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Here’s the best easy loaded Instant Pot potato soup! It’s insanely creamy, a healthy spin with no heavy cream and no blender needed.
Ready for the coziest of Instant Pot recipes? Meet this Instant Pot potato soup. It’s velvety and creamy, with light chunks of potatoes for texture. It’s savory with a hint of Old Bay seasoning. There’s no heavy cream, and loaded with all the fixings, it’s a deliciously tasty healthy dinner idea. And did we mention you don’t even need a blender? Alex and I knew when we made our new favorite loaded potato soup that we’d need a version for the pressure cooker too! And are we glad we did! Here’s how to make it.
How to make Instant Pot potato soup: basic steps!
This Instant Pot potato soup is easy to make: it’s the perfect creamy, cozy pressure cooker soup to load up with toppings! Truly, I can’t think of anything more comforting. The nice thing about this one is that it’s a healthy spin too! It uses milk and a moderate amount of butter, instead of loads of cream like many recipes. In just a 10 minute cook time, the potatoes mash down into a beautiful puree using a potato masher. Here are the basic steps for how to make this recipe.
Step 1: Use Saute mode to cook shallots in butter.
First, you’ll use Saute mode on your Instant Pot to cook the shallots in butter. Tip: We usually set our Saute mode for 10 minutes: if you don’t set a time, it shuts off on its own. Cook those shallots until they’re tender but not yet browned. Your kitchen will smell amazing at this point!
What are shallots? If you haven’t cooked with them before, they’re like a small onion. Their flavor is more delicate and mild, and they’re perfect for potato soup.
Step 2: Pressure cook on High with potatoes and broth for 10 minutes.
To those fragrant shallots and butter, add the peeled diced potatoes and vegetable broth. Then pressure cooker on High for 10 minutes. If you’re a seasoned pressure cooker pro, you’ll know it takes a few minutes to “preheat” the Instant Pot to come up to pressure. Here it takes about 10 minutes, making this step take about 20 minutes total.
Step 3: Quick release, add seasonings and flour, and stir! Then add milk & Saute for 2 minutes.
Do a quick release to release the steam from the Instant Pot. Here’s the fun part: whisk together flour with a little bit of broth. This will simulate a “roux” to thicken the soup. Add the flour, salt and Old Bay seasoning. Then here’s the important part! Stir stir stir until it’s creamy! The potatoes will be so tender that they will fall apart.
Once they’re the texture of chunky mashed potatoes, stir in the milk. The very last step only takes a few minutes! Just turn back on Saute mode and heat the soup until it’s warmed through. And that’s it: the most delicious, creamy Instant Pot potato soup you’ll find!
Ways to top Instant Pot potato soup
The best part about Instant Pot potato soup? The toppings! Once you’ve made a batch, load with toppings and enjoy. Here are the toppings we used:
- Shredded cheese: This one’s a must! We used sharp cheddar, but smoked gouda or Mexican blend would also work.
- Sliced green onion or chives: Onion is required on a great loaded potato soup.
- Sour cream or Greek yogurt: consider Greek yogurt for a healthy spin: it adds a nice tang
- Bacon: Alex and I eat lots of vegetarian and vegan meals, so for this one we served it with shiitake mushroom bacon! It added just the right smoky flavor. You could use real bacon of course, or other vegan bacon options like coconut bacon or crumbles of tempeh bacon.
What kind of Instant Pot do you use?
The brand we use is an Instant Pot 6 Qt Pressure Cooker, so this recipe is customized to that pressure cooker! There are lots of other great brands, but we love this one and find it’s been very reliable. We also have 3 Instant Pot sealing rings: they can pick up the flavors of food, so we like having multiple ones and washing them as necessary.
Looking for more? Try more of our Best Instant Pot Recipes!
How to make it a meal
So, what to serve with this Instant Pot potato soup to make it into a meal? Here are a few great sides to serve with potato soup we’d suggest:
- Easy Arugula Salad Here’s the simplest salad you’ll ever make! This easy arugula salad is fool-proof: you don’t even need to make dressing. Make it while the soup cooks.
- The BEST Kale Salad This is the BEST way to eat kale! A dressing of lemon, garlic and Parmesan cheese transforms kale into tangy goodness in this Tuscan kale salad.
- Homemade Cornbread or Classic Cornbread Muffins This tender, moist homemade cornbread is easy to make and tastes like box mix, but 100 times tastier. We also have a vegan version.
This Instant Pot potato soup recipe is…
Vegetarian. For gluten-free, use 1-for-1 gluten free flour. For vegan, go to Creamy Vegan Potato Soup.
Best Instant Pot Potato Soup (No Cream!)
Here’s the best easy loaded Instant Pot potato soup! It’s insanely creamy, a healthy spin with no heavy cream and no blender needed. (For vegan, go to Vegan Potato Soup.)
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 4 to 5 1x
- Category: Main Dish
- Method: Pressure Cooker
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 2 large shallots
- 4 medium russet potatoes
- 4 tablespoons salted butter
- 2 ½ cups vegetable broth, divided
- 6 tablespoons all purpose flour (or 1-for-1 gluten free flour)
- 1 ¼ teaspoons kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons Old Bay seasoning
- 1 garlic clove
- Fresh ground black pepper
- 2 cups 2% milk
- Topping ideas: Greek yogurt, shredded cheese, thinly sliced chives or green onions, bacon, shiitake bacon or coconut bacon, hot sauce
Instructions
- Mince the shallots. Peel and dice the potatoes.
- Turn on Saute mode and add the butter to the Instant Pot. When it is melted, add the shallot and saute 4 to 5 minutes, until softened but before it browns.
- Add 2 cups vegetable broth and the potatoes. Lock the lid of the Instant Pot. Place the pressure release handle (vent) in the “Sealing” position.
- Cook on High Pressure for 10 minutes: Press the Pressure Cook button, making sure the “High Pressure” setting is selected, and set the time. Note that it takes about 10 minutes for the pot to “preheat” and come up to pressure before it starts cooking. (During cooking, avoid touching the metal part of the lid.)
- Quick release: Vent the remaining steam from the Instant Pot by moving the pressure release handle to “Venting”, covering your hand with a towel or hot pad. Never put your hands or face near the vent when releasing steam. Open the pressure cooker lid.
- Meanwhile, add the flour to a medium bowl. Whisk in the remaining ½ cup vegetable broth until the flour is combined. Turn off the Instant Pot.
- Add the flour mixture to cooked potatoes and add the salt, Old Bay seasoning, grated garlic, and fresh ground pepper. Stir until potatoes are mashed and creamy, like the consistency of chunky mashed potatoes. Then stir in the milk until smooth.
- Turn on Saute mode again and cook for 2 minutes until soup is warmed through. Turn off the Instant Pot and serve immediately, garnished with the desired toppings.
We make this at least once a week during the fall and winter. Even my picky toddler loves it. And it’s perfect for leftovers the next day. Thanks for this easy and healthy dinner recipe!
This recipe is outstanding! I have made it time and time again, and it always turns out perfectly. Tonight I substituted water in place of the veggie broth, and onions in place of shallots, because I didn’t have them on hand, and it was still scrumptious. Highly recommend this delectable recipe. Yum!
So glad you enjoy it! Thanks for making :)
I was hesitant about the old bay seasoning adding too much of a ‘seafood’ flavor, but it really didnt! I also added an extra tablespoon of butter with the milk. It was great!
If I double or triple the recipe… should I adjust the cook time? Thank you!
You would need a very large pressure cooker to do so! You’d probably want to decrease the cook time by about 2 minutes since it will take longer for it to come up to pressure.
First time try and had to stop myself from getting a third helping!
So glad you enjoyed it!
I doubled the recipe and made it with vegan butter/plant milk. It’s awesome! Topping it with soy curl bacon bits, vivo life cheddar cheese, cashew cream and scallions. Serving it alongside a loaf of 18 hr bread. Thanks for the great recipe!
To make this vegan, couldn’t you just swap dairy butter for non-dairy butter and the milk for oat milk? I checked out the vegan potato soup recipe but it’s not an instant pot recipe so I’d prefer to use this one.
Yes that should work!