Instant Pot Winter Vegetable Soup {With Stovetop Instructions Too!}

Nourish yourself with the best of the winter produce in a fraction of the time with your Instant Pot!

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I really should have known better…

Last year when I started playing around with my Instant Pot a bit more, I fell in love with making some of my staple soup recipes in much quicker time. It meant that I could have veggie soups on the table most days of the week – and for this busy work at home mom with 3 kids under 7 years old, that meant…a lot!

We were blown away at how fast I could make a huge pot of soup, but something was missing…

Butter and time….

I had gotten into the habit of just tossing everything in and hitting go, foregoing that precious little “Saute” button that our Instant Pots come with. A 5-10 minute butter sauté with some key veggies (namely the aromatics like onion, carrots, celery, etc), takes a pot of soup from good to amazing.

As those aromatics cook with a little butter and sea salt their flavor changes and brings a sweetness and depth of flavor to the soup that will hook in just about any hesitant soup eater.

Back to the basics…with a little modern convenience thrown in!

So when it comes to my Instant Pot I’ve gone back to my traditional cooking roots to get that flavor, and am still enjoying the convenience of a quicker cook time than the stovetop would yield. Whether you are a novice cook, or a seasoned foodie I think we would all agree that an extra 5 or 10 minutes to get amazing flavor is worth it – especially when it will be devoured as quickly as this pot of soup did!

The best of winter!

So some of us don’t think of very many veggies being in season in the winter (at least those of us with snow piled knee high!). While there certainly isn’t the abundance that late August brings, you really can find some great seasonal vegetables to use.

Sometimes our grocer is hit or miss on a few of these items, but I would say that the vast majority of us have access to most of this list to at least pair a couple items together with staple onion, carrot, celery aromatics and make a really great soup! Just be sure you include at least one “sweet/creamy” starchy veg such as one of the squashes, sweet potatoes, or potatoes to balance out the sometimes bitterness that dark winter greens can have.

• Leeks and/or onions
• Parsnips and/or carrots
• Celeriac and/or celery
• Fennel
• Brussel sprouts
• Cabbage
• Sweet potato
• Winter squash (buttercup, butternut, acorn – whatever you can find!)
• Winter greens (kale, chard, spinach)
• Potato
• Cauliflower
• Broccoli

At home comfort in a pack-able meal!

This entire pot of soup didn’t even last a week in my house! Between lunch that day, packing some up for my husband’s Travel Crockpot for work lunch, my breakfasts, school lunch thermoses, and my toddler’s tea cups, it was G.O.N.E.!

If you have never used a Travel Crockpot before, and you work away from home, boy are you about to be mind blown! We actually have 2 of these so that my husband can bring multiple meals to work. He keeps a warming base at work and we have 2 of the liners that he brings home to wash and re-fill. Oftentimes he likes to bring soaked oatmeal for breakfast in one liner, and soup/dinner leftovers in the other. It is really great for those who are gone from home most of the day. If you want to read more about how to “temper” a school lunch thermos for the kids so their soup is nice and warm at lunch, this article explains that better!

Print Recipe

4.89 from 9 votes

Instant Pot Winter Vegetable Soup {With Stovetop Instructions Too!}

Nourish yourself with the best of the winter produce in a fraction of the time with your Instant Pot!

Prep Time10 mins

Cook Time30 mins

Total Time40 mins

Course: Soup

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Instant Pot vegetable soup, Instant Pot vegetable soup recipe, vegetable soup in the Instant Pot

Servings: 8 servings

Author: Renee - www.raisinggenerationnourished.com

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup butter
• 2 medium onions roughly chopped (or 2 large leeks, rinsed of sand, tops discarded, and roughly chopped)
• 2 medium/large parsnips or carrots peeled and roughly chopped
• 1 celeriac peeled and roughly chopped (If you don't have access to this winter root, 2 celery stalks roughly chopped works fine! Celeriac has a mild celery taste and is so great in soup but even I can't find it at our store sometimes!)
• 5-6 cloves of garlic smashed
• 10 large brussel sprouts ends cut and discarded (you can use more if your sprouts are small)
• 1/2 medium butternut squash peeled, seeded, and roughly chopped
• 1 small sweet potato roughly chopped
• 1 handful kale roughly chopped
• 2 quarts bone broth You can use Instant Pot Broth, or here is my slow cooker method
• 1/4-1/2 tsp chipotle pepper or cayenne optional if you don't like the heat - we love it and it really brings it to another flavor level! Not to mention the warming heat is great in the cold winter here!
• Sea salt/pepper to taste
• Parsley to garnish optional

Instructions

• Set the Instant Pot to "Saute," melt the butter in the bottom of the pot, and then add in the onion, carrot, and celeriac with a big pinch of sea salt. Saute the veggies for about 10 minutes stirring occasionally while you chop up the rest of the veggies.
• Turn off the Saute feature and toss in the rest of the veggies and the bone broth.
• Put the lid on, close the valve, and press "Soup". Bring the time down to 20 minutes, and it will turn on automatically. Once the pot comes to pressure, the 20 minutes will count down.
• After the 20 minutes of pressure cooking is done, turn the pot off, and open the valve to let the pressure out. Puree the soup with a handheld blender or in batches in a regular blender. After the soup is pureed you can sea salt and pepper to your taste. Garnish each bowl with parsley if you wish.

Stovetop soup instructions

The best part about this section is that it really isn’t much different than using the Instant Pot!

You can still save a bunch of time by just coarsely chopping your veggies – no need to be a perfect dice when it is all going to get pureed anyway! Simply saute the aromatics in butter like the first step. Then add in everything else, bring the whole pot to a simmer, cooking until the veggies are tender. Simmer it at the back of your stovetop so that you can tend to babies, clean up the kitchen, or fold laundry while it simmers away. I did this for literally years dear mommas…I have only had an Instant Pot for a year and a half! Fancy tools are so great, but you really only need a good soup pot if we are being honest!

Biscuit and cracker ideas to go with your soup!

• Grain Free Herb Butter Biscuits
• Grain Free Plantain Crackers
• Gluten Free Blender Squash Drop Biscuits
• Gluten Free Spinach & Cheese Biscuits
• Gluten Free Mary’s Gone Crackers
• Jovial Sourdough Crackers

More real food recipes you might like ::

• Roasted Garlic Soup
• Nourishing Broccoli Soup
• Instant Pot Bone Broth
• Instant Pot Veggie Lo Mein
• Fresh Tomato Soup