Instant Pot Lentil Soup

Instant Pot lentil soup is a hearty and nutritious dish that’s perfect for busy days. Made with simple ingredients like lentils, vegetables, and flavorful seasonings, this comforting soup comes together quickly thanks to the pressure cooker.

Do you love soup? Do you gleefully anticipate eating it when you order it at a restaurant? Do you squeal just a little bit when you know you are having it that evening for dinner?

Or do you just like it? You think, “Oh good, soup”, but you don’t squeal or anticipate it with bated breath.

I LOVE it. And one thing that makes me super happy is, although Christopher used to like soup, he has now come around and jumped on the soup-loving bandwagon!

Mission complete.

What I love about this soup is the taste of all the ingredients together, the ease of the recipe, and the fact that you don’t have to soak the lentils before cooking them.

If you’re not into soup but love lentils, try my IP lentils. So good and they make the perfect taco stuffer and side dish.

Helpful tips

• I use green lentils in this soup, but red lentils, brown lentils, or yellow lentils will work as well. The only thing that might change is the color of the soup.
• Use two different onions – purple and yellow or Vidalia as it gives it a nice flavor.
• I’m using beef broth in the recipe, but you can use chicken broth or to make it vegetarian, vegetable broth.
• When you press the sauté button, let it heat up until the display says HOT before adding oil and let that heat up for another minute.
• You can make this vegetarian or vegan if you prefer, just leave out the broth and substitute it with either veggie broth or water.
• As the IP comes to pressure, allow for an additional 10 – 15 minutes. It really depends on how full the instant pot is.
• Always protect yourself from the steam by donning an oven mitt when either doing a quick release or opening the lid.
• Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week or the freezer for three months.

How to make lentil soup

Pre-step

Get your instant pot or pressure cooker.

Step one

Gather the ingredients – purple onion, Vidalia onion, carrots, and celery.

Step two

Chop the onions, carrots and celery in smallish chunks. (A)

Step three

Gather the broth, ground cumin, chili powder, thyme, red pepper flakes, green lentils, tomato paste, bay leaves, salt, and black pepper. (B)

Step four

Turn the Instant Pot on, press the sauté button, and wait for the display to say HOT or at least 2 minutes for it to heat up. Add olive oil and onions and sauté for 4 minutes.

Step five

Add chopped carrots, celery, garlic paste, herbs and spices, salt, and pepper, and continue to sauté for 3 minutes. Press the cancel button.

Step six

Add beef broth, water, tomato paste, bay leaves, and lentils.

Step seven

Place the lid on the Instant Pot, and make sure the venting knob is set to sealed. Press the soup/stew button and cook at normal mode, at high pressure, for 20 minutes.

Step eight

When the Instant Pot timer dings, either let the IP release the pressure naturally or you can wait 5 minutes, then don an oven mitt and release it quickly by tapping the venting knob. Wait for the valve to drop, letting you know that it is safe to open the pressure cooker.

Give the soup a gentle stir, and transfer to a serving dish. I pour use my much loved casserole dish from Burlington Potters and get ready to serve it.

I ladle some soup in our crocks and gather some cute little pita rounds. Have you seen these pita rounds before? They are adorable and fun to dip in the lentil soup!

Delicious!

Let’s look at a different view.  A close up!

I hope you enjoyed this Instant pot lentil soup recipe as much as Christopher and I do.

Other popular soup recipes

• Cauliflower
• French onion
• Old fashioned chicken soup
• Chicken pot pie soup
• Clam chowder
• Lobster bisque

And as always, may all your dishes be delish!

If you’ve tried this or any other recipe on the blog, I’d love the hear what you thought about it in the comments below.  I love hearing from you!  You can also FOLLOW ME on FACEBOOK, TWITTER, INSTAGRAM and PINTEREST to see more of my delicious food and delightful cocktails!