Easy Instant Pot Bean Soup Recipe (2024)

Let’s make an easy, comforting, healthy dinner that is about as budget-friendly as you can get!

In Fall and Winter, we crave soup. It’s one of my favorite meals to make for several reasons:

1. Simple
2. Clean ingredients
3. Leftovers! – Just reheat and serve with bread or crackers and a side salad
4. Allergy-friendly – it’s so easy to make soup that is free of the top 5 allergens or fits your friend’s new vegan/paleo/keto lifestyle
5. Budget-friendly – broth, vegetables, maybe some rice and meat? All inexpensive real food that we keep in our kitchen all winter long

Instant Pot Beans

I love my Instant Pot – between the quick cook time and keep warm setting, it’s a game-changer on days I forget to thaw the meat or won’t be home to make dinner.

Beans are extremely easy to make in the Instant Pot. An unopened bag of dry beans can become a warm bowl of soup in about an hour and a half.

Frequently, I cook a pot of beans in the Instant Pot without even knowing what I’m going to do with it. I just know it will help me save money and eat better that week.

A bag of great northern beans or chickpeas can go in soup, white bean chili, or my favorite chocolate dessert hummus.

A bag of black beans can be black bean brownies or a pot of Cuban black beans and rice.

If I want to turn my beans into a dessert, I always cook them in the water. But today I’m going to show you a way to cook beans that will make them perfect for all kinds of soups.

Quick Instant Pot Soup

We make a lot of soup in the Instant Pot, and many of my favorite soups use beans as a base.

We make:

• White Bean Chili
• Hamburger vegetable soup (frequently I’ll toss a handful of leftover beans in there)
• Three bean soup
• Black bean soup
• Tuscan bean soup
• Sausage, beans, and kale soup
• Follow these directions to convert your favorite bean soup recipe for the Instant Pot

But this recipe uses fewer steps. You don’t have to cook the beans separately and then make the soup. The beans make the soup all by themselves.

I’ll show you how.

Instant Pot Bean Soup

Instant Pot bean soup is as simple as beans + broth + onion + garlic + salt = soup.

You can serve this with homemade bread, cornbread, cornbread muffins, crackers, plain muffins, or tortilla chips.

You can dress up the soup or leave it plain. Here are some ideas:

1. Pinto beans – top with green onions, sour cream, and serve with tortilla chips or cornbread
2. Kidney beans – slice and saute andouille sausage, stir it and a can of diced tomatoes into the beans and serve with cornbread
3. Black beans – stir in some apple cider vinegar, top with salsa and sour cream, and serve with tortilla chips
4. White northern beans – add a drizzle of olive oil and some fresh chopped herbs

Shredded cheese or a pot of rice goes great with many types of beans as well.

Every type of bean has its own traditional forms or preparing it and a unique flavor profile. Use your imagination (and an internet search) and you’ll be surprised how you can dress up a pot of bean soup in just a minute.

But don’t forget this recipe is also delicious just plain.

Healthy Dinner Idea: Instant Pot Soup

Beans are a budget-friendly real food that makes a delicious base for any soup. They fill you up, offer plenty of fiber, and can be incredibly kid-friendly!

Use the leftovers to make a veggie-loaded soup. Or if you make pinto or black beans, serve the leftovers with Burrito bowls.

We also love making leftovers into Taco Casserole, one of our favorite recipes from Chef Junior!

Dry Beans in the Instant Pot

A couple of tips for cooking dry beans.

People get awkward about the side effects of eating too many beans. Here are some tips for that:

1. Soak the beans for 12-72 hrs before cooking them, changing the water every 12 hours. This helps soften them up, cook faster, and some people claim that they make them easier to digest.
2. Try the seasonings in this post! Traditionally, they helped make the beans easier to digest.
3. Some people say that rinsing the beans after cooking them helps too. But that’s not what we’re doing here, because the bean cooking liquid becomes the broth. Bean cooking water is extremely flavorful and makes the beans incredibly delicious. Don’t rinse them for this soup!

Instant Pot Dry Beans

Dry beans. I love making dry beans. They’re so inexpensive, real food, and they cook up so easily in the Instant Pot, I mean, 5-7 minutes and you’re done preparing dinner – and most of that time is spent slicing onions and garlic.

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If you’re looking for a warm, comforting, versatile recipe that helps you save money and eat real food, this easy instant pot bean soup is perfect for you!

What is your favorite bean to use in a bean soup recipe?

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