Instant Pot Tomato Soup

When I learned about the Instant Pot, I knew I needed one immediately. And since I got it three months ago, I have never regretted the splurge. I love it and use it many times a week. Money well spent!

I have the DUO 60. It makes yogourt (delicious, easy yogourt), cooks rice, meat, soups and stews, steams, and even makes cheesecake! Amazing. Pressure cooking is new to me, and I've been having a lot of fun experimenting with new recipes.

Tonight, the kids wanted tomato soup, and we had no cans in the cupboard. Instant Pot to the rescue! I whipped up a batch of homemade in very little time. So here it is - vegan (leaving off the sour cream and using veggie broth), easy, fast and adaptable, as well as kid-approved (my three and six year olds gave it the thumbs up!)

INSTANT POT TOMATO SOUP

makes approximately 1 litre

¼ cup cashews
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
2 cloves garlic roughly chopped
½ Tbsp basil 
1 Tbsp olive oil

1 28 oz can no salt diced tomatoes
1 ½ cups boiling water + 1 veggie bouillon cube  (or 1.5 cups veggie/chicken broth)
1 ½ Tbsp oats
1 Tbsp nutritional yeast
 
Press Sauté on the Instant Pot with the liner in. Wait until it says Hot, then add the olive oil, and sauté the first six ingredients until onions are soft and translucent.

Add remaining ingredients. Set your Instant Pot to Manual, turn the dial on the lid to Sealing and adjust time to 5 minutes on high. Do a Natural Pressure Release of 10 minutes (ie, leave the pot alone after it beeps until it reads L00:10, or set a timer) then release the pressure by opening the lid dial to Venting.

Open carefully and use an immersion blender until you have a smooth consistency.

ADAPT IT:

I served with a dollop of sour cream and a dash of freshly ground black pepper. Fresh basil would be a nice addition. Or Parmesan. Or grated cheddar. Or cooked, shredded chicken.

Use the veggies you have. No carrot? No worries. Add chopped red pepper, spinach, kale, zucchini, whatevs! Public Service Announcement: if you hate carrots like I do, don't worry - you can't taste the carrot!

Cashews, nutritional yeast and oats are totally optional! They add depth of flavour, and the oats and cashews add vegan creaminess, but if you are fresh out of cashews, think it's weird to add oats to soup, and don't have nooch in the pantry, that's perfectly okay!

Increase the recipe at will, but remember not to fill the inner pot over 2/3 full for pressure cooking (no matter what the Max line says!). If increasing ingredients, there is no need to increase cook time.