Instant Pot Christmas Soup–a red and green tomato and cheese soup that is like velveeta-rotel dip in a soup form. A dump and go soup to feed a crowd!
Note: the SLOW COOKER instructions are listed in the recipe card below
Instant Pot Christmas Soup
Merry Christmas! It’s a busy time of year and a soup like this can help you get dinner on the table as well as all the presents wrapped. It’s a fast and easy, dump and press start type of recipe. With the red tomatoes, green chilies, and tri-color pasta, Christmas Soup sure looks the part! Colorful and festive.
I have had my parents in town the last few days and when I served them up this soup they loved it, as well as the rest of my family. In fact, I was shocked at how good it was for such a simple list of ingredients and preparation method. My mom was trying to figure out what was in the soup and when I told her my little secret that it was Velveeta she couldn’t believe it. I don’t often use Velveeta but for this soup it is definitely worth it! The Rotel tomatoes and the pinch of cayenne give this soup a tiny bit of kick.
Make sure to follow the directions of heating up the pot with the saute setting as you prepare your ingredients. This will heat up the broth and the pot can come to pressure much quicker. The pasta cooks so quickly that you don’t want it to turn to mush while the pot is coming to pressure.
Related: Velveeta Rotel Dip
More Instant Pot Christmas Recipes…
Instant Pot Christmas Morning Breakfast Casserole has eggs, bacon, sausage and tots. It’s a delicious breakfast casserole that’s perfect for Christmas morning or Sunday brunch.
Christmas Tree Bread is festive and delicious! Don’t forget the dipping sauce!
Instant Pot Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate is a twist on a classic. It has notes of salted caramel and it’s just a dream! Perfect for holiday merriment!
Did you know you can filter the recipes on my website to search by meat type, IP or Crockpot, low carb, gluten free, etc. Use the filter to find exactly what you are looking for.
What Pressure Cooker Did You Use?
To make Christmas Soup I used 6 quart Instant Pot Duo 60 7 in 1*.
Want More Tried And True Instant Pot Recipes?
- Sign up to receive daily Instant Pot recipes (it’s FREE)
- Join the 365 Days of Instant Pot Recipes Facebook group
- Subscribe to my YouTube channel
- Buy the 365 Days of Pressure Cooking Cookbook
Instant Pot Christmas Soup
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minute pressure cook time
- Total Time: 41 minute
- Yield: 8–10 servings 1x
Description
A red and green tomato and cheese soup that is like velveeta-rotel dip in a soup form. A dump and go soup to feed a crowd!
Ingredients
- 7 cups chicken or vegetable broth
- 1 (14.5 oz) can petite diced tomatoes with juice
- 1 (14.5 oz) can Italian stewed tomatoes with juice
- 1 (10 oz) can Rotel Original tomatoes with green chilies with the juice
- 1 (12 oz) bag of tri color spiral shaped pasta
- 16 ounce Velveeta cheese
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1 Tbsp fresh basil
- Pinch of cayenne pepper
Instructions
Instant Pot Instructions:
- Turn Instant Pot to saute setting and pour in the broth. Let the broth warm up as you get out the other ingredients.
- Add in the diced tomatoes, Italian tomatoes and Rotel tomatoes. Dump in the pasta and the Velveeta.
- Cancel off the saute setting. Cover Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the soup button to 0 minutes (yes zero).
- When time is up let pot sit for 5 minutes and then move valve back and forth from sealing to venting until no foam spurts out. Then move valve to venting and let all pressure release completely. Remove the lid.
- Stir milk, basil and cayenne into soup.
- Ladle into bowls and serve.
Crockpot Instructions:
- Add broth, all the tomatoes, velveeta and pasta into slow cooker.
- Cover and cook on high for 2-3 hours, or until pasta is cooked through. (All slow cookers cook differently)
- Stir in the milk, basil and cayenne.
- Ladle into bowls and serve.
Notes
This soup is best served immediately as the pasta will soak up all the broth and it will be more like a pasta dish than a soup.
- Category: Soup
- Method: Instant Pot
*Karen Petersen is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
HI Karen,
I made this Christmas Eve for an appetizer soup. It didn’t turn out correctly. The Velveeta was chunky and looked almost like it was curdled…. quite unappetizing. What did I do wrong? I followed the instructions to the letter.
Thank you!
KJ
Darn! That is so weird. I am not sure why it did that. Next time you could add in the velveeta cut in cubes after the rest has pressure cooked. That way it won’t curdle.
Another winner, Karen. I served it for Christmas lunch today and it was a hit. I followed the recipe exactly except I didn’t have the of diced tomatoes I thought was in my pantry so I used a second can of Rotel. My grocery didn’t have anything called Italian stewed tomatoes but they did have stewed tomatoes with basil, garlic and oregano. This is a easy and delicious recipe that certainly looks Christmasy.
★★★★★
I’m so glad you enjoyed it and I bet your tomatoes with the basil in them were exactly the same thing as my “italian” tomatoes.
Karen
I had this at a friend’s house for lunch. I am not usually a fan of veleta cheese, but this was very tasty. Jim Bob
★★★★
I’m not either but I loved this!
Where is the green tomato?
Daniel, this is Kim. I’m confused. What green tomato are you talking about?
Daniel, I think Karen means it to read as red & green soup, with tomato & cheese etc.
The green is not the tomato: it comes from chilies in the Rotel and one of the pasta colours.
Hi Daniel it’s a red and green soup with tomatoes and cheese! Sorry for the confusion!
Can’t wait to try this, it looks & sounds so yummy. Would it hurt anything if I browned a lb of sausage first & then went from there???? Also, my hubby doesn’t like basil, so how much Italian seasoning should I use instead?
Thanks much.
Will be back with stars.
Sorry. I didn’t think this one posted, so I did it again. My bad.
Oh yes that would be soooo tasty! Do that!
How much dried Italian seasoning should I use instead of the fresh basil?
I’d start with 1 teaspoon and if you need more you can always add in more later.
Looks like perfectly balanced flavors. I’ll make it in the crock pot for a family get-together but serve the pasta pre-cooked in a separate dish. And I’ll also serve some pre-cooked gluten free pasta (or cooked cauli rice if my Celiac is dieting). That way everybody can select their pasta and enjoy the meal. Thank you!
★★★★★
Great idea!