Instant Pot Taco Soup (Video)

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 chicken tortilla soup
• Instant Pot black bean soup
• Browse 30 healthy Instant Pot recipes.

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Instant Pot Taco Soup {30 Minutes}

Print Recipe

★★★★★

5 from 13 reviews

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.

• Author: Olena of ifoodreal.com
• Prep Time: 5 minutes
• Cook Time: 15 minutes
• Total Time: 20 minutes
• Yield: 6 servings 1x
• Category: Soup and Stew
• Method: Instant Pot
• Cuisine: Mexican

Scale 1x2x3x

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

1. On Instant Pot, press Saute and wait until display says Hot. Takes 3-5 mins.
2. Swirl oil to coat, add ground turkey and cook for about 5 minutes, constantly breaking into small pieces and stirring. Press Cancel.
3. 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!
4. 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).
5. Release pressure using Quick Release method – turn pressure valve to Venting.
6. Add cilantro and stir (I didn’t have any and it was fine).
7. Serve hot with tortilla chips, yogurt, cheese and limes (if desired).

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.

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.

★ Did you make this recipe? Please give it a star rating in the comments.

3299.8 g682.6 mg9.5 g2.2 g0.1 g39.3 g11.8 g25.6 g52.2 mg

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