Name: Instant Pot Lentil Soup
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 40 min
Ingredients: 100 g sliced bacon; 1 chopped onion; 2 cloves crushed garlic; 1 cup dried green lentils; 1 cup dried red lentils; 1 cup dried cannellini beans; 1 cup diced celery; 1 cup diced carrots; 1 Tbsp fresh thyme; 1/2 tsp-Tbsp chili powder (use according to your spice tolerance); 4 cups chicken broth; sea salt; pepper; parsley

A hearty instant pot lentil soup with bacon and veggies. A pressure cooker lentil soup chock full of nutrition and tons of flavor. A must-have in your recipe book!

I’m all about the soups since it got colder and I love them all, this lentil soup though is special! It is incredibly flavorful! It gives you kisses from the inside of your belly!

A hug disguised in soup when you’re cold to the bones. Ha! Enough of the poetry, let’s get right into it, shall we?

Which Lentils To Use For Instant Pot Lentil Soup

Well, that all depends on what kind of Lentil Soup you want to make. A creamy one or a chunky one. For a creamy lentil soup, you’re going to want to use only red lentils.

For a chunky one like this soup, a mix is the best way to go. My favorite lentils are green lentils BY FAR! I mix them with red for this recipe and on top add some cannellini beans. The red lentils and the cannellini beans make the soup creamy and the green lentils keep their shape a bit better for that chunky texture.

Should I Soak Lentils if Cooked in the Instant Pot?

Short answer: Yes!

Long answer: it’s an everlasting debate and everybody has a different opinion * sigh *. The people in the “no-soak” camp say it’s not “necessary”. The beans cook through without soaking and taste exactly the same and you save one step in the process of preparing them.

It’s not about the cooking time OR the taste though in my opinion. It’s all about digestion. Unsoaked legumes (ANY legumes) are way harder to digest and the consequences are “windy”, lol.

I prefer to soak all my legumes because then I can enjoy eating laaarge amounts of lentil soup without feeling all bloated. Lentils are 100 times easier to digest when soaked for 12-18 hours.

Just make sure you rinse them well under running water once finished soaking.

Same applies to my super simple Lentils and Rice Recipe.

Can Instant Pot Lentil Soup be frozen?

YES!!! It’s perrrfect for freezing! You can make a double batch and freeze in either individual portions, or if you want it for one of those busy weekdays as family dinner I’ve got a trick for you.

Add the soup to a large freezer bag and into the instant pot’s stainless steel pot and pop in the freezer.

Once frozen (a couple hours), remove the freezer bag from the pot and put the pot back in your instant pot and the freezer bag back into the freezer.

You just froze your soup in the perfect share to add back in the instant pot on the day you want to make it.

Isn’t that brilliant?

You just run a little warm water over the bag so you can dump the round block of soup into your instant pot, set it to 5 minutes high pressure and it’s done!