Instant Pot Potato Soup
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This delicious Instant Pot Potato Soup is decadent, easy, and freezer-friendly. It can be thrown together in your Instant Pot right before dinnertime. The best part is you don’t have to peel any potatoes!
Why You’ll Love this Recipe
- It’s super simple. The Instant Pot makes it SO easy. Simply add all the ingredients (minus the sour cream) in, press a button, and it’s done.
- It’s freezer-friendly. We are big fans of freezer meals, because they’re time-saving, money-saving, and sanity-saving for busy parents.
- Once the dicing and sautéing is done, its hands off. No babysitting a soup on the stove.
- With substitutions, it can be made gluten-free and dairy-free.
If you simple Instant Pot recipes, you’ll enjoy our Instant Pot Chicken and Dumplings, Instant Pot Chili, or Instant Pot Tortilla Soup!
Ingredients for Instant Pot Potato Soup
Here’s what you need to make this potato soup recipe:
Ingredient Notes:
- Yukon gold potatoes – You can substitute peeled russet potatoes, if needed.
- Salted butter – If you use unsalted, be sure to add a bit of salt to the soup!
- Olive oil – Avocado oil is a great substitution
- Flour – see gluten-free options in Notes
- Chicken broth – If you use low-sodium broth, you’ll have to add a bit more salt to the soup.
- Sour cream – Plain greek yogurt is a good substitution.
- Topping ideas: bacon bits, sliced green onion or chives, shredded cheddar cheese
Why Yukon Potatoes?
Because we use Yukon potatoes, there is no need to peel them! The skin is thin and practically unnoticeable once fully cooked. This proves to be a huge time saver.
How to Make Potato Soup in the Instant Pot
Dice the Potatoes and Onion
It’s important to dice your potatoes fairly small (1/2 inch) so the peel disappears into the soup while cooking.
Sauté the Onion
Set Instant Pot to the highest Saute setting and heat butter and avocado (or olive) oil until melted and sizzling.
Add diced onion, stirring until soft and translucent, about 3 minutes. Season lightly with salt and pepper while onion cooks. Stir in the garlic during the last 30 seconds of cook time.
Make the Roux
Add flour, stirring until thickened to create a roux (a mixture of flour and fat that’s used as a thickener), about 1 minute or so. Turn off the Saute function.
Pressure Cook the Potato Soup
Stir in chicken broth, salt, and pepper. Add the diced potatoes to the Instant Pot. Lock and seal the lid, and set to cook on high pressure for 7 minutes. (Note: It will take about 20 minutes to come to pressure.)
When cook time is up, quick release the pressure.
Mash the Potatoes
Use a potato masher to mash ingredients to desired consistency.
(It can quickly turn to baby food consistency, so I recommend going easy at first!)
Stir in Sour Cream & Serve
Stir in sour cream until completely melted. Taste and add salt and pepper, to your preference.
Top each bowl with your favorite toppings, like bacon bits, shredded cheddar cheese, and green onion or chives.
Instant Pot Cooking Times Chart
After testing hundreds of Instant Pot recipes, we have honed in on the best timing and methods for cooking different types of meals in the Instant Pot.
How to Freeze Potato Soup
We love freezer friendly soups! Here is how to freeze and thaw Potato Soup.
Freeze For Later: After fully cooking the soup, let it cool. Store in an air tight freezer container and freeze.
Prepare From Frozen: To reheat, thaw the soup using one of these methods and then warm over low heat on the stove or in the microwave.
FAQs
Absolutely. This recipes converts well to the crock pot.
Instead of sautéing in the Instant Pot, sauté on the stovetop.
Cook the soup on low for 6-8 hours.
Another option is making our amazing Slow Cooker Cheddar and Bacon Soup.
Yes, you can use russet potatoes. However, you will need to peel them before dicing.
I like extra shredded cheese, bacon bits, and sliced green onions.
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Instant Pot Potato Soup
This Instant Pot Potato Soup is decadent, creamy, and will come together in your Instant Pot right before dinner.
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons salted butter (sub: avocado or olive oil)
- 1 tablespoon avocado (or olive) oil
- 1/2 large yellow onion, diced (a generous 1 cup)
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- 2 cloves garlic, minced (or 1 –1 1/2 teaspoons pre-minced garlic)
- 3 tablespoons flour (see gluten-free options in Notes)
- 1 quart (32 ounces) chicken broth (sub: turkey stock)
- 3 – 3 1/2 pounds Yukon gold potatoes, diced into 1/2 inch pieces (about 9-10 cups; no need to peel; sub: peeled russet potatoes)
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- Topping ideas: bacon bits, sliced green onion or chives, shredded cheddar cheese, etc.
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Instructions
Make It Now:
(Note: Prep the potatoes, onion, and garlic according to ingredient list above and have them waiting on you for this recipe.)
- Set Instant Pot to the highest Saute setting and heat butter and olive oil until melted and sizzling. Add diced onion, stirring until soft and translucent, about 3 minutes. Season lightly with salt and pepper while onion cooks. Stir in the garlic during the last 30 seconds of cook time.
- Add flour, stirring until thickened to create a roux, about 1 minute or so. Turn off the Saute function.
- Stir in chicken broth, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Add the diced potatoes to the Instant Pot. Lock and seal the lid, and set to cook on high pressure for 7 minutes. (Note: It will take about 20 minutes to come to pressure.) When cook time is up, quick release the pressure.
- Use potato masher to mash ingredients to desired consistency. (It can quickly turn to baby food consistency, so I recommend going easy at first!)
- Stir in sour cream until completely melted. Taste and add more salt and pepper, to your preference.
- Top each bowl with your favorite toppings, like bacon bits, shredded cheddar cheese, and green onion or chives.
Freeze For Later: After fully cooking the soup, let it cool. Store in an air tight freezer container and freeze.
Prepare From Frozen: To reheat, thaw the soup using one of these methods and then warm over low heat on the stove or in the microwave.
Notes/Tips
Gluten-Free Version: Substitute 1:1 gluten-free flour for the regular flour. Or, skip Step 3 and add a cornstarch slurry at the end of Step 4 instead. To do that, stir together 2 T water and 2 T cornstarch in a small bowl. After releasing the pressure at end of Step 4, stir in the cornstarch slurry while it’s still piping hot. It will thicken over the next few minutes.
Dairy-Free Version: Substitute plant-based butter or olive oil for the butter. For the sour cream, either omit it or try one of these options instead.
Want to Add More Veggies? Up the nutritional value of this soup by using the whole onion (instead of half) and adding some chopped or riced cauliflower (fresh or frozen).
How to Make on Stovetop: Use a large stockpot instead of Instant Pot to saute the veggies and flour in butter/oil over medium-high heat, according to Steps 2-3. Add broth and potatoes, bring to a boil, and reduce to simmer. Cook for about 12-15 minutes or until potatoes are tender, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and follow Steps 5-7.
Recipe Credit: A huge thanks to Alyssa Nitz, contributing author, for posting this original delicious recipe many years ago. After retesting on 9/20/22, we have tweaked it slightly and added substitutions and tips. Our changes include using unpeeled Yukon gold potatoes (instead of peeling Idaho potatoes), salting and peppering the onions, and using a quick release of pressure (instead of natural release). Thanks for the great recipe, Alyssa!!
Can this be puréed with a stick blender rather than a potato masher? I don’t have one.
You may not even need to. I find that if I just stir it and sort of press on it, it gets plenty mashed. It’s really easy to over do it, so I think a stick blender might be too much.
This soup was delicious, and a tasty side to serve along fish, especially during Lent. I made it without the bacon, and left out the sour cream and was still delicious. I topped with chives, and dairy-free cheese. I will make it again!
Hi Rebecca. So glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for taking the time to leave a review and for letting others how your substitutions turned out.
Polly & Rachel, I love your recipes. When I saw you had an Instant Pot potato soup recipe, I was excited to try it! This recipe did not disappoint. I am gluten intolerant, and chose to make this GF by using the corn-starch slurry. I also added a cup of nutritional yeast. Thank you for making yummy recipes!
Hi Holly! Thanks so much for leaving a review and letting others know of the changes you made.
This recipe came together so fast and is not lacking any taste. I’m new to IP cooking and this was the first time I didn’t have any problems with my seal. We left the bacon out for lent. Can’t wait to find more vegetarian meals/fish to help me with getting through lent.
To clarify: in the post it says to cook on high pressure for 14 minutes, but in the recipe it says high pressure for 7 minutes. Which is correct? Thank you! This sounds delicious—I can’t wait to make it!
Whoops- forgot to update the text within the post. Thanks for pointing it out! Got it fixed. Enjoy!
Thank you!