Instant Pot Hearty Vegetable and Brown Rice Soup

ByMarie | Yay! for Food
68 Comments
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Is it snowing in your part of the world? Here in Alberta, it looks like we're going to have a white Christmas.

With the cold winter weather (arghhh winter is almost officially here!), I crave cozy, warm comfort food.

Comfort food like this delicious Instant Pot Hearty Vegetable and Brown Rice Soup!

How do you make this vegetable and brown rice soup?

Six glass bowls with green beans, carrots, potatoes, celery, onions, garlic, ginger, brown rice, herbs, and tomato paste.

Here are all the ingredients except the broth. Prepare the ingredients before starting the Instant Pot. Complete ingredient amounts and full instructions listed below in the recipe card.

Raw vegetables, dry brown rice, and vegetable broth in the Instant Pot.

Sauté the garlic, ginger, and onions before adding in the remaining ingredients.

Give the mix a good stir before cooking at high pressure for 20 minutes, allow 10 minutes of natural release before applying a quick release.

A big scoop of vegetable and brown rice soup in a metal ladle. The soup in the Instant Pot in the background.

Open the Instant Pot and give it another stir. You'll find scrumptious, tender vegetables and brown rice soup ready to eat.

Add more broth (or water) to thin out the thick soup if you desire and taste for additional salt and pepper if needed.

Serve it with a thick piece of bread or alongside a light salad.

An overhead shot of a bowl of vegetable and brown rice soup with green onion garnish.

This Instant Pot vegetable soup is:

Flavourful:

  • Colourful vegetables that are savoury (e.g. potatoes), sweet (from the carrots), and have a mild bite (e.g. onions, ginger, and garlic).
  • Tender, filling brown rice that more than doubles in size once it is cooked. It has a nuttier flavour than white rice.
  • A generous amount of dried herbs which includes parsley, basil, rosemary, and thyme that are earthy and fragrant is added to give the soup another layer of flavour.
  • The tomato paste adds a lovely rich savoury tomato flavour to the soup.

Healthy:

  • It's nutritious and full of vitamins and minerals from the tasty fresh vegetables. For example, carrots are an excellent source of beta carotene (it converts to vitamin A), which assists in boosting immunity, eye health, and cell growth.
  • The brown rice is full of fiber and high in nutrients such as manganese and selenium.
  • It's a fantastic way to get back on track for eating a little bit healthier, especially if you're like me, have been eating too many sweets especially all the holiday desserts and snack mix.

The texture is thick and hearty:

  • It's thickened using the natural starch from the rice. The rice absorbs all the delicious flavours as it cooks in the Instant Pot.
An overhead shot of a bowl of hearty vegetable and brown rice soup, which includes carrots, potatoes, and green beans.

Quick and easy:

  • Everything is made in one (Instant) pot so clean-up is easy. The soup only requires 20 minutes of high pressure cooking for the the brown rice to be perfectly cooked and the vegetables to get nice and tender.

Makes a good amount of soup:

  • This recipe results in about 10 cups of soup full of vegetables and brown rice.
  • That's enough to feed the whole family or have great leftovers to eat during the week. No need to worry about what's for lunch (or dinner).

Vegan and gluten-free:

  • A lovely meal to serve those with these dietary restrictions.

So comforting! Enjoy this filling soup recipe!

I hope you try this Instant Pot vegetable soup recipe! If you do, please leave me a rating and comment down below or tag me on any of my social media. I'm @yay_for_food on Instagram. I'll love a picture!

Instant Pot Hearty Vegetable and Brown Rice Soup

Instant Pot Hearty Vegetable and Brown Rice Soup

Yield: 8
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Additional Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes

Delicious, comforting, and filling. This soup is full of healthy fresh vegetables and fiber-rich brown rice! It’s vegan and gluten-free too.

4.5 Stars (60 Reviews)

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 large onion (10 oz), chopped
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 2-inch fresh ginger, minced
  • 1 lb. (3 cups) red (or white) potatoes, chopped
  • 3 medium carrots (12 oz), chopped
  • 10 oz (2½ cups) French green beans, trimmed and cut into 2-inch pieces
  • 4 celery sticks (7 oz), chopped
  • 1 cup dry brown rice
  • 2 tablespoon tomato paste
  • 1 tablespoon dried parsley
  • 1 tablespoon dried basil
  • 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
  • 1 teaspoon dried thyme
  • 4 cups vegetable broth
  • 2 cups water
  • Salt and pepper, to taste
  • Optional: green onions, chopped

Instructions

  1. Set the Instant Pot to "sauté". Pour a tablespoon of olive oil into the pot and add the onion, stirring until soft and brown, about 4-5 minutes. Add in the garlic and ginger and stir for another minute.
  2. Press “cancel” to turn off the Instant Pot. Add the remaining ingredients into the pot, starting with the vegetables, then rice, tomato paste, herbs, and top with the vegetable broth and water.
  3. Season generously with salt and pepper. Give the ingredients a good stir to distribute the ingredients throughout the pot *(see first note).
  4. Seal the Instant Pot and cook at high pressure (“manual”/"pressure cook" function) for 20 minutes. After the stew is ready, allow natural pressure release for 10 minutes before a quick pressure release to completely depressurize (until floating valve drops).
  5. Open the Instant Pot and give the soup another stir. If necessary, add more broth (or water) to thin out the thick soup if you desire. Heat the soup by pressing the “sauté" function and letting the soup come up to a low boil so that it is heated through.
  6. Taste for additional salt and pepper and top with chopped green onions if you like. Best served hot.

Notes

  • *The liquid should just cover the top of the ingredients. Add more broth or water if necessary.
  • Nutritional calories represent one serving (excluding optional toppings) with eight servings total.

    • Nutrition Information:
    Yield: 8 Serving Size: 1
    Amount Per Serving: Calories: 76Total Fat: 2gSaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 405mgCarbohydrates: 13gFiber: 2gSugar: 3gProtein: 2g
    © Marie | Yay! For Food
    Cuisine: American / Category: Instant Pot

    More Vegetarian

    68 Comments

    2. Okay I've seen this instant pot everywhere... honest opinion, do you love it? This recipe sure does look delicious!

      Reply

    3. Just look at all that gorgeous colour and texture! I love them, but a lot of people find soup boring and bland. I bet they wouldn't think that about this one!!

      Reply

    5. I still do not own an instant pot but I've been on the edge because of all the lovely instant pot recipes I keep seeing. This looks so good. Instant pot would work like magic on brown rice for sure.

      Reply

    6. Ginger must add a really cool flavor to this dish. Will definitely be trying, but going to add some browned stew beef.

      Reply

    7. This looks so warm and comforting! I don't add rice to my soups often enough - looks like a great way to bulk it up. Yum!

      Reply

    8. What am I missing? Carrots onion and celery cook in a couple of minutes at pressure on my IP. 20 minutes and they're nearly baby food. I've resorted to cooking brown rice (and dry beans) a bit before adding the rest of the ingredients but it partially defeats the purpose of the IP.

      Reply

      1. Thanks for your feedback, Matt. I've found that when cooking vegetables alone in the Instant Pot, you definitely don't need a lot of pressure time; however, when I cook vegetables with other ingredients as part of a soup, it's been my experience that they tend to be soft, but hold up well through the total cook time.

        Reply

    9. I really want to make this for dinner tonight but I'm out of brown rice! Is it possible to substitute for basmati or regular white rice and if so would the cooking time need to be adjusted?

      Reply

      1. Hi Leah! I have only used brown rice in this recipe so I don't know for certain. However, going by the IP manual, brown rice takes the longest of the ingredients in this recipe to cook so if I were using a white rice, I would decrease the time to 8-10 minutes just to make sure that the potatoes are done. If you do try this, please let me know how it goes and I can update the instructions.

        Reply

    10. Although Spring arrives this week, it is still cold. This is the perfect comfort food in a bowl to keep us warm and full. I don't have an Instant Pot, but I know I can adapt this for my pressure cooker no problem.

      Reply

      1. It's still chilly where I live as well so we're still enjoying cozy soups like this one! Thanks for stopping by, Gloria!

        Reply

    11. I love my Instant Pot! And now I have another reason to love it. Your soup looks so delicious and hearty that I can just imagine what it tastes like! Can't wait to try your recipe!

      Reply

    12. This soup looks hearty, thick and filling! It's great that it's so healthy too and it's also making me really want to go and buy an Instant Pot.

      Reply

    13. This sounds so good! I love recipes like this and making them in a pressure cooker is such a great idea! It cuts way down on the cooking time.

      Reply

    14. This soup looks so colourful!!!
      And I love that it uses the IP, I am building up my IP pinterest board so I have plenty of ways to use my kitchen helper 😉

      (p.s I love the knitted pot holder)

      Reply

      1. Thank you Claire! I love using the Instant Pot. It's so versatile.
        Also, I love using my knitted pot holders; they are so cute and were handmade by my sister-in-law so they are extra special! 🙂

        Reply

    15. I just love rice soup. This looks like such a healthy option that comes together quickly. I'm bookmarking it to make later. 🙂

      Reply

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