Instant Pot Vegetable Soup with Pesto

Hearty Instant Pot Vegetable Soup made with pesto, white beans, and delicious spring vegetables.

This veggie-filled soup is ready in less than 30 minutes and is made with a vegetable broth base and lightly seasoned with salt and pepper.

I tried this garden vegetable soup at a local restaurant and fell in love. I made this homemade version of the vegetable soup with pesto in my Instant Pot within a week of trying it at the restaurant - it's that good!

Ingredients in Instant Pot Vegetable Soup

This soup is full of delicious spring vegetables and a tablespoon or two of pesto is stirred into it right before serving. For the directions and ingredient amounts refer to the recipe card at the bottom of the post!

• Canned white beans - I use small white beans but you can use Great Northern or Cannellini beans
• Carrots
• Red Bell Pepper
• Onion
• Yellow squash
• Zucchini
• Celery
• Tomato
• Tomato Paste
• Vegetable broth - I use fat-free low sodium
• Pesto
• Salt & Pepper
• Bay leaf - for seasoning
• Grated parmesan - for garnish
• Olive oil - to saute the vegetables before pressure cooking

RELATED: Instant Pot Cheeseburger Soup

How to Make Instant Pot Vegetable Soup

It is incredibly easy to make Instant Pot soups and the first step is to prepare the ingredients as the process is rather fast when pressure cooking.

Prep the vegetables: Wash and dice the onion, carrots, red bell pepper, yellow squash, zucchini, and celery. Chop the tomato and set it aside.

Saute the vegetables: Saute the vegetables by adding 1 tablespoon of oil into the Instant Pot and setting it to SAUTE. Add the onions, carrots, red pepper, squash, zucchini, and celery. Saute until the onions are translucent and fragrant.

Press cancel on the pressure cooker. Drain and rinse the white beans.

Add ingredients to the pressure cooker: Add the prepared white beans to the pot and add the tomato paste, salt and pepper. Pour in the vegetable broth and top it off with the bay leaf.

Pressure cook the vegetable soup: Close the lid and pressure cook the soup for 10 minutes on HIGH PRESSURE/MANUAL. Once the timer is up, carefully perform a quick controlled release to release pressure.

Please refer to your pressure cooker's manual for how to safely release pressure.

Serve the Instant Pot Vegetable Soup with Pesto: Serve the soup with a tablespoon or two of pesto and garnish with parmesan.

RELATED: Instant Pot Vegetable Beef Soup

Can you Freeze Vegetable Soup?

Yes, you can! Freeze the soup the same day you make it for maximum freshness. Make sure to use freezer-safe containers or bags when storing the vegetable soup. This soup is great to freeze because there are no starchy vegetables or pasta so you won't have to worry about your soup turning to mush.

Skip the pesto when freezing this soup and add it upon serving.

How do you reheat vegetable soup? You can reheat this soup in the microwave or on the stove. When reheating the stoup in the microwave, transfer the frozen soup to a microwave-safe container and heat for 30 seconds at a time. Stir the soup and heat again in 30-second increments.

When reheating on the stove, transfer the frozen soup to a soup pot. Add a little bit of water to the pot so that the bottom of the pot doesn't burn. Heat over medium-high heat and stir until heated through. When serving, add pesto and garnish with parmesan.

How long does frozen soup last? Soup can be frozen for up to three months in the freezer. Of course, this depends on whether proper storage containers have been used.

If you are unsure where your frozen soup is still good or not, heat the soup and give it a smell. If it is foul-smelling or the the soup is discolored, toss it. When in doubt, toss it out!

📖 Recipe