays?
If so would you double all ingredients?
Any change to Cook time or NR release time?
Thank you!
Hi Barbara – if you have an 8 quart pressure cooker you could double it. I would reduce the cook time to 2 minutes with a 10 minute natural release.
The ingredients list specifies a half teaspoon of pepper, but the recipe doesn’t say when to use it except at the end if needed. Is that correct?? I’ve made this several times without noticing that….
Hi Doug – so nice to hear you’ve made the soup several times. Yes, add the pepper at the end along with additional salt if needed. Enjoy!
Can you freeze soup with pasta or potatoes in it? Sometimes I get a mushy bad taste from potatoes after frozen in my stew.
Hi Sylvia – potatoes and pasta can get a little mushy when frozen and reheated. A couple of things you can do. For soups with pasta, especially chicken noodle soup, I don’t add the pasta to the soup until I’m serving it, then freeze in individual servings of pasta and soup separately. You can also under cook the soup with potatoes it in, then cook the portion you are going to eat a little bit longer.
My husband and I are tracking cholesterol and sodium levels in our daily meals. it would be helpful if the nutritional values were included with the recipes.
Hi Annette – here’s a site that makes it easy to analyze any recipe https://www.caloriecount.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php. Good luck with your goal of eating better.
This is really healthy and looks yummy too. Thanks for sharing!
… Could you use stewed or canned tomatoes in place of the fresh ones? If so how much?
Hi Wendy – definitely. I would substitute two 14.5 ounce cans.
I made this a few days ago and it came out fantastic! I had some fresh green beans cooked that I wanted to use and also had some fresh corn I had cooked and cut off the cob….I added both when I added the kidney beans, spinach and herbs.
I can’t say enough good things about this soup. It will be made again and again…in fact I was sorry to see the last of it go today at lunch time….it hit the spot.
Thanks again Barbara! 🙂
Tried this in an 8 quart stove top pressure cooker. I think next time I will remove the sautéed onions, add another tablespoon of Olive Oil, bring it up to heat, add the garlic, carrots, celery, corn, zucchini and the onions back in. The pot was somewhat dry as the oil seemed to be used up the onions.
Also, try throwing in the corn cobs into the pot, let them cook with everything else and remove them when you open the pot. Corn cobs are very sweet.
About do a quick release, I usually do not do this with soups. Given the above was an electric pressure cooker, I can understand why releasing the steam via of a valve is the only option.. My stove top cooker spitted, clogged, and spurted a lot in the steam flow, instead of a strong steady release of pressure. So next time will just do an in the sink cold water drop of pressure and then release the valve.
Thanks for your feedback on the recipe. Sounds like your pot was probably a lot hotter than mine gets on the saute setting. I have a corn chowder recipe that uses the corn cobs, and it does add a wonderful flavor. Did you allow your pressure to release for 5 minutes before you did the quick pressure release? Maybe the larger size takes longer to release the pressure. You could try decreasing your cooking time and do a longer natural release.
Yeah, was a Fagor Duo on a gas stove, wasn’t so much hotter as a longer sauté time, I somewhat caramelized the onions, most likely why the oil was used up. I think I might try going the whole 45-60 minutes on slightly medium heat to fully caramelized them in a pan next time then moving them to the PC. This first light caramelizing, maybe the corncobs too, made the soup slightly sweet, had a nice flavor.
The Duo holds pressure well, I have had it hold pressure off heat for 30 minutes. It is no problem to just hit it with running water to reduce the pressure. I did wait the proper time before quick releasing it, it took several long long minutes to come down spurting alot with the steam released.
This soup is so much better after sitting in the frig for 3 days, you do need to add more broth, the ditalini seems to absorb it.
That asiago cheese makes this soup shine, if you can get pass the smell of asiago cheese. Stirring it in the bowl slightly helps. Asiago has a really great flavor rolled in a dirty gym sock smell. Wish you could stir it in when it is on a pizza. LOL
Me thinks it took a brave soul to be the first to try Asiago cheese.
We just froze some fresh locally grown tomatoes to make this after the season.
Thanks for the update. How great to have fresh tomatoes in the freezer. You’re right, soups often are better as leftovers. Often when I’m making soup with a noodle that I know won’t be eaten the same day, I’ll cook the noodles separately so they don’t absorb all the broth. Just put a scoop of noodles in the bowl and pour the hot soup over it. You’ll have to give it a try.
Barbara , thank you for this soup! It look great and simple. I’ll try out it for a lunch this week.
I so wish people would post upfront, rather then have to dig around a website, that recipes posted are for electrics, and which model by wattage. This is becoming very common. Gee if I had an electric I would prefer a 15 PSI stove top recipe and do the simple math to correct for the longer cook time using 15 PSI as a standar reference. The Instant Pot’s high is about 11.8 PSI as I recall, it is the higher one, the rest very all over the place greatly, some being very low, i.e. below 10 PSI. Electric by model/watt recipes are very concentric by nature. You are totally cluesless on being able to adjust for a stove top by most of these electric recipes you see. Makes me wonder if people known the difference in electrics models by makers.
Thanks for the comment – I list the pressure cookers I use in my FAQ section https://www.pressurecookingtoday.com/faq/. Recipes written for an electric pressure are written differently than a stove-top, so I think it’s generally obvious my recipes are written for an electric pressure cooker. I don’t believe with most recipes, except quick cooking recipes, that there is a significant difference in cooking times between stove top and electric pressure cooker recipes even given the PSI differences you describe.
Great site. I found it by typing in “recipes for electric pressure cooker.” Can hardly wait to try some of these recipes. They look delish.
Thanks Lorie! I’m so glad you found me.
Now that looks delicious!
Oh boy-this recipe couldn’t come at a better time, Barbara. I have lots of tomatoes to use up and Bob loves soup to take to work for lunch. This will be getting made SOON. Might have to shuffle around some ingredients but can’t wait to try it. Thanks so much!
Thanks Carol! Hope you and Bob enjoy it.
This Minestrone sounds perfect! Just what my late summer soul needs. One question, can I cook gluten-free pasta in the pressure cooker? Thank you for another great recipe! StacyV
Hi Stacy – I haven’t tried it, but I assume you could. If you wanted to test it, you could just pressure cooker a few noodles in water.
This is one of those recipes, that you know can easily become a family favourite – just reading it, I can feel a warm soup tummy 🙂