Chat with us, powered by LiveChat

Easy Instant Pot Bean Soup Recipe

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

Instant Pot bean soup

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.

You’re Just *7 Days* Away From Easier Meals with Your Instant Pot

Whether you have a few fav meals in your Instant Pot or still aren’t using it regularly yet, I can show you the secrets to SAVE time (and money) with my favorite appliance!

May I send you my best hacks to maximize my fav appliance so you can spend more time with your family AND nourish them well?

Get IP hacks in short emails and transform the way you serve dinner:

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:

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.

ingredients for Instant Pot bean soup

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.

Instant Pot bean soup
The Everything Beans Book eBook

The Everything Beans Book has twenty pages of beany information, including all you could possibly want to know about legume nutrition, how to cook dry beans, and lots of time-saving tips for managing this frugal source of protein and fiber more often in your kitchen.

It also offers 30 bean recipes, for the bean lovers of the world and the bean haters.

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 bean soup with different toppings

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.

Print
clock clock iconcutlery cutlery iconflag flag iconfolder folder iconinstagram instagram iconpinterest pinterest iconfacebook facebook iconprint print iconsquares squares iconheart heart iconheart solid heart solid icon
Instant Pot bean soup

Easy Instant Pot Bean Soup Recipe

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star No reviews
  • Author: Steph Jenkins
  • Prep Time: 5 minutes
  • Cook Time: 30 minutes
  • Total Time: 35 minutes
  • Yield: 12 cups 1x
  • Category: Main Dish
  • Method: Instant Pot
  • Cuisine: Soup

Ingredients

Units Scale
  • 3 c. dry beans (see notes for my favorites!)
  • 8 c. broth
  • 1 large onion, diced
  • 23 cloves garlic, minced
  • 24 tsp salt (Use the code kitchenstewardship for 15% off of your first purchase), to taste


ship kroger


Instructions

Soaking your beans ensures that they cook more evenly and are nice and tender. It’s not necessary to soak the beans before cooking them in the Instant Pot, but the results will be better! 

  1. Pour the beans into a mesh strainer or colander and rinse them thoroughly. Check them with a quick look and stir with your fingers to see if there are any rocks or pieces of dirt in your beans. I don’t know why we still have rocks in our beans in the 21st century, but here we are.
  2. To soak your beans, pour them into a very large glass bowl. Beans will swell to about 3 times their size while soaking. Cover them with about 2 inches of water, then cover the bowl and let it soak for 12-72 hours, changing the water and rinsing the beans every 12 hours.
  3. When you’re ready to cook the beans, pour them, the onion, garlic, broth, and 2 teaspoons of salt into the Instant Pot. Close the lid, seal it, and set it to the manual cook time. Set it to the appropriate time for that particular bean (see notes), then walk away. Congratulate yourself that you just spent 5 minutes prepping nearly your entire dinner.
  4. When the beans are done, let the pressure release naturally and cool slightly. Taste and add salt as necessary. Dress up the beans however you like, or just serve them with cornbread and shredded cheese! See notes for serving suggestions.  
YouTube video

Notes

Slow Cooker Method:

Soak the beans for at least 12 hours. Pour the beans into the slow cooker, then stir in the onion, garlic, broth, and salt. Close the lid and cook on high for 3-4 hours or on low for 6-8 hours. Taste and add salt if needed.

Stove Top Method:

Soak the beans for at least 12 hours. Pour the beans into a very large pot, then stir in the onion, garlic, broth, and salt. Heat on high and bring to a boil. Then cover and lower the heat. Simmer for 1-2 hours, until the beans are soft. Taste and add salt if needed. 

Beans

Try this recipe with these beans: black, great northern, kidney, navy, pinto, or a 6 or 9 bean soup mix!  

Cook Times

Black beans: 20-25 min (unsoaked), 10-15 min (soaked)

Great northern beans: 25-30 min (unsoaked), 20-25 min (soaked)

Kidney beans: 25-30 min (unsoaked), 20-25 min (soaked)

Navy beans: 25-30 min (unsoaked) 20-25 (soaked)

Pinto: 25-30 min (unsoaked), 20-25 min (soaked)

Bean soup mix: This varies; I use the bean with the longest cook time to guide my time here. If that bean is not listed here, a quick internet search will tell you!


Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 2 cups
  • Calories: 373
  • Sugar: 3.9g
  • Sodium: 387mg
  • Fat: 2.8g
  • Saturated Fat: .7g
  • Unsaturated Fat: 0g
  • Trans Fat: 0g
  • Carbohydrates: 60g
  • Fiber: 14.6g
  • Protein: 27.6g
  • Cholesterol: 0mg
  • Need a little help getting healthy food on the table every day? Real Plans takes the stress out of meal planning and puts the nourishing food BACK on your table. There’s a plan for every diet type, including GAPS, Paleo, AIP, Whole30, vegetarian and more! You remain totally in control: use your own recipes, accept theirs, and teach the system what your family likes…Check out how powerful it is here!

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?
frugal easy instant pot bean soup
Unless otherwise credited, photos are owned by the author or used with a license from Canva or Deposit Photos.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe rating 5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.