Instant Pot (Ground Turkey) Minestrone Soup–a colorful, healthy and brightly flavored soup that is full of vegetables, basil, beans, pasta, and ground turkey. Pressure cook this soup quickly and enjoy a warm bowl of deliciousness for dinner.
Get the Slow Cooker version of the recipe here
Instant Pot (Ground Turkey) Minestrone Soup
I have never had strong feelings about minestrone soup. Take it or leave it is what I used to think. That was until today. Today I made a big batch of this Instant Pot (ground turkey) minestrone soup and I almost lost my mind. It is so so so good! Just what I needed in my mouth and my tum.
Most minestrone recipes that I read have no meat in them. I knew that would not fly with my husband, a meat lover. But I also wanted to use something lean for our New Year’s health goals. So I chose to go with a lean ground turkey… something that would give the soup some flavor and heartiness. You could totally leave out the meat altogether if you wish. You could also go with ground beef or ground chicken. It’s up to you (and your spouse’s preference). On a side note, I believe that chicken sausage in this soup would be wonderful.
I liked the idea of adding a mix of canned vegetables (tomatoes and beans) and also using fresh vegetables (green beans, carrots, onions, celery). The green beans were cooked perfectly and I loved their fresh flavor. I felt that this was a better choice than canned green beans which can be metallic tasting and limp.
I used ditalini pasta because I like the way they look in the soup (it reminds me of pasta fagioli at olive garden). But you could use rotini, orzo, bowties, macaroni or whatever pasta your family likes. The thing about pasta soups is that the pasta sucks up all the liquid. If you have leftovers, the soup will resemble more of a goulash that a brothy soup. If you’re serving this to a large crowd and there will be not leftovers I recommend just adding the pasta straight into the pot. If you’re going to have leftovers I suggest cooking the pasta on the stove and keeping it separate and then stirring a bit of pasta into each individual soup bowl. If you want you can leave the pasta out…it is not necessary.
I knew that I wanted to add in fresh basil after the soup was cooked. But I couldn’t find any at the grocery store that I went to. So I opted for the squeezy tube of basil that is found in the produce section. On the back of the tube it said to add 1 tablespoon per 1 tablespoon of fresh basil. So I squeezed in 2 tablespoons and it brightened the soup and gave it a pop of flavor. But not too overbearing. Just perfect.
Finally I topped my soup with some grated parmesan. I buy the pre-grated parmesan in a big bag at Costco and throw it in the freezer at my house. You can also buy fresh parmesan and grate it at your house or use the stuff in the green can. It’s all good.
More healthy soup recipes…
Instant Pot or Slow Cooker Pasta Fagioli
Instant Pot 15 Bean Soup
Instant Pot or Slow Cooker Skinny Broccoli Cheddar Soup
Instant Pot or Slow Cooker Turkey Lentil Chili
What Pressure Cooker Did You Use?
For this Instant Pot (Ground Turkey) Minestrone Soup recipe I used my 6 quart Instant Pot Duo 60 7 in 1*. I also own the 6 quart Instant Pot IP-LUX60 V3 Programmable Electric Pressure Cooker.* They are both great pressure cookers! The first one I mentioned has a yogurt making function but other than that they are fairly similar. The price difference between the two is about $20.
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Instant Pot (Ground Turkey) Minestrone Soup
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 2 minutes (plus time to come to pressure and time to release pressure)
- Total Time: 32 minutes
- Yield: 12 servings 1x
Description
A colorful, healthy and brightly flavored soup that is full of vegetables, basil, beans, pasta, and ground turkey. This soup is made quickly in your Instant Pot (electric pressure cooker).
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground turkey
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 1 yellow or white onion, diced
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 ribs of celery, sliced into quarter inch pieces
- 1 large carrot, grated or sliced
- 1/2 pound fresh green beans, trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1 (28 oz) can crushed tomatoes
- 1 (14 oz) can petite diced tomatoes
- 6 cups of water and 2 Tbsp Better Than Bouillon Chicken Base (OR 6 cups chicken broth)
- 1 (15 oz) can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 (15 oz) can black beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 cup ditalini pasta (or other pasta of your choice)
- 2 Tbsp chopped fresh basil or 2 Tbsp of squeeze tube basil
- Parmesan, for serving
Instructions
- Turn your Instant Pot to the saute setting on the middle heat option. Add in the turkey. Break up the ground turkey with a wooden spoon. Add in the salt, basil and oregano. Add in the onions and garlic. Brown the ground turkey for about 5 minutes.
- Add in the celery, carrots, beans, crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, chicken broth, kidney beans and black beans.
- Cover and lock the lid. Make sure valve is set to “sealing.” Pressure cook using the manual button for 2 minutes (high pressure). The pot will take a while to come to pressure because it is so full. Once the timer beeps, indicating the 2 minutes is up let the pot sit undisturbed for 10 minutes. Then carefully move the valve to “venting.” It will take about 5 minutes to vent all the extra steam and pressure out. Once you can, remove the lid.
- If you will be eating all the soup in one day you can add the dry pasta into the instant pot and cook on the saute setting until it is al dente. This will probably take about 5-10 minutes. If you will not be eating the entire batch of soup and will have leftovers I would suggest cooking the pasta until al dente on the stove top according to package directions. Then add a little pasta to each individual’s bowl. This way the pasta won’t get totally bloated and suck up all the broth. If you want to add the pasta in with everything else at the beginning you’ll need a heartier pasta like whole wheat rotini. The ditalini won’t hold up when cooked under pressure.
- Stir in the fresh basil. Ladle into bowls and top each serving with a tablespoon of parmesan cheese.
Notes
This makes a lot of soup! About 16 cups. You can halve this recipe if you’d like. The only issue with that is having half a can of tomatoes, half a can of beans, etc. Plan to have leftovers or serve this soup to a large crowd.
Get the Slow Cooker version of the recipe here
I used my 6 quart Instant Pot Duo 60 7 in 1*.
To make gluten free: Substitute noodles for GF noodles and decrease the cook time by 1 minute.
- Category: Soup
- Method: Instant Pot
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 1/3 cup
- Calories: 270
- Sugar: 5 grams
- Sodium: 918 mg
- Fat: 8 grams
- Carbohydrates: 19 grams
- Protein: 18 grams
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*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! We love this soup 🙂 Okay to cook it early and let sit on warm to eat later (without noodles yet)?
Yes!!!
I added 1/2 teaspoon balsamic vinegar, tasted delicious.
good idea! I love balsamic vinegar so much
Recipe looks delicious Plan on making. Can I freeze it pasta and all?
I think the pasta would get mushy and bloated if frozen. I would leave out the pasta and add it in later if you freeze it.
I followed the recipe almost exactly (didn’t have fresh or tube of basil. Wow! Thank you for sharing this. So delicious and exactly what I wanted for dinner.
★★★★★
Glad you liked it Melissa!
If I cut out the meat is the cook time the same? Thanks!
yes it is
Do you think I would need to change the time if I want to sub ground beef for the turkey? (Were cattle ranchers, so we always have soooo much ground beef on hand!
No same time should be perfect!
Delicious. I’ve made it 3 times already. Grandkids and husband loved it!
★★★★★
I love this one too!
Very good. Some changes I made include adding a cheese rind to the pot at the beginning. Also used the celery leaves with the celery, used pinto beans in place of kidney beans (didn’t have any kidney beans). At the end of cooking, added chopped kale along with the pasta. Added few squirts of Worcestershire sauce and some hot pepper flakes along with some fresh ground black pepper. Excellent flavor and it sure makes a lot. Plan to share a bowl with my neighbor tomorrow. Thank you for your excellent recipes. I look forward to an email every day from you.
This is definitely a winner! Very, very good and so easy to make. I added a splash of sriracha. Also the tip about cooking the pasta separately is great.
★★★★★
With the 2of us we love to have a bowl of soup instead of fixing a whole meal, even though the IPot is easily used for a meal, just defrost the leftover soup add the leftover pasta (I keep small packages of frozen pasta) while soup heats up cut up some crusty bread to help sop up the soup.
This soup is so delicious! I’m not even going to bother with the pasta. And it’s very flexible based on what you have on hand. My kids are going to love this for dinner tomorrow. Thanks for the great recipe!
You’re welcome, Laurel! Enjoy 🙂
Just to be sure….you release pressure, than turn it to saute to add the pasta?
yeppers!
Great, Great basic recipe, what I found was that it up being a bit bland.
Added in 2 or 3 good pinches of red chili pepper flakes [ the kind you find in every kitchen. ] As well a few good dashes of Worcestershire Sauce.
Now YUMMY if you like a bit of ZIP in life.
GOOD IDEA!
Please list nutrition info for all recipes. Then I feel safe eating within my calorie and nutrition limits.
★★★★
I added the nutrition info for this recipe. It’s very time consuming so I will do my best!