Instant Pot Minestrone Soup – Olive Garden Copycat Recipe

This easy Instant Pot Minestrone soup is perfect comfort food! It is a quick, easy and nutritious one pot meal the entire family will love. Full of flavor and packed with veggies in a rich broth it is a healthy 30 minute meal.

Nothing beats a steaming, warm bowl of soup when it is cold and blustery. This vegan soup is a simple dump and go recipe, making it perfect for new Instant Pot owner or anyone who needs to get dinner on the table fast. And since it is full of tasty veggies you can feel good about what you are serving!

This filling soup is like the popular Olive Garden minestrone soup, only made at home, full of fresh flavor and ready in about 30 minutes! Sounds too good to be true but keep reading for all the details on this copycat Olive Garden recipe. And if you love healthy soup check my Instant Pot Vegetable Soup!

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Key Ingredients

For exact amounts needed see the recipe card below

Vegetables – I used the classic minestrone vegetables of onions, carrots, celery, bell pepper and zucchini in this recipe. But you can vary these and use whatever you have in the refrigerator. Include a variety of colors in your veggies so the soup looks amazing.

Tomato juice and diced tomatoes – These give the soup a deep tomato flavor.

Vegetable broth – If you use low sodium vegetable broth you might need to add salt to the final dish.

Pasta – Pick a small pasta, like shells, elbows or ditalini. There is just a little bit of pasta in the soup. If you add too much it will overwhelm the veggies.

Seasoning – I used parsley, oregano and a bay leaf. You could also substitute Italian seasoning. Salt and pepper will vary depending on your taste. I recommend tasting it after you make it and adding salt then, since vegetable broths vary quit a bit in salt content.

How to Make Instant Pot Minestrone Soup

1. Prep

Dicing the onions, carrots, celery, yellow pepper and zucchini is the biggest part of the prep for this soup. If you want to save time you can buy pre-diced mirepoix (onions, carrots and celery) in the produce section of most stores.

Another way to cut the preparation time is to dice the vegetables during a meal prep session after shopping. Then when it is time you to make dinner you can just dump the pre-cut veggies in the Instant Pot.

2. Pressure Cook

Put the diced onions, carrots, celery, zucchini, and bell pepper in the Instant Pot. Add the vegetable broth, tomato juice, diced tomatoes, pasta and seasoning. Don’t add fresh herbs or any optional ingredients like beans or spinach. Stir to mix everything and put the lid on the Instant Pot.

You might be wondering, what about sautéing the onions? Most recipes would have you put the Instant Pot on Sauté and cook the veggies oil for 3-5 minutes. I’ve tried it both ways and I don’t think it makes much flavor difference in this recipe. So to simplify things I just dump all the ingredients in and let it cook!

Set the Instant Pot for Manual, high pressure, for 10 minutes. It will take 10-15 minutes for it to reach pressure. Once it is done cooking do a quick release and take the lid off. Taste it to check the seasoning and add some salt and pepper if needed.

3. Optional Add-ins

If you want to add beans or greens like spinach or kale to the Instant Pot minestrone soup do it after pressure cooking. Just stir the extra ingredients in, put the lid back on, and let it sit for 3-5 minutes. The residual heat will warm up the beans and wilt the spinach.

Find More Instant Pot Recipes!

How to Serve

Serve a big bowl of this tasty soup garnished with fresh parsley or basil. If you don’t care about keeping the soup vegan then sprinkle on some Parmesan cheese for a classic Italian flavor.

This copycat Olive Garden minestrone tastes amazing paired with crusty Italian bread. My kids love it when I make air fryer garlic bread to go with it too!

How to Store

This soup makes great leftovers and gives you a hearty and healthy lunch! It will keep in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. To reheat it warm it up on the stove on low heat or microwave it for a few minutes. The pasta will absorb some of the broth in the refrigerator, so it won’t be as brothy when reheated.

How to Freeze

Instant Pot minestrone soup freezes best if you leave the pasta out. The pasta tends to get mushy when frozen and thawed. So to freeze the soup skip the pasta and add fresh cooked pasta to the soup when you serve it.

If it is frozen thaw it overnight in the refrigerator, then reheat it on low heat on the stove. This will give the vegetables the best texture.

Instant Pot Minestrone Soup Variations

Minestrone is a classic Italian recipe that can be changed up in lots of ways, depending on the cooks preference! Here are some of my ideas for making this recipe your own unique soup.

• Use rice, quinoa or another grain in the soup instead of pasta.
• Add different vegetables such as broccoli, squash or asparagus.
• Try different types of beans such as navy beans, cannellini beans, kidney beans or black beans.

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