Instant Pot Green and White Soup—a nourishing and tasty soup with white and green beans, barley, lemon, spinach and chunks of chicken. An easy dump and go Instant Pot recipe!

Instant Pot Green and White Soup
I asked my friends on the 365 days of Instant Pot recipes Facebook group what they would name this soup. I got lots of great responses! Some of my favorites were:
- Zesty Chicken and Barley soup
- We All Wanna Make soup
- Lemon Chicken Barley Soup
- Barley and Beans Chicken Soup
- Not Yo Gnocchi and Chicken Soup
- Sunshine soup
- Kitchen sink soup
- WW zero points on blue
Cherie came up with the idea of green and white soup. I liked that one a lot because of the white beans (and white chicken) and the green beans (and green spinach). But no matter what you name this soup it tastes DELICIOUS!
The broth is so tasty with the slight taste of fresh lemon. And the chicken is ultra tender and moist (even when using chicken breasts!). It’s just full of goodness in every bite. This would be a great soup to make for someone with the flu or a cold because it just feels so nourishing when you’re eating it.
More Instant Pot Healthy Soup Recipes…
Instant Pot 10 Vegetable Soup–low cal but not low flavor!
Instant Pot Lemon Lentil Chicken Soup–I love the lemon taste in this one!
Instant Pot Chicken and Rice Soup–Like chicken noodle but with rice instead!
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Instant Pot Chicken Soup
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 22 minutes (plus 5 minute NPR)
- Total Time: 55 minutes
- Yield: 6-8 1x
Description
A nourishing and tasty soup with white and green beans, barley, lemon, spinach and chunks of chicken. An easy dump and go Instant Pot recipe!
Ingredients
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs (frozen is okay)
- 1 (15.5 oz) can great northern (or other white beans) beans, rinsed and drained
- 3/4 cup pearl barley, uncooked (to make gluten free use brown rice)
- 1 Tbsp minced garlic
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- 1/4 tsp dried oregano
- 2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp lemon zest
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1 (14.5 oz) can green beans, drained
- 3 cups coarsely chopped spinach
Instructions
- Add broth chicken, beans, barley, garlic, basil, thyme, oregano, lemon juice, lemon zest, salt and pepper into the Instant Pot.
- Cover the pot and secure the lid. Make sure the valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 22 minutes. When the time is up let the pot sit for 5-10 minutes and then move the valve to venting. Remove the lid.
- Cut the chicken into pieces or shred. Stir in the green beans and the spinach.
- Ladle into bowls and serve.
Notes
I used my 6 quart Instant Pot Duo 60 7 in 1*. For the 8 quart follow the same recipe as above. For the 3 quart pot, halve all the ingredients and keep same cooking time.
To make this in the slow cooker: Add broth chicken, beans, barley, garlic, basil, thyme, oregano, lemon juice, lemon zest, salt and pepper into the slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Remove the lid and shred or cut the chicken into pieces. Add in the spinach and the green beans. Ladle into bowls and serve.
- 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.
Looks good. Can you use dried beans and of so what would change as far as cooking time?
Thank you
You could precook the dried beans and add them in as stated in this recipe. Otherwise everything else will be overcooked by the time the beans get soft. This recipe states to cook the dried white beans for 30 minutes: https://www.camelliabrand.com/recipes/instant-pot-white-beans/
Thank you so much. Thanks for the great recipes
It was good, but needs a bit of something else, namely color. I added more salt and pepper, and grated some fresh parmesan cheese on top. I may try adding some red bell pepper or perhaps a chopped carrot to brighten it. Overall, it had good flavor.
★★★★
I like the idea of carrots or peppers!
New to Instant Pot cooking! Does cooking time for this recipe differ if using frozen vs thawed chicken?
For this recipe it’ll be the same, regardless. We are using the longer cooking time for the barley to cook through so that’s what I’m basing the time off of.
Made this tonight. I noticed under “suggested names” someone post Zero Points on WW Blue. The barley actually comes out to 28 points on Blue for the entire pot, divided by servings. I’m hoping someone can verify this. I was excited about a Zero Point soup – especially one that was so tasty… but ended up with 7 Blue Points, if I figured this correctly.
Thanks for assistance.
Karen – thanks for recipe!
★★★★★
Hi Dawn, darn! you could leave out the barley! and if beans are free add another can of beans.
If I went with the brown rice option, would that change the cooking time?
nope keep the same time!
Pot barley, which has been pearled for just a short amount of time, still has most of the barley bran intact, and is therefore much more nutritious than pearl barley. And the recipe time can be kept the same.
★★★★★
Cool! Thanks for sharing!
22 minutes is almost enough to cook dried beans, isn’t it?
yes probably if they were soaked you could add them in with a little extra broth. The 22 minutes was for the barley…I didn’t think about the beans. Give it a try and let me know!
Greek chicken surprise soup
Yum! I’d eat that.
Could you reduce the carb count by leaving out the barley?
Yes you could do that. I might reduce amount of liquid a bit if you do that.
Would this soup be a good one to use as a dump and freeze recipe?? I am working on figuring out a few recipes and this sounds like a good one to try.
Yes I think would be a perfect one for that!
Can you use fresh green beans?
Yes but I’d steam them separately because they would be turned to mush if pressure cooked for 22 minutes.
Hi Karen,
Can I shorten up the cooking time if I use Costco roasted chicken at the end? We seldom use raw chicken for anything anymore since Costco is so reasonable and we like it for many other things as well.
Thanks
Hi Doug, the cooking time is for the barley so keep the same time but rotisserie chicken sounds great!
The picture looks like there are noodles in the soup. Is that just pieces of shredded chicken or have you added noodles?
No noodles. I just added a little tiny bit of parmesan cheese on top of mine 🙂