Mix and Match Instant Pot Minestrone Soup Recipe

The first meal I made in my Instant Pot was soup. (I am including affiliate links in this post for your convenience.)  It really hits the spot on a cold day and is a fantastic way to stretch your grocery budget by using up all of those little odds and ends in your kitchen cupboard that aren’t quite enough to eat as a full meal on their own.

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Making minestrone soup is the perfect recipe for that!

This minestrone soup recipe is very forgiving if you don’t have or don’t like to eat some of the ingredients I have listed here. Traditionally minestrone soup was made in Italy with in season summer vegetables. During the winter I usually have a cupboard full of dehydrated vegetables (the downside to having almost no longer term storage space in my freezer) that I forget to soak before I can cook with them, which makes using them for Instant Pot minestrone soup ideal – no soaking necessary!

The same goes with dried beans. Thanks to my lovely electric pressure cooker (you can find more affordable options here if the Instant Pot price is out of your budget range) I stopped buying canned beans as a backup. I pretty much never pre soak dried beans either. I just chuck them in the Instant Pot and let them pressure cook with the rest of the ingredients in the recipe.
The only exception to not pre soaking dried I’ve found to that is dried chickpeas (you can buy them here). Soaking chickpeas in water first means I can use the 30 minute Bean setting once instead of twice.

How to Make a Cheap Eats Minestrone Soup Recipe

You will need the following soup ingredients

1 Chopped onion

Olive oil – or your favorite neutral tasting cooking oil such as any of these oils

4-6 Minced cloves of garlic (or more or less to taste)

4 Sliced carrots and/or a cup of the vegetable(s )  of your choice – green beans, zucchini, summer squash, corn, peas, etc.   You can also add the diced meat of your choice if you like. I’m leaving it out today.

2 Stalks of chopped celery

Spinach – a handful or so. Basically I emptied the rest of a bag of frozen spinach into the pot to get back a little freezer space. Like I said before, this is a Mix and Match, use what you’ve got type of dinner recipe!

1/2 Cup of dried kidney beans (you can buy them in bulk here) – these are the beans I like and have in my cupboards. I am making my soup bean heavy but if you aren’t much of a fan, you can reduce the number of or skip the beans altogether and add more vegetables or meat to make up the difference

1/2 Cup of dried pinto beans (you can buy them in bulk here)  - dried beans double the amount when re-hydrated in a recipe. In this case, each half cup of dried beans will approximately equal one 12 ounce can of beans.

1/2 Cup of dried navy beans (you can buy them in bulk here)  

6 Cups of broth (beef, chicken, or vegetable)

2 Cups of water

2 Heaping teaspoons of dried basil (you can get dried basil here)

2 Heaping teaspoons of dried oregano (you can get dried oregano here)

3/4 teas of dried thyme

1 Bay leaf

1 1/2 Teaspoons of salt (or less depending upon how much salt is in your broth)

1 Cups of cooked pasta or pasta

Step by Step How to Make It Tutorial

1. Cover the bottom of Instant Pot with oil (approximately 2 to 4 tablespoons depending upon the size of your electric pressure cooker,) add the diced onions and use the Sauté setting to sauté the onions until they are translucent. Turn off the Sauté function when you are finished.


2. Add the garlic vegetables, beans, broth, water, and spices. Lock the lid onto the Instant Pot and press the Soup button (30 minutes on High pressure.)

Caution: Do not add the rice or pasta to the Instant Pot at this time or the rice/pasta will turn to mush. Cook it separately and add it to the soup in Step 3.

3. Vent the steam from the pressure cooker after the Soup cycle finishes, remove the lid, and stir the cooked pasta or rice into the cooked minestrone soup.

4. Serve, eat. Repeat!

My quick and easy mix and match minestrone soup recipe is a fantastic frugal dinner idea!


Looking for more quick, healthy, and cheap recipe ideas? Check out the following - and more! - below!

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