This Instant Pot black bean soup with bacon, green chile, and spices cooks in about an hour – no need to soak or simmer the beans for hours! It’s so easy you can make it on a weeknight.
Instant Pot Black Bean Soup
When I got my Instant Pot earlier this year one of the must-tries I scribbled on my list was black bean soup. Although there’s already a black bean soup buried in this site’s archives it’s one made with canned beans – a fact that carries no shame because canned beans are economical and convenient and a go-to ingredient in my kitchen. Pre-Instant Pot days, I turned to canned beans because dried ones frustrated me with their long cook time and high-maintenance attitude. But back in the early days of this year’s summer when my electric pressure cooker arrived, I sensed a new dawn for my bean soup-making ways. With an Instant Pot, there’s no soaking and no long-term bean simmering session required on the stove.
But at the time I was scribbling my must-make list, I felt like I was living inside an Instant Pot given that the heat index was around 100 degrees for an ungodly amount of days in a row. To publish something as cozy and hearty as a bowl of black bean soup at the height of summer seemed silly. No one on this side of the globe is interested in coziness mid-July. And so it was just over a week ago, on a cool and breezy September day, that I locked the ingredients for a smoky black bean soup inside my electric pressure cooker and closed the steam vent. A soup of tender and creamy black beans swimming in a rich and hearty broth emerged about an hour later and now I may never go back to canned beans for soup-making again.
Some Ingredients You’ll Need
- As it is for all Instant Pot recipes it’s important to note the model I use (Instant Pot Duo Mini 3 Qt) and that this is a small-batch recipe that makes enough smoky black bean for two people. I can’t say with any degree of confidence how this recipe might work in a different kind of pressure cooker or how it might turn out if you double or triple the recipe, so proceed with caution if you are planning to try either of those things.
- Before the beans, we start with some bacon. The Instant Pot has a sautee feature which is mostly useless for browning things but does an excellent job cooking bacon. In this case, cooking the bacon just long enough to render its fat before sauteeing the chopped red onion and garlic in it.
- To go with the smoky bacon I added chili powder, cumin, and dried oregano before adding a few tablespoons of canned diced green chile. Depending on your heat tolerance you can go with either mild or hot chiles. I like a warm chile flavor so I opted for mild.
- Add some chicken stock and dried black beans and all that’s left to do is secure the lid, close the vent, and set the timer for one hour. It takes the pot a bit of time to get to pressure during which you can busy yourself with other tasks like bill-paying or vacuuming or Netflicking and before you know it the timer will ding, you’ll open the steam vent and marvel at how quickly those beans went from rock hard to tender and soft. Ladle the soup into bowls, garnish each with avocado, cilantro, and crumbled feta cheese and dig in.
More Hearty Soup Recipes
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Instant Pot Black Bean Soup
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Prep Time: 10 minutes - Cook Time: 60 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
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Yield: 2 servings -
Category: Dinner -
Method: Instant Pot -
Cuisine: American
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This hearty black bean soup with bacon, green chile, and spices cooks in about an hour in the Instant Pot. No need to soak or simmer the beans for hours – it’s so easy you can make it on a weeknight.
Ingredients
- 2 slices thick-cut bacon, cut into 1/4” slices
- 1/2 cup chopped red onion
- 3 large cloves of garlic, chopped
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 teaspoons chili powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/4 cup canned diced mild green chile
- 2 1/4 cups chicken broth, divided
- 3/4 cup dry black beans
- Juice of 1/2 a lime
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
Optional Garnishes
- Crumbled feta cheese
- Sliced avocado
- Chopped fresh cilantro
- Lime wedges
Instructions
- Using the saute setting on the Instant Pot, cook the bacon for a couple of minutes or until it starts to render it’s fat. Add the onion and garlic and cook them with the bacon until they soften, about three to four minutes. Add the salt, pepper, chili powder, cumin, and oregano and stir to combine. Cook it all together just until the spices are fragrant.
- Add the green chili and 1/4 cup of the chicken broth. As the broth simmers scrape up the browned bits off the bottom of the pot. Add the black beans and the remaining 2 cups of chicken broth and stir. Turn off the saute setting. Place the lid on the Instant Pot and lock it into place. Close the steam vent. Choose the high-pressure setting and set the timer for 1 hour. The pot will take some time to get to pressure and once it does the timer will start.
- Once an hour has passed and the timer goes off, cover the steam valve with a heavy towel (to protect your hand) and open it to vent the steam (quick release method). Once all of the steam has vented, open the pot and stir the soup. Add the lime juice and chopped cilantro and stir to combine. Serve with the garnishes, if using.
Nutrition
- Calories: 430
- Sugar: 6.2g
- Fat: 13.5g
- Carbohydrates: 57.8g
- Fiber: 14.6g
- Protein: 22.5g
Keywords: instant pot black bean soup, easy black bean soup
This was delicious! My husband doesn’t usually make a fuss about something being good, but he did with this one. I’m new to the Instant Pot, so I was a little thrown when I didn’t see when to add the additional 2 cups of broth (thankfully I have a little common sense). LOL
★★★★
I’m so glad you liked it! Thank you for pointing out the extra broth – I’ve updated the recipe.