Can you make soup in an Instant Pot? Absolutely. This Instant Pot lentil soup recipe is the perfect intro to pressure cooker soups! It’s easy to make and full of nutritious ingredients. Lentils load it with plant based protein, and it’s bright red from fire roasted tomatoes. The star ingredient: fresh fennel, which adds a smoky undertone. This soup is ultra cozy and Alex and I have been enjoying a steaming bowl with a side of our best vegan cornbread. And don’t take it just from us: reader Laura told us,“My husband said this could easily go into regular rotation at our house.” Score! Let’s get started.
Why make Instant Pot soup?
As we’ve shared extensively, Alex and I used to be Instant Pot haters. Then we got one…and we ended up falling in love! As people who eat mainly vegetarian and vegan recipes, we started only making basics like rice, dried beans, sweet potatoes, etc. But we’ve branched out into using our Instant Pot for vegetarian meals, like pasta (like spaghetti and creamy penne) and now soup. Now, despite its name: the Instant Pot does not cook food in an instant. The advantage of cooking Instant Pot soup recipes is that it’s totally hands off once the cooking starts. You can throw the soup in the pot and then go do other things, until your dinner is done! Overall, this soup will take about 45 minutes to make, with the “preheat time” included.
How to make lentil soup in an Instant Pot
To make this Instant Pot lentil soup recipe, you’ll use the Saute mode on the Instant Pot. This is just like sauteing on the stovetop, but you’ll do it right in the pressure cooker itself. In this lentil soup, you’ll saute the fennel and onion. Why do you need to saute? Couldn’t you just throw everything into the pot? Sauteing the veggies makes them perfectly cooked and brings out their flavor in a way that pressure cooking them does not. So make sure to do this step! By the way, if you’re not sure how to cut fennel and how to dice an onion quickly: we can help! We have some great knife skills tutorials that can help you cut them in a flash:
How to cut an onion How to cut fennel
Saute up the onion and fennel, then add the remainder of the ingredients and pressure cook for just 10 minutes! However, we want to be clear about the overall time. Because of the amount of ingredients in the pressure cooker, it will take about 20 minutes to “preheat” or come up to pressure. Because we’re all about truth in advertising (ha!), we’ve incorporated this time into our overall time that the recipe takes to cook.
What people are saying
Because Instant Pot cooking can be a little variable, we like to test the recipes with our readers before publishing them here on A Couple Cooks. This cozy Instant Pot lentil soup went over with our real-life recipe testers! Here’s what they had to say:
“Made the soup last night. Timing was spot on. The soup was thicker…not quite stew, but definitely thicker than a veggie soup. It divided into 6+ hearty portions. I liked the flavor. My husband said this could easily go into regular rotation at our house!” -Laura “The lentil soup turned out great! We really liked it! We think it would serve 4 to 5 people, but I guess it depends on the people (my boyfriend can eat haha!).” -Amanda
What kind of Instant Pot to use?
Alex and I use an Instant Pot brand Instant Pot (Instant Pot is the brand name; Instapot is a slang variation). The Instant Pot we use is the Instant Pot DUO60 6 Qt 7-in-1 Multi-Use Programmable Pressure Cooker. We’d only recommend using a 6 quart pressure cooker for this recipe. We also can’t speak to other brands and types of pressure cookers. For example, we’ve heard that the Instant Pot Mini works pretty differently than the standard size: we also wouldn’t recommend it here since the quantity is much too large.
Looking for Instant Pot recipes?
Outside of this Instant Pot lentil soup recipe, here are some of our favorite Instant Pot Recipes:
Basics: Sweet Potatoes | Chickpeas | Lentils| Eggs | Quinoa | Rice | Refried Beans Instant Pot Wild Rice Soup Recipe Sweet Potatoes with Thai Peanut Butter Sauce Chickpea Couscous Bowls Instant Pot Tacos Apple Cinnamon Steel Cut Oats Granola Instant Pot Apple Crisp Instant Pot Acorn Squash
This lentil soup Instant Pot recipe is…
Vegetarian, vegan, plant-based, gluten-free, and dairy-free.
A few more soups…
Because we’re soup obsessed (aren’t you?), here are a few more of our favorite soup recipes: 4.3 from 4 reviews
Best Vegetarian Chili Creamy Corn Chowder (or Vegan Corn Chowder) Golden Cauliflower Soup Recipe 25 Best Vegetarian Soup Recipes 25 Best Vegan Soup Recipes Easy Tomato Basil Soup Vegetarian Tortellini Soup Homemade Vegetable Soup Superfood Butternut Squash Lentil Soup Vegetarian Tortilla Soup
