Instant Pot Taco Soup is one of the easiest dinners of all time. Made with mostly pantry ingredients, it is full of flavor, delicious and nutritious.
Pressure Cooker Taco Soup
Often when I don’t know what’s for lunch or dinner, Instant Pot taco soup it is. Just because all ingredients except meat come from your pantry.
And even then if I forget to thaw meat, I defrost within 15 minutes using this method. Kids love taco soup. Their friends love it. It just never fails.
A co-worker shared this taco soup with me 10 years ago. And she got it from a cafe “downstairs”. Now I adapted it to pressure cooker which wasn’t hard at all.
Ingredients for Instant Pot Taco Soup
- Ground meat: I use ground turkey. Another lean choice is ground chicken. Yes, you can use ground beef and soup will taste more like chili. Yum!
- For beans I like to use a combo of black beans and any larger light coloured beans like pinto and kidney beans.
- Tomato sauce is plain and low sodium.
- Corn I use is frozen but can be fresh or canned (drain).
- Broth can be vegetable, chicken or beef. I use low sodium bouillon cubes with water. Easy!
- Seasonings: Taco seasoning, garlic and onion powder. That’s it!
How to Make Taco Soup in Instant Pot
- Prep: Open cans and rinse/drain beans. I usually cook my own from dried.
- Saute meat: All you have to do is saute ground meat until small pieces. I would drain most fat from beef.
- Add all ingredients to the pot finishing with tomatoes to prevent burn.
- How long to cook? 10 minutes is actual cooking time with about 15 minutes pressure build up time. If you have time on hand, cook taco soup in Instant Pot for 20 minutes. No harm. Taco soup will be more flavorful. But so you know 10 minutes is plenty since we use all pre-cooked ingredients.
- I would wait 5 minutes before releasing pressure to avoid lots of splatters on the counters. Or you can walk away for hours and pressure will come down on its own.
More Recipe Tips
- Forgot to thaw meat: “Thaw” meat in Instant Pot using this method. It will come out half cooked. Then just break it into small pieces.
- Crockpot: Yes, you can make this soup in a slow cooker. Saute meat, then combine everything in crockpot and cook on Low for 8 hours or on High for 4 hours.
- To thicken soup: Add 1/4 cup cold water whisked with 2 tbsp cornstarch and saute for a few minutes.
- Fresh garlic and onion can be used. No need to saute.
- A can of diced green chiles will make soup taste more “Mexican” but not spicy.
- For spicy soup add chopped jalapeno with seeds to cooked soup.
Our Favorite Taco Soup Toppings
For taco soup toppings are the same as for chili. Here are the ones we like:
- Tortilla chips
- Greek yogurt, regular plain yogurt or sour cream
- Shredded cheese like Tex Mex, Colby Jack etc.
- Chopped green onion, cilantro and red onion
- Diced avocado and lime juice
How to Store, Freeze and Reheat Taco Soup
Storing: Taco soup lasts in the fridge for up to 5 days because there are no tender veggies or pasta to get soggy. That’s why I love to make a batch for lunches.
Freezing leftovers: It freezes amazingly! Cook, cool and place in glass airtight container leaving some room for expansion. Freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw on a counter for 4-5 hours or in the fridge overnight.
Freezer meal: Saute turkey until small pieces. Add all ingredients to gallon size bag (I love these re-usable ones) with tomato products going first and no broth. Freeze for up to 3 months. Then cook from frozen with broth for 20-30 mins on High pressure with QPR or NPR.
Reheating: To reheat, simmer on the stove on low. Always reheat only as much as you will eat that meal. Refrigerate the rest. Helps to keep soup fresh.
More Instant Soup Recipes
- Instant Pot split pea soup
- Instant Pot lentil soup
- Instant Pot stuffed pepper soup
- Instant Pot chicken tortilla soup
- Instant Pot black bean soup
- Browse 30 healthy Instant Pot recipes.
Did you know we have entire Youtube channel dedicated to healthy Instant Pot recipes and tips? Make sure to subscribe and hit the Bell icon not to miss new videos.
Instant Pot Taco Soup {30 Minutes}
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground turkey beef or chicken
- 2 x 15 oz cans tomato sauce low sodium
- 2 x 15 oz cans low sodium black red kidney or pinto beans, drained & rinsed
- 2 cups corn frozen or canned (drained)
- 1 1/2 tbsp taco seasoning
- 2 tbsp onion powder or flakes
- 1 tbsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp maple syrup or honey
- 1 tsp salt
- Ground black pepper to taste
- 3 cups low sodium broth or water
- 1 tbsp oil for frying
- 1/2 small bunch cilantro finely chopped
- Yogurt cheese, lime and tortilla chips, for serving
Instructions
- On Instant Pot, press Saute and wait until display says Hot. Takes 3-5 mins.
- Swirl oil to coat, add ground turkey and cook for about 5 minutes, constantly breaking into small pieces and stirring. Press Cancel.
- Add ingredients in the following order (to avoid Burn): beans, corn, taco seasoning, onion powder, garlic powder, maple syrup, salt, pepper, broth and tomato sauce. Do not stir!
- Close the lid, move pressure valve to Sealing and press Pressure Cook on High for 10 - 20 minutes (longer – deeper flavours but overall soup is ready fast).
- Release pressure using Quick Release method - turn pressure valve to Venting.
- Add cilantro and stir (I didn't have any and it was fine).
- Serve hot with tortilla chips, yogurt, cheese and limes (if desired).
Video
Notes
- Forgot to thaw meat: "Thaw" meat in Instant Pot using this method. It will come out half cooked. Then just break it into small pieces.
- Crockpot: Yes, you can make this soup in a slow cooker. Saute meat, then combine everything in crockpot and cook on Low for 8 hours or on High for 4 hours.
- To thicken soup: Add 1/4 cup cold water whisked with 2 tbsp cornstarch and saute for a few minutes.
- Fresh garlic and onion can be used. No need to saute.
- A can of diced green chiles will make soup taste more "Mexican" but not spicy.
- For spicy soup add chopped jalapeno with seeds to cooked soup.
- Salt: You might need to use less salt if using regular (not low sodium) tomato sauce.
- Store: Refrigerate in an airtight container or inner Instant Pot pot with a fitting glass lid for up to 5 days.
- Freeze Leftovers: Fully cook, cool completely and freeze in an airtight container for up to 3 months. Thaw on a stovetop covered on low.
- Freezer Meal: Saute turkey until small pieces. Add all ingredients to gallon size bag (I love these re-usable ones) with tomato products going first and no broth. Freeze for up to 3 months. Then cook from frozen with broth for 20-30 mins on High pressure with QPR or NPR.
Nutrition
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Super easy and fast to make. Delicious ?
So good! Came out perfect! Topped with about 1/4 cup of light sour cream, 1/8 cup of shredded cheese(reduced fat), and some plain tortilla chips as a garnish.
My husband and kids are so picky. Usually at least 1 person decides they don’t like something but everyone loved and devoured this.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Tristi! Thank you for the wonderful review! Yes, this soup is a crowd pleaser.
loved this soup
Loved it and will make again.
Love hearing this Janet 🙂
This is a great family recipe – the kids love this. I even had requests for this soup. It’s simple to make I usually make a double batch to have a couple times during the week.
That’s the best when the kids are requesting certain meals! This one sounds like a keeper 🙂
My family loves this recipe!!!! It’s simple and delicious, my kids make it on their own, it’s one of their favourites!!!!!!
Love that even your kids are making this on their own! Cooking can be easy!
Easy recipe everyone liked!
Delicious!!!!! I LOVE Olena’s recipes and her cute style of teaching us how to make them! She makes everything seem simple and easy and makes me want to make more home cooked meals. Thank you so much!!!
Awe, made my day reading this! Thanks so much. I love what I do!
Can you cook this is anything other than an Insta Pot?
Hi Lori!
Check out my Turkey Taco Soup that is made on the stove or in a slow cooker. Hope that helps!
https://ifoodreal.com/turkey-taco-soup/
I love every recipe of yours I have made Olena, but this one was WOW good and crazy easy (my favorite combo)!! Cilantro makes everything better but it really accented the flavors in this soup. Thank you so much for your site, your recipes make healthy meals out of all the old recipes from my mom, comfort cooking at it’s best!!
Awe, you are so welcome Lynne!
Do you have a pin it button. I would like to pin to pinterest.
Each image have Save Pinterest button in top left corner if you hover over the image. You can also use browser’s extension or Share button on your mobile device. But hovering over image is the easiest. Thanks for pinning!
Easy to do and delicious! Picky teenagers are hard to please, but make something called Taco anything, or Pizza anything and they eat it up!! So Taco Soup was perfect! This was our first recipe in our IP. I have now made it 3 times because it is so good! We do not add any of the toppings because we are lactose intolerant, but it does not need it!! Also, a great meal for my diabetic husband as it is low carb! Yes it has beans and corn, but it is low enough that he can enjoy a couple of bowls if he is really hungry. The hardest thing about this recipe is waiting for the pot to come to pressure! LOL Enjoy!
I’m so happy to read this! Thanks for your positive feedback, Maria!
Loved it.
Yay!!!
This is 5 stars plus! I made this soup for for the Legion lunch last Saturday … everyone loved it!
Thank you for this recipe…
Thanks Karen! Hope to see you this year!!!
Just made this and it turned out amazing!!! My son is autistic and is very lucky he ate 2 bowls!!!! I’m so excited to try some more of your recipes!!! Thank you
It was suppose to say picky lol
Well lucky too lol
That is the best when kids (& the rest of the family) love what we moms make. That’s so great!
It’s a winner!!! added red and yellow peppers, onions and minced garlic
I’m so glad you enjoyed this taco soup, Frances! Thank you for the wonderful review!
Tried this last night in my second night owning instant pot.
Yum yum. Was excellent. Definitely a favorite.
Awesome to hear you are falling in love with Instant Pot!
Just cooked it with ground beef and skipped all the other broths, just used water. It’s turned out very flavorful and filling. Moreover, it’s reaaly easy to make !
I love the recipe ❣
five stars from me?
Yay! If i have bouillon cubes, I use them. If not, I don’t. Food still comes out delicious. Glad you enjoyed it.:)