Instant Pot Quinoa Soup is filled with veggies, lots of flavorful seasonings and plant-based protein. You can make this quinoa veggie soup under 30 minutes in the instant pot. Stove-top instruction is included in the post.
Quinoa Veggie Soup
This vegan quinoa soup is perfect for busy weeknights and is packed with wholesome flavors. You'll love making this healthy quinoa soup with the veggies of your choice and plant-based protein.
Adjust the seasoning according to your likings and make this delicious soup with readily available pantry staple ingredients.
Ingredients and Substitutions
Find the Ingredients with actual measurements at the bottom of the post. The list below is just a reference.
- Quinoa.
- Aromatics: Yellow onion and garlic. You can sub the yellow onion with white onion for a sweet flavor.
- Veggies: Zucchini, carrots, celery, baby spinach. You can more veggies like diced yellow squash, butter squash, cabbage, cauliflower, green beans, mushrooms. Adjust the amount of broth if you decide to pack the soup with extra veggies. You can also throw in about ½ cup or ¾ cup frozen thawed green peas at the end along with the baby spinach. This will give an extra protein boost and add more texture to this vegetarian quinoa soup recipe. You can also sub the baby spinach with baby kale.
- Tomatoes: Diced tomatoes with the juices (canned tomatoes). Tomato paste. We added regular diced tomatoes. However, you can sub it with fire roasted tomatoes or diced tomatoes with green basil and green chilis.
- Plant-based protein: Cannellini beans. You can sub the Cannellini beans with a 15 ounce can of garbanzo beans, pinto beans, red kidney beans or black beans.
- Seasonings: Oregano, thyme, ground black pepper, smoked paprika, red pepper flakes (optional), salt according to taste. You can sub the oregano and thyme with basil or Italian seasoning.
- Cooking fat: Olive oil.
- Liquid: Veggie broth. Try our homemade instant pot vegetable broth made with veggie scraps. It's delicious and easy to make.
Tips & Tricks
- More flavor: Sauté aromatics and veggies for depth of flavor.
- Prevent burn: Deglaze the pot very well by scraping the sides and the bottom of the pot with the help of a spatula to loosen any stuck food particles. This will prevent the burn error.
- When to add greens: Add baby spinach at the end after turning off the instant pot. The residual heat will help wilt the leaves perfectly and prevent the spinach from turning mushy.
- Spicy soup: Increase the amount of red pepper flakes for a spicy quinoa soup.
- Extra veggie option: You can add more veggies to this soup like bell pepper, mushrooms, corn, and green beans. Adjust the amount of veggie stock in case you decide to add more veggies.
Method
Find the detailed step by step recipe along with measurements + Video at the bottom of the post.
Step #1 Sauté veggies & deglaze pot
- Sauté veggies: Set instant pot on sauté mode set on high heat setting. Add oil and sauté the aromatics, carrot and celery for 1 minute. Cancel the sauté mode.
- Deglaze pot: Add the sliced zucchini, quinoa, white beans, tomatoes, tomato paste and all the seasonings. Add veggie stock and balsamic vinegar and deglaze the pot very well by scraping the sides and the bottom of the pot with the help of a spatula. This will help loosen any stuck food particles and prevent the burn error.
Step #2 Pressure cook soup
- Pressure cook: Secure the lid of the instant pot and pressure cook the soup on high pressure for 4 minutes followed by quick pressure release. Cancel the pressure cook mode.
- Serve soup: Add baby spinach. Give everything a good mix with the spatula. Allow the quinoa soup to rest for 5 mins before serving. The residual heat will help wilt the leaves perfectly. Serve the quinoa veggies soup warm or hot with your choice of garnishes like fresh herbs and red pepper flakes.
Serving Ideas
We love to serve this vegetable quinoa soup with the following sides:
- Crusty whole wheat Sourdough Bread.
- Stir fried veggies.
- A light salad like roasted vegetable salad.
- Moroccan couscous.
- Brown rice with vegetables.
- Air fried veggies like acorn squash, brussel sprouts and sweet potatoes, smashed brussel sprouts, roasted beets, carrots and potatoes, broccoli and cauliflower, mushrooms and onion, baby gold potatoes, roasted radishes.
Leftovers & storage
Fridge: You can store this simple quinoa vegetable soup in air tight containers for up to 4 days in the fridge. Follow the reheating directions shared below.
Freezer: Freeze the soup in heavy duty freezer safe bags or containers and store for up to 2 months. Thaw the quinoa soup overnight in the fridge and than follow the reheating directions shared below.
How to reheat
Stove-top: You can reheat this quinoa soup recipe on the stovetop over medium high heat in a heavy bottomed saucepan. You can add extra veggie broth or water to thin the soup as desired.
Microwave oven: Reheat the soup in the microwave oven on high until hot or warm.
FAQs
You can make quinoa taste nice by cooking it with veggie broth, lots of colorful veggies, seasoning it well, adding nuts and raisins for texture and lots of fresh herbs for depth of flavor. A splash of lemon juice also brightens up the flavor of quinoa.
Nothing happens if you don't rinse quinoa. Nowadays, the quinoa available in the market are already rinsed, so you don't have to worry about the saponin found in the outer shell of the quinoa that contributes to the bitter taste.
For a main course, a standard serving size is usually around ½ to ¾ cup of cooked quinoa per person. So, if you're serving quinoa as the main dish, 1 cup of uncooked quinoa would likely be enough for 2 people.
No, you do not need to soak quinoa before cooking.
It takes about 4 minutes to cook quinoa in the instant pot and about 12 to 15 minutes to cook it on the stove top over medium high heat.
MORE PLANT-BASED SOUPS MADE IN THE INSTANT POT
- Instant pot lentil soup with potatoes.
- Bean and potato soup instant pot.
- Potato leek soup instant pot dairy free.
- Instant pot vegetable soup with potatoes.
- Instant pot Portuguese bean soup.
- Dry Lima Beans Instant pot.
- Instant pot red lentil soup.
- Old fashioned vegetable barley soup.
- Sweet Potato and kale soup with coconut milk.
- Vegan mushroom barley soup.
RECOMMENDED
I LOVE HEARING FROM YOU! If you try this Instant pot quinoa soup recipe, please let me know! Leave a comment and rate it below. I would love to hear how it turned out for you, or any changes you make.
Instant Pot Quinoa Soup
Equipment
- 1 6 quart instant pot
Recipe Video
Ingredients
- 1 cup Qunioa
- 15 ounce cannellini beans - **drained well.
- 1 cup carrots - **diced into ¼ inch thick half moons.
- ½ cup celery - **roughly chopped.
- 1.5 cups zucchini - **sliced into ¼ inch thick half moons.
- 5 cups spinach - **baby spinach.
- 1 cup onion - **yellow onion roughly chopped.
- 1 tablespoon garlic - **minced.
- 15 ounce Diced Tomatoes - **we used diced tomatoes along with the juices. Pick your favorite diced tomatoes can.
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 2 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- 1 tablespoon olive oil - **extra light or light olive oil.
Seaonings
- 1 teaspoon paprika - **smoked paprika or sweet paprika.
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- ½ teaspoon thyme
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes - **skip if heat intolerant.
- salt to taste - **use according to your taste.
Liquid
- 7 cups vegetable stock
Instructions
Saute veggies
- Set the instant pot on saute mode on high heat settings and add oil. Once the oil becomes moderately hot gently release the onion, carrots, celery, and garlic and saute for 30 secs. Add salt and saute for a couple of minutes or until the onion becomes soft. Cancel the saute mode.
Deglaze pot
- Add the sliced zucchini, drained cannellini beans from the can, quinoa, and diced tomatoes along with the juices, tomato paste, and all the seasonings mentioned above in the "seasonings" section of the ingredients list.
- Add vegetable stock and deglaze the pot very well by scraping the sides and the bottom of the pot with the help of a spatula. This will help loosen any stuck food particles and help prevent the burn error. Add the balsamic vinegar and give everything a quick stir.
Pressure cook
- Secure the lid of the instant pot and seal the valve. Pressure cook on high for 2 minutes. Once the cooking cycle is over the instant pot will begin to beep. Immediately perform a quick pressure release by manually moving the valve from the sealing to the venting position. Once the floating metal pin on top of the lid drops open the lid carefully. Cancel the pressure cook mode.
Serve quinoa soup
- Add the baby spinach and give the soup a good stir. Allow the soup to rest for 5 minutes before serving. The residual heat will help wilt the greens perfectly. Scroll up for recipe subs, step-by-step photos, tips and tricks, FAQs and much more!
Notes
- Skip red pepper flakes: If you are making this soup for kids do skip adding the red pepper flakes.
- Oil-free healthy soup: You can make this quinoa soup completely oil-free. Dump all the ingredients in the pot and pressure cook. The rest of the recipe remains the same.
- Diced canned tomatoes: You can add your favorite diced tomatoes like fire-roasted tomatoes, tomatoes with green chilis, tomatoes with jalapeno, or tomatoes with basil.
- Extra veggie option: You can add more veggies to this soup like bell pepper, mushrooms, corn, and green beans. Adjust the amount of veggie stock in case you decide to add more veggies.
Kathy says
I made this soup for my 80 year old mother you recently changed her diet to plant based whole food. She was so happy and loved this soup. She asked me to make again. Thanks so much for the wonderful recipe guys 🙂 This soup is amazing.
mtr_admin says
Hey Kathy we are so glad your mom loved this soup so much 🙂 Thanks a lot for the amazing feedback, totally appreciate it.
Jenny says
The best quinoa soup I ever made in my instant pot. This soup is full of flavors, and the leftovers taste great as well. I did not change a thing in the recipe. The result was outstanding.
mtr_admin says
Thanks much Jenny for the amazing feedback 🙂 We are so glad you enjoyed this recipe so much.