This ultra-cosy Instant Pot Lentil Soup features fennel, fire-roasted tomatoes, and lentils—it’s an easy vegetarian meal everyone will love!
Can you make soup in an Instant Pot? Absolutely. This Instant Pot lentil soup recipe is the perfect introduction to pressure cooker soups! It’s easy to make and full of nutritious ingredients. The lentils load it up with plant-based protein and it’s bright red thanks to the fire-roasted tomatoes. The main ingredient: fresh fennel, which gives it a smoky note. This soup is super cozy and Alex and I enjoyed a steaming bowl with a side of our best vegan cornbread. And don’t take our word for it: reader Laura told us,“My husband said it could easily be changed regularly at our house.” Score! Let us begin.
Why Make Instant Pot Soup?
Since we shared a lot, Alex and I were enemies of Instant Pot. Then we had one… and we ended up falling in love! As people who eat mostly vegetarian and vegan recipes, we started with just making the basics like rice, beans, sweet potatoes, etc. and now the soup.
Well, despite its name, the Instant Pot doesn’t cook food on the fly. The benefit of cooking Instant Pot soup recipes is that It’s completely hands-free once the cooking begins. You can toss the soup in the pot and then do something else until your dinner is ready! All in all, this soup takes about 45 minutes to make, including reheating time.
How to make lentil soup in an instant pot
To make this Instant Pot lentil soup recipe, use the Skip Mode on the Instant Pot. It’s like sautéing on the stove, but you’re doing it right in the pressure cooker itself. In this lentil soup, you’ll brown the fennel and onion. Why do you have to jump? Couldn’t you just throw everything in the pot? Searing vegetables cooks them to perfection and brings out their flavor in a way that pressure cooking doesn’t. So be sure to do this step!
By the way, if you don’t know how to cut fennel and how to quickly dice an onion: we can help you! We have great knife technique tutorials that can help you cut them in no time:
Sauté the onion and fennel, then add the remaining ingredients and pressure cook for just 10 minutes! However, we want to be clear about the total time. Due to the amount of ingredients in the pressure cooker, It takes about 20 minutes to “warm up” or build pressure. Because we’re all about the truth in advertising (ha!), we counted this time into our total time for the recipe to cook.
what people say
Because Instant Pot cooking can be somewhat variable, we like to test recipes with our readers before publishing them here on A Couple Cooks. This cozy Instant Pot lentil soup has been approved by our real recipe testers! Here’s what they had to say:
- “I made the soup last night. The timing was perfect. The soup was thicker…not quite a stew, but definitely thicker than a vegetable soup. It split into over 6 hearty servings. I liked the taste. My husband said it could easily happen at our house on a regular basis!” -Laura
- “The lentil soup turned out great! We liked it very much! We think 4-5 people would be enough, but I think it depends on the people (my friend can eat haha!). -Amanda
What Kind of Instant Pot Should I Use?
Alex and I use an Instant Pot branded instant pot (Instant Pot is the brand name; Instapot is a variant of the slang). The Instant Pot we use is the Instant Pot DUO60 6 Qt 7-in-1 Programmable Multipurpose Pressure Cooker.
We only recommend using a 6 liter pressure cooker for this recipe. We also can’t talk about other brands and types of pressure cookers. For example, we’ve heard that the Instant Pot Mini works very differently than the standard size: we wouldn’t recommend it here either, as the quantity is way too big.
Looking for Instant Pot Recipes?
Aside from this Instant Pot lentil soup recipe, here are some of our favorite Instant Pot recipes:
This instant pot lentil soup recipe is…
Vegetarian, vegan, plant-based, gluten-free and dairy-free.
The description
This ultra-cosy Instant Pot Lentil Soup features fennel, fire-roasted tomatoes, and lentils—it’s an easy vegetarian meal everyone will love!
- 1 medium yellow onion
- 1 head of fennel
- 2 big carrots
- 1 clove of garlic
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 1 ½ cups brown or green lentils
- 28 ounces diced fire roasted tomatoes
- 1 liter vegetable soup
- 1 cup the water
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 tbsp paprika
- 1 tbsp dried oregano
- 3 cups baby spinach (or regular chopped spinach)
- Chop the onion. Dice the fennel. Peel and cut carrots. Grate the garlic and set aside to incorporate once the soup is cooked.
- Activate jump mode and add olive oil. When hot, add the onion and fennel and cook until translucent, 6-7 minutes. Add the carrots, lentils, tomatoes, broth, water, salt, paprika, and oregano. Lock the Instant Pot lid. Place the pressure relief (vent) handle in the “seal” position.
- Cook at high pressure for 10 minutes: Press the pressure cook button, make sure the ‘high pressure’ setting is selected and set the time. Note that it takes about 20 minutes for the pan to “preheat” and build pressure before you start cooking. (Avoid touching the metal part of the lid during cooking.)
- Fast Release: Release any remaining steam from the Instant Pot by setting the pressure release handle to “Vent” and covering your hand with a heated towel or pad. Never put your hands or face near the opening when dispensing steam. Open the lid of the pressure cooker.
- Stir in the spinach and grated garlic and let stand 5 minutes before serving. Taste and season with salt and freshly ground pepper if needed. Serve immediately.
- Category: main course
- Method: pressure cooker
- Kitchen: vegetarian
Keywords: Instant Pot Lentil Soup, Instant Lentil Pot, Lentil Soup Recipe, Lentil Recipe
A few more soups…
Because we’re obsessed with soup (right?), here are some of our favorite soup recipes:
