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Just made this, it’s delicious! I wasn’t sure about the bulghur at first, but it’s perfect. Thanks!
Beth
Minestrone Soup Made Easy In The Instant Pot
It’s time to bust out the Instant Pots, slow cookers, or big ol’ soup pots again because my favorite season is making its annual appearance. SOUP SEASON!
And this humble, modern-ish minestrone has everything you could probably ever want: veggies, more veggies, one more pile of veggies, basil pesto, yummy tomato sauce, beans, bulgur (we’ll talk this over shortly), fresh parsley, garlic, smoked paprika, and parmesan on top! And crusty bread on the side!
Is it weird that I can still vividly remember the exact first time I ate this minestrone, oh, let’s see, FIFTEEN YEARS AGO? I remember sitting around a superlong table, huddled up with a bunch of neighbors, in a cabin in the Wisconsin woods, and my neighbor Pam dishing out her Minestrone to the masses after a “long day” where my only job in life was to go snowmobiling and play card games.
Honestly, sometimes the food details that live inside my brain are borderline alarming. Is this really why I can’t remember where I put my water bottle this morning? Because this obscure, wonderful memory of Pam’s minestrone and a green can of Parmesan cheese around a cozy cabin the Wisconsin woods is taking up space in the corners of my brain?
Priorities, I guess.
In This Post: Everything You Need For Minestrone
- VIDEO for How to Make Minestrone
- Ingredients You’ll Need
- How to Make This Soup
- What to Serve with Minestrone
- Frequently Asked Questions About This Recipe
Video To Make Minestrone Soup
Ingredients In This Minestrone
Okay, so Minestrone. Modern minestrone. Without pasta! Or… pasta if you want it I guess!
Let me try to defend the – pasta + bulgur decision. First of all, have you ever even had bulgur? Guys. It’s Yum City. Chewy, nutty, wheaty (makes sense, since it is, in fact, wheat). Secondly, nutrition. Think complex carbs, fiber, and protein.
A few more ingredients to mention:
- Veggies: Carrots, celery, and onion. So many veggies, it’s basically a salad in soup form!
- Pesto: This is my secret ingredient weapon – it adds a touch of nutty basil and is just such an essential little flavor boost.
- Marinara Sauce: A jar of marinara sauce is keeping things simple! You can use whatever is your favorite, but I really love DeLallo brand marinara.
- Beans: More fiber! And making this extra filling.
- Bulgur: I like to use this in place of the pasta since it’s a little different and a little healthy and a little delicious.
- Smoked Paprika: The original minestrone I had included bacon. This is my veg version that uses smoked paprika in place of it. Yum!
How To Make Minestrone Soup
Since we’re using the Instant Pot, things are pretty simple here!
- Chop all your veggies. Use a food processor to make things quick, as you can see here too!
- Place your ingredients in the Instant Pot. Veggies, sauce, beans, spices, pesto.
- Let it cook! Set it and forget it for 30 minutes.
- Finish it off. Stir in the bulgur and let it all cook together for a bit, then serve and top with parmesan and parsley.
If you don’t own an Instant Pot, you can make this on the stove or in a slow cooker. Check out the recipe card notes or FAQ for directions!
What To Serve with Minestrone
This soup is delicious and filling all on its own, but there are a few extras that make this even more delicious!
- Bread. BREAD! All the bread, especially for dipping. This No-Knead Bread or No-Knead CHEESE Bread are the ticket.
- A little simple green salad on the side for something crunchy and fresh.
- You can also add meat to this pretty easily – you could cook and crumble up some ground Italian sausage or turkey and add it to cook with everything else, or even add in some chicken breasts to cook and then shred.
Instant Pot Minestrone Soup
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 8 servings (1 heaping cup each) 1x
Description
Instant Pot Minestrone! With tons of veggies, beans, pesto, tomato sauce, parsley, topped with Parmesan, served with bread. Veg-friendly, nutritious, easily made vegan.
Ingredients
For the Instant Pot Minestrone:
- 4–5 carrots, chopped
- 4–5 celery stalks, chopped
- half an onion, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- half of a head of green cabbage, thinly sliced
- 1/4 cup DeLallo pesto
- 1 24–ounce jar of DeLallo marinara sauce
- 1 14–ounce can cannellini or navy beans
- 3 cups water
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 bay leaves
- 2 teaspoons smoked paprika (optional – see notes)
To add at the end:
- 1 cup uncooked bulgur
- chopped fresh parsley
- Parmesan for topping
Instructions
- Add All Ingredients: Place everything in the first list inside an Instant Pot / pressure cooker. Turn on the soup setting (30 minutes). Go put your feet up!
- Cook Bulgur: Use the quick release to let the steam out (hang on, it takes a few minutes). Pull out the bay leaves. Add the bulgur, replace cover, and let it all sit together to cook the bulgur for a while (about 20 minutes). Add more water as needed.
- Serve: Serve with Parmesan and fresh parsley. I’d also like to mention that the leftovers are mighty delicious.
Notes
In a slow cooker: Place all ingredients except bulgur in a slow cooker and cook for 6-8 hours on low heat. Mix bulgur in at the end and let it rest for 30 minutes or so (doing this near the end helps it stay chewy rather than turning to mush).
On the stovetop: Saute the carrots, celery, onions, garlic, and pesto until the vegetables are soft. Add the beans, spices, liquids, and cabbage and simmer for an hour or so. Add bulgur at the end until cooked. Longer simmer = better flavor.
Smoked paprika adds a smoky depth to the flavor of this soup that can also be achieved with bacon! If you prefer, just mince a few pieces of bacon and add to the mix instead. It’s YUMMY, but the downside is that it makes the soup a little more greasy, which is why this version is written with the smoked paprika instead.
Traditional minestrone would use pasta (and that works fine here if you want to make that sub). I used bulgur here because I liked the nutrition and chewiness of it as compared to the pasta!
If you don’t have a jar of pasta sauce or marinara sauce, you CAN use a can of diced tomatoes, but I would recommend adding more seasoning to compensate for what you’re missing with the pasta sauce or marinara.
We tried freezing this recipe and would not recommend it as it gets too mushy when reheated.
If you need this recipe to be vegan, you’ll need to buy vegan pesto or make it yourself. This one might be nice!
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Cook Time: 30 mins
- Category: Dinner
- Cuisine: Italian
Keywords: instant pot minestrone, minestrone soup, instant pot soup
Minestrone Soup: Frequently Asked Questions
If you want this to be more traditional with pasta, yes! The instructions should stay mostly the same, but instead of just closing the lid to let it cook, seal and cook it on high pressure for just 3 minutes.
Alternatively, you can cook the pasta separately on the stove, and then spoon the soup over the pasta in bowls, which will keep the pasta from getting mushy as it sits for leftovers!
In a slow cooker: Place all ingredients except bulgur in a slow cooker and cook for 6-8 hours on low heat. Mix bulgur in at the end and let it rest for 30 minutes or so (doing this near the end helps it stay chewy rather than turning to mush).
On the stovetop: Sauté the carrots, celery, onions, garlic, and pesto until the vegetables are soft. Add the beans, spices, liquids, and cabbage and simmer for an hour or so. Add bulgur at the end until cooked. Longer simmer = better flavor.
Unfortunately not, as the soup overall will get too mushy!
Just about anything! A traditional minestrone soup might have green beans, zucchini, spinach, squash, etc. It’s pretty forgiving, so add whatever makes your heart sing!
Yes! Ground Italian sausage or ground turkey would both be lovely here. Just cook and crumble it before adding it to the Instant Pot to cook with everything else. If you prefer chicken, you could add chicken breasts in with everything else and shred before adding the bulgur.
Use a vegan pesto like this one and skip the parm!
More Instant Pot Soup Recipes
One More Thing!
This recipe is part of our collection of best healthy soups. Check it out!
Very excited to make this! It’s in my instant right now. Can I add Farro instead of Bulgar?
We haven’t tested that!
This is one of my all time favorite recipes! It’s so good. I know the recipe says it doesn’t freeze well…was it the bulgur that got mushy? Wondering if I could freeze the cooked veggie portion and add the bulgur later after reheating. Or maybe the cabbage would be weird frozen and reheated…
I made this in the crockpot. I prepped the veggies the night before. I highly recommend making it in the crockpot. I will say it seemed more like a vegetable barley soup than a minestrone. But still very tasty.
This super easy, veggie-heavy recipe is a fall favorite. Many Instant Pot recipes require you to sauté the mirepoix, but in this case you just dump everything in the IP. No extra steps. The bulgur makes it extra hearty. The pesto gives it a lot of flavor but isn’t overwhelming. For yum!
Love your recipes! Thank you! Just checking that it’s 114 oz beans and 125 Oz marinara. My 6 qt IP will overflow. Just checking. I. An halve the recipe Making it this week 💕💕
Hi Gayle! You should use one 14-ounce can of beans and one 24-ounces jar of marinara. Enjoy!
This recipe is on heavy rotation in my house in fall & winter! Question -what’s the reason behind using the Soup Mode for 30 minutes rather than cooking on High Pressure for, say, 10 minutes?
I am making this tonight with quinoa to make it gluten free and add more protein! My kids are not big soup eaters so we will see how this goes.
Another favorite recipe of mine – Love the instant pot recipes on Pinch of Yum. An easy and delicious soup with lots of leftovers. I see some people are rating this recipe low because of the texture of the bulgur. Try making it without! I use either small pasta or an extra can of cannellini beans. The marinara sauce and pesto really make this minestrone unique and flavorful. Chose a marinara you enjoy, as it really shapes the flavor of the soup. I like to add in butternut squash and sometimes substitute chicken broth for the 3 cups of water ( consider reducing salt if you use broth)
Easy, delicious, hearty. I added a secret ingredient – fennel seed. About ½ tsp. It added this little hint of flavor. I also used chicken broth/boullion. Immersion blend about 70% of it at the end, and added more broth. Viola!
This soup was wonderful and so versatile. I added green beans , kale and a second can of beans. It was hearty, delicious and I can’t wait to crush the leftovers!!!!
I’m gluten free can I use white rice instead??
We haven’t tested this with white rice, but we think it’d be a great substitute!
I’m a huge POY fan–I make almost all my dinners from this site, so I hope you don’t take this review the wrong way. This soup was a major flop for me.
I used pearled barley, and I think that was the major problem with the soup. If I were to make this again, I would use half or even a quarter the amount. The barley completely takes over the soup like a sponge, absorbing all flavors and moisture.
The ingredients on their own were so flavorful, but the finished product tasted bland/nothing like minestrone. I fried bacon at the beginning and sauteed my veggies in a little of the grease before putting everything in the crockpot. At the end, I sampled the soup and tried adding (one by one, not all at once): more salt, pesto, handfuls of fresh basil, and finally Italian seasoning. It was like the soup could just absorb all the flavors I could throw at it.
Like other commenters noted, it also came out extremely thick. I added at least 3-4 cups of water, but like the seasonings, it became clear that the soup could absorb however much liquid I poured into it. Although I’m generally not bothered by the texture of foods, it struck a strange balance between chewy and mushy that I didn’t particularly enjoy.
Thank you guys so much for your work on this website. I really debated posting this comment because I’m so thankful for you and everything you do to keep me fed (which is honestly a lot–I’m not exaggerating when I say we make your recipes multiple times a week!). But I hope someone can learn from my folly and decrease the amount of barley/cabbage right off the bat.
This is a favorite recipe. I think the ready made marinara sauce adds so much more depth then using tomatoes and sauce. I had a basil tomato variety and used that. To keep calories a bit lower instead of pesto added a dried pesto seasoning. I love soups that include cabbage and had one that needed to be used so was pleased it was included. Bulgur is so much better then pasta. I cut it back to 2/3 cup. Soup plenty thick and very flavorful. Will make again.
SO GOOD!! easy and delish. will make again
I made this tonight. It is tasty and satisfying but I would not call this a minestrone soup. I’m Italian and I never had a minestrone soup like this.
I made this tonight while I had bread in the oven! It turned out awesome and so delicious. Thanks for this amazing recipe!
This looks so delicious. Can’t wait to try it.
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Okay, the bulgur is tricky and I don’t know if I’ll use it again – or if I do, I’m only going to add 1/2 a cup. Maybe 1/4! I loaded up on extra veggies, which should have added even more liquid to this soup, but a full cup of bulgur made this almost turn into porridge. I can’t seem to add enough water to get it to turn back into a real soup. I can’t bear to throw all of this away, so I’ll just deal with it, but I do NOT recommend adding all that grain. It soaks up all of the liquid and never seems to stop!
This is delicious! Didn’t have cabbage but had some zucchini and eggplant which I added instead. 5 stars. Had to resist cooking it again immediately after I ran out of the batch.
I was made this recipe yesterday. It was very delicious.
Can I just say how decadent this soup looks. It seems so filling and for half the price of a restaurant meal I am pretty sure of that.
I am a huge fan of a great bowl soup (even some mediocre ones) but, this Instant Pot Minestrone Soup was NOT good. Edible yes, but good? Definitely not.
Can’t wait to try but I can’t find bulgur anywhere. Do you have a suggestion for a substitute?
Couscous, quinoa, barley, or farro would be great substitutes!
Great recipe! Only thing I would change for next time is add a bit more salt and extra water so there’s more of a soup consistency.
This was fantastic! Saw you post it on Instragram and had the ingredients on hand. A perfect quarantine lunch.
Glad you enjoyed the soup, Kara!