Instant Pot Hamburger Soup
Published 1/7/2020
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This Instant Pot Hamburger Soup recipe is a healthy weeknight meal that everyone will love! It is packed with protein, vegetables, and is ready in less than an hour.
If you’re new to the Instant Pot, this Instant Pot soup recipe is a great starter recipe! See 42 more healthy Instant Pot Recipes HERE.
Instant Pot Soup RULES
Hamburger Soup, a Midwestern staple. Think minestrone meets central Wisconsin. All the vegetables, meat, and noodles you ould ever want! Some people call hamburger soup, ground beef vegetable soup and that is exactly what it is.
I love that I can literally throw everything into the Instant Pot and BAM. The cook time for this recipe is only 3 minutes, but you will have to wait for around 20 for the pressure to build-up.
The win is that you can set it, forget it, and you just can’t beat 3 minutes of cook time. We do have a couple of tips and tricks for perfecting this hamburger soup recipe below—-> HAVE FUN.
Step 1: Cook Hamburger + Onion
Get this hamburger soup party started by turning on your Instant Pot’s saute function. Brown hamburger for about a minute and then add the onion.
Cook for an additional 2 minutes. Make sure that you are stirring the onions and hamburger frequently. This step really creates an amazing base flavor for this hamburger soup.
Step 2: Add Everything Else!
After sauting the hamburger and onion for a bit, now it’s time to add the rest of the ingredients! This is where you can pick and choose and really make this Instant Pot soup recipe your very own. Here’s what you need:
- garlic
- sweet potato (don’t love sweet taters? Swap them for more normal potatoes!)
- Yukon potato
- diced tomatoes
- tomato sauce
- frozen veggies (grab a bag from the grocery store!)
- spices
- beef broth
- noodles (any kind should work just fine)
Once you have everything in the Instant Pot, give it a stir and close the lid. Turn the valve to seal >> set your IP to manual >> high pressure >> and set the timer to 3 minutes.
Hamburger Soup Quick Tips:
Here are a few quick tips to make your soup-prepping easy peasy.
Noodles: If you are planning to eat this soup throughout the week or freezing for later, consider cooking the noodles separately as sometimes noodles can become mushy if they soak in broth for multiple days.
Add more broth: As soup sits in the fridge, it will thicken (this is inevitable). No fear, you can simply add more broth before serving your leftovers and you’ll be just fine!
Oregano: Ground oregano is my new favorite spice. Dried oregano is all fine and good, but when ground the flavor it gives broths and sauces is unreal.
Step 3: Quick Release
Once the timer goes off on your Instant pot, you know it’s time to quick-release the pressure. 3 minutes and one, people!
Serve soup immediately. We topped our hamburger soup with some fresh parsley but to each their own. Top with your favorite soup toppings or with a warm piece of bread and enjoy!
Freezing Directions
Our number one tip for freezing this hamburger soup recipe is NOT cooking the noodles in the Instant Pot with the rest of the soup. They will get soggy, I repeat they will get soggy if you try and freeze + thaw.
So, make this Instant Pot hamburger soup as is, but do not put the noodles in. Let it cool completely and then transfer it into a freezer-safe Tupperware or gallon-size bag. Remove as much air as possible and then seal. Freeze for up to 3 months.
After thawing, cook up some noodles on your stovetop and mix them in right before serving.
Find a full tutorial on how to freeze soup HERE.
More Instant Pot Soup Recipes
Instant Pot Hamburger Soup
Ingredients
- 1 lb. ground beef
- 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 medium sweet potato, cubed
- 1 Yukon gold potato, cubed
- 3 bay leaves
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- 2 teaspoons ground oregano
- 1 15-oz. can diced tomatoes
- 1 15-oz. can tomato sauce
- 6 cups of beef broth*
- 2 cups frozen veggies, we used a carrot, peas, and corn mix
- 2 cups macaroni elbows
Instructions
- Turn on the Instant Pot’s saute feature and add ground beef to the pot. Saute for 1 minute and then add onion. Cook for an additional 2 minutes using a spatula to break up the ground beef.
- Next, add the rest of the ingredients, stir well, and place cover on the Instant Pot.
- Turn pressure valve to seal, and turn to manual >> high pressure and set the timer to 3 minutes.* It will take around 20 minutes for the Instant Pot to build up pressure to start counting down from 3 minutes.
- When the timer goes off, quick release the pressure and remove the top.
- Serve immediately.*
Tips & Notes
- Pressure build: Though the cook time for this recipe is 3 minutes, it does take the Instant Pot 20-25 minutes to build pressure. Plan accordingly!
- Broth: Option to add more broth once the soup is done cooking. The soup will thicken once you put it in the fridge, so you will likely need to add water or broth to thin it out for re-heating.
- Noodles: If you are meal prepping this meal, cook noodles separately by cooking them prior to making the soup. Place noodles and enough water to cover noodles in the Instant Pot and cook on high pressure for 3 minutes. Remove noodles from Instant Pot, strain, rinse with cold water, and set aside. Add noodles to the soup before eating.
- This recipe was slightly updated on 1/7/2020, reducing the amount of Italian seasoning.
Watch It
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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My husband and I both think this needs to be added to our rotation of soups. I would suggest a few tweaks though at least for our liking. Before making this I read comments about the noodles and I agreed so I boiled the 2 cups on the stove while the instant pot did its thing. In the recipe I would suggest draining the meat/onion mixture really well before loading the remaining ingredients. I didn’t do a well enough job and mine came out super greasy. Our conclusion is that it needs less Italian seasoning and more frozen veggies. Luckily I am able to add more broth and veggies before packing up the leftovers. As I mentioned before, overall all this was a hit and will add to our rotation of soups..
Made this soup and it was awesome!!! I cooked soup in instant pot for 30 minutes- then added a cup of the noodles and cooked another 2 minutes. Came out perfect! Husband said he could eat it every day! I find the instant pot makes the best kinds of soup! Key for me is cooking time for soup generally is 30 minutes. I give this recipe a 4 star.
I made this in a 3 quart mini instant pot. Didnt have all the seasonings so I used basil, oregano, and cumin. First i filled up the pot with all the veggies and then added chicken broth till right below the line. Also salted the ground beef during the saute process. Added some salt after i mixed everything including the seasonings. Was delicious. Had with toasted garlic bread. Yum.
I used different veggies. 1 sweet potato, 1 zucchini, carrots, and corn. Thanks for sharing! Saved me when i was in a time crunch.
Glad you made the 3 qt work!
Tasty soup (stew) but with some flaws. I used a 6-quart Instant Pot and all the ingredients came up almost to the max line (I did add extra diced tomatoes as I could only find a big can). I seasoned the ground beef with salt and pepper as I noted there wasn’t any added anywhere else. I would say that 3 minutes on high pressure still made the noodles too soft for my liking (I like my pasta al dente).After quick releasing the pressure, it was still soupy at this point, but after letting it cool for a few hours, the macaroni absorbed almost all of the rest of the broth and became mushy soft. Not ideal for making ahead of time – I know I could cook the macaroni separately but I really wanted an all-in-one-pot meal.
this is the worst recipe for Hamburger soup I have ever made. The pasta soaked up all the broth and it was a gloppy mess. What a waste of ingredients and time.
Is this recipe for a 6 qt or 8 qt instant pot? After putting the ingredients in it was too full for the inner pot and wouldn’t pressurize so it was basically more of a SLOW cooker recipe for me
We used a 6 qt Instant Pot for this recipe. Many people have made this and have not had issues!
When I made this the ingredients went way over the max fill line so it wouldn’t pressurize. Also the noodles sucked all the liquid out and therefore it was not soup. Just wonder what I did wrong.
Hello! What size Instant Pot did you use? It shouldn’t be too much liquid as we’ve made this many times and so have other people. Also, you note in the notes that you can add more broth once the noodles cook!
I don’t have an insta pot but I assume there would be no problem adapting this to cooking it on the stove? Anything special you would suggest?
Nothing special! I would just suggest cooking your noodles separately and adding when ready to serve!
I really enjoyed this soup. I followed the recipe but added 2 tsp of better than bullion beef. Hubby ate 3 bowls so I know it was a hit. Thank you for the recipe. I will be making this a lot.
My potatoes were cubed very small 1/2ish inch, and they were raw after the 3 minutes. so I had to finish it on top of stove as I didn’t want to wait for the intant pot to pressurize again. Also, in my opinion the 3 tablespoons Italian seasoning and 2 teaspoons ground oregano are way too much for the amount of soup. I will try again with less seasoning and longer cooktime.
I love macaroni, but 2 cups is way too much. I used 1 cup.