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This Instant Pot Black Bean Soup is healthy, hearty, and easy to make! It’s perfect for Meal Prep and freezes well. All you need is 10 plant-based ingredients, an Instant Pot, and an empty stomach.
While I don’t practice bean discrimination, I will say that I could probably eat Black Beans every day for the rest of my life and be perfectly happy. Especially if I can make this Black Bean Soup.
With only 10 affordable ingredients + easy-to-follow instructions, you really can’t go wrong with this recipe either. Plus, you can *literally* make the entire thing in your Instant Pot (or similar Pressure Cooker). Minimal ingredients, minimal prep, and minimal dishes — three things I always like to hear.
Whether you’re meal prepping for the week or just want something warm and cozy for dinner, this Instant Pot Black Bean soup is sure to satisfy. I love how you don’t have to soak your beans beforehand (less work = yay!), PLUS how you can play with the final thickness of the soup just by adding/subtracting some liquid.
Do you add anything special to your Black Bean Soup? Let me know in the comments below, I’d love to hear about it!
A Few Final Thoughts:
- You can serve this soup on its own, but I would highly recommend topping it with some Easy Avocado Salsa!
- This soup freezes well — I like to make one big batch, and then freeze half of the recipe in individual portions so I can just thaw and heat up on a lazy day.
- Please see the recipe notes for stovetop instructions, if you don’t have an Instant Pot.
If you’re looking for more Vegan Instant Pot recipes, you’ll also love this Sweet Potato, Red Lentil, and Peanut Stew, plus these Instant Pot Rice & Beans!
Finally, if you make this recipe and decide to share it on Facebook or Instagram, don’t forget to tag me @FromMyBowl + #FromMyBowl! I love seeing your delicious recreations 🙂
Instant Pot Black Bean Soup (10 Ingredients!)
This Instant Pot Black Bean Soup is healthy, hearty, and easy to make! It’s perfect for Meal Prep and freezes well. All you need is 10 plant-based ingredients, an Instant Pot, and an empty stomach.
- Prep Time: 10 Minutes
- Cook Time: 40 Minutes
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 4-6 Servings 1x
Ingredients
- 1 small Red Onion, diced
- 3 Cloves Garlic, minced
- ½ bunch Cilantro, stems and leaves divided
- 1 Red Pepper, diced
- 1 tbsp Cumin
- 2 tbsp Chili Powder
- ½ tsp Cayenne Pepper
- 14 oz. dry Black Beans (about 2 cups)
- 3 cups Vegetable Broth, plus extra Water
- Juice + Zest of 1 Lime
- Salt, to taste
- Easy Avocado Salsa, for garnish (Optional)
Instructions
- First, add the Red Onion, Garlic, and diced Cilantro Stems into the Instant Pot with a splash of Water. Using the Sauté setting, cook the veggies for 2-3 minutes, or until translucent.
- Next, add the Red Pepper and spices to the Instant Pot, and sauté for an additional 1-2 minutes.
- Add the Dried Black Beans to the pot along with the Vegetable Broth. Stir well, then slowly add in Water to the iPot until the Water line is about 1” above the dried Beans.
- Cover and Seal the Pot, then set the pressure to Manual High for 30 Minutes.
- Force release the pressure from the iPot, and carefully blend the soup by using an Immersion Blender, or by transferring it to a blender. I blended about half of my soup so there would still be some texture to it.
- Pour into bowls, top as desired, and enjoy.
Notes
- If you would like your soup to be thicker, spoon off some of the liquid from the top of the beans once they finish cooking.
- This soup freezes well, so is perfect for meal prep!
- If you do not have an Instant Pot, you can also make this recipe on the stovetop – you will need to adjust the cooking time for the dried Beans, and may need to add in more Water as well. Alternatively, you can substitute 4 cups of drained & rinsed canned Black Beans for the dried Beans – if you do this, you will only need to simmer the mixture for 10-15 minutes or so before blending.
Want to save this Black Bean Instant Pot Soup for later? Pin the recipe to your Pinterest boards:
I am very confused about what dried black beans means – is it what you get in cans at the store that are ready to eat?
Dried beans are the uncooked beans you can buy in bulk at the store (sometimes you can scoop your own), these are beans that are hard. Or depending on where you shop you might find it already bagged.
We made this recipe without the Chili powder bc. we are not too much into the heat. We did add 8 oz. thick cut bacon that I sautéed for 6 minutes then I proceed with the recipe as is. It was delicious and it was the very first recipe we ever made in the instant pot. I will be making again as we love it.
★★★★★
Hello! I see you have instructions for simmering on stove top using the canned beans, how long would you do in instant pot with canned beans? Thanks
You would probably only need to do it for 5 minutes or so
How much water would I use instead if I used canned beans? Thank you!
I want to try this but I don’t have a instant pot I can do stove top but was wondering if it would work in a crock pot?
I haven’t tested it in a crock pot but I imagine it would work!
I made this today and loved it! Since I didn’t have all the spices, I used just the salt, cumin and taco seasoning mix and no lime juice. After it was cooked and mixed, I added Toffuti sour cream guacamole and mixed it a little bit into the bowl of soup. Wow, wonderful. Even my husband, who only eats meat, said it smelled so good when he got home.
★★★★★
Awesome!!!
This was awesome! I added a can of sweet corn.
Sounds delicious!
Disclaimer: Absolutely does NOT work with canned beans 🙁
I tried it both ways this evening! I think the thing is that with the canned bean version, I shouldn’t have added the extra water in step 3. Which makes sense to me – that water gets soaked ub by the dry beans in the instant pot, and contributes to that wonderful porridgy texture. I think I’d have to summer it down on the stovetop for another hour to get anywhere near the same texture.
Anyway, I’m going to brainstorm ways to thicken my stovetop version (I already dumped a whole nother can of beans into it, haha), and just save the better version for eating last. ????
The canned beans are already cooked and all that extra water just ends up needing to boil off and with the beans in all of it, they just get cooked down even more!
Oh, yeah, I was brainstorming ways to thicken the stovetop version after I had already boiled the stuff in the pot for over an hour. There was so much water in it!
I like to add a 1/2 to 1 cup of brown rice but then you do need to add an additional cup of water or broth
★★★★★
My husband is from Central America and I’ve made this a few times. It’s a winner! We all enjoy it. I love it with a spoonful of sour cream in the bowl, with fresh pico de gallo. Delicious, easy, and budget friendly! So much win!
★★★★★
So happy you and your husband love it! Thank you so much. ♥
So delicious. I made a food network version, which was so bland. But this version was full of flavor and delicious! Thank you!
★★★★★
Thanks, Brenda!
Love this recipe! Tried it out and came out amazing. I shared my experience here: https://www.trylearngrow.com/2019/01/06/vegan-black-bean-soup/
★★★★★
Was too lazy to do cilantro and I didn’t follow directions on the sauteing part (I have never used the saute function before… and I didn’t read very well… so my fault not yours 😛 ) but it came out amazing! I’m SO happy to be eating this. Made it in a 3qt pot just fine. Blended the majority of the beans and oh my lanta is it delicious. Thank you!!!
★★★★★
Glad to hear it was still a success!
If I was stuck on an island and could only eat one meal for the rest of my life, I think this would be it. This recipe was delicious, filling, healthy, and budget-friendly. I will definitely be adding this into our regular meal rotation!
★★★★★
Haha, we love that! Thanks for the review, Alanna 🙂
Hi – looking forward to trying this in a couple of days. Quick question: I’m cooking for a crowd, so will likely need to double the recipe. Any guidance in that regard? Just a straight up doubling of all ingredients? How about changes to cook time? Thanks!
Doubling the ingredients should be fine 🙂
This turned out great and most importantly, my husband, agreed that this recipe is a keeper! Thanks for sharing.
★★★★★
Thanks Chris! 🙂
I’m looking forward to making this recipe this weekend. I’m unsure about the ingredient “red pepper.” Do you mean a red chile pepper or a red bell pepper?
Thanks!
Red Bell Pepper!
Delish!! Cooked the beans for 50 minutes was great! Added little more water after. Salsa added a lot of flavour! My husband said this is the kind of soup you would get at a “high end” Restaurant.
★★★★★
Wow! Thank you so much for the review, Wendy. Glad you and your husband enjoyed it. ♥
this works great. something else to try is to use an immersion blender on the soup to get a creamy version
Yes, that would work too!
hi
the lime juice and zest? when do they get added?
thank you
Add the lime zest with the beans as they are cooking, and the lime juice at the end!
What do you mean by dry beans? The hard ones? ????
yes
Hi! What do you do with the cilantro leaves? Are they just to use for topping when the soup is done?
Yes! You can also save them for use in future recipes or salads.
This looks wonderful. I just stumbled onto your posts and they all look great. Just wondering if it would be possible to post an estimate of the calories per serving?
Hi Taylor! I don’t post calories per serving, but there are a lot of free calculators online that can do so for you 🙂
Amazing, next on my meal prep!