Made with ingredients you probably already have in your pantry, Instant Pot black bean soup is flavorful, creamy, and satisfying. Perfect for a meatless dinner or a filling lunch.
Heat Instant Pot to sauté. Add oil, onion, celery, carrot, and jalapeno and cook, stirring, until onions are translucent and soft, about 5 minutes. Add garlic, cumin, chili powder, and red pepper flakes and continue to cook, stirring, until fragrant, or about 1 minute.
Add black beans, broth, water, and bay leaf. Stir to combine, scraping bottom clean.
Place lid on Instant Pot and set on high pressure, Manual mode (or Pressure Cook, depending on model) for 45 minutes. Allow 13-15 minutes for it to come to pressure.
When cooking time has elapsed, let pressure release naturally for 15 minutes before turning vent to release any remaining pressure.
Remove bay leaf and discard. Remove about half of soup and use an immersion blender to blend (or a standard blender).
Stir blended soup and non-blended soup together, adding the cilantro and lime juice, and serve with desired toppings.
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Notes
Makes about 9 cups.
This soup is fairly thin immediately after cooking, but thickens up after cooling. If you prefer a thicker soup, reduce water by one cup. You can always add more, but it's harder to remove it once it's in.
If you prefer chunkier soup, omit step 5.
Like meat? Add diced ham, cooked bacon, or sausage to the soup.
Cook it on your stovetop. Follow package directions for soaking the beans overnight or doing a quick soak. The soup will still have to simmer about two hours even after a soak. An alternative is to substitute three 15 1/2 ounce cans of black beans instead of the dry beans for a quick cooking soup.
To Prepare with Soaked Beans: If you want to soak your beans overnight, omit the 2 cups of water from the recipe. Reduce cooking time to 15 minutes, with a 15 minute natural release.