Childhood. What brings you back? For me it’s Bean and Bacon Soup.
I remember my mom pulling out that little red Campbell’s can and adding water in a small saucepan on our stove. Ready in a jiffy (no better lunch when you have 3 little kids). But now that I’m older and like to make things from scratch, I know I can make this without relying on a single can! And you can too. Whole food ingredients only. And once I received an Instant Pot, I knew exactly what I needed to develop…a recipe for my childhood favorite. Presto…Instant Pot Bean and Bacon Soup was born.
I was amazed at how easy it was to make a Bean and Bacon Soup using the Instant Pot. First of all, I was able to shave an entire night off the process because when using the Instant Pot you don’t have to soak the beans!
Yep, you heard me right, no soaking of the beans necessary. Hallelujah, because planning ahead isn’t always my strong suit.
The lions share of the prep time is spent in cooking the bacon. But even this step was made easier, because I (almost) always cook bacon in the oven. Then, once the bacon goes into the oven, you can spend the time chopping onions, carrots, and celery. Time saver indeed, not to mention less messy. Use aluminum foil or parchment paper and the clean up is a breeze!
Add a few herbs, a little chicken stock, some tomato paste…voila the perfect Instant Pot Bean and Bacon Soup.
Dried beans plus a few simple ingredients will make a soup your whole family will love.
Instant Pot Bean and Bacon Soup
This is a delicious, soul warming soup made from a few easy ingredients. Go from dried beans to the perfect comfort food in just over an hour using the Instant Pot. (Hint: while you go do something else!)
Ingredients
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil (or bacon fat)
- 2 cups onion, chopped (approximately 1 very large onion)
- 2 cups carrot, diced (approximately 2-3 large carrots)
- 1/2 cups celery, diced (approximately 1-2 ribs of celery)
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 8 cups chicken stock
- 16 ounces bacon, cooked and chopped into small pieces
- 1 pound dried navy beans
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 sprig of thyme
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
Instructions
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Using the Sauté function on your Instant Pot, heat the olive oil (or bacon fat).
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Add onion, carrot, and celery. Sauté for 5 minutes.
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Add tomato paste and stir.
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Turn off Sauté function.
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Add chicken stock, chopped bacon, dried beans, bay leaves, thyme, salt and pepper.
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Secure lid. Press the manual button, set to 35 minutes.
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Allow to cook. Keep in mind that it will likely take 15 minutes or so to come to pressure.
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When finished cooking, allow natural pressure release. This will add another 20-30 minutes to the cooking time. (Total time in the Instant Pot approximately 80 minutes).
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Ladle into bowls, season with additional salt and pepper as desired.
Looking for other Instant Pot soups? Check out our Instant Pot Salsa Verde Chicken Soup, our Instant Pot Thai Butternut Squash Soup, or our Instant Pot Chipotle Black Bean Soup.
And here are a few more Instant Pot Soup recipes from other bloggers:
Instant Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup from Kristine’s Kitchen.
Instant Pot Carrot Soup by April GoLightly
Instant Pot Vegetarian Chipotle Lentil Zoodle Soup by Easy Cooking with Molly
Instant Pot Potato and Leek and Cheddar Soup from Whole Food Bellies
Instant Pot Chicken Fricassee by My Kitchen Love
Instant Pot Chicken Ramen by Fox and Briar
Happy slurping my fellow soup fans! Tag us in your photos, or use #WithTwoSpoons, if you make one of our dishes!
This is such a delicious n gorgeous looking soup. I love bacon, so I’ll definitely be trying your recipe soon. Thanks for sharing – Yummmm!
Thanks Molly! (and appreciate your help 😉 )
So did you ever get around to trying it AFTER you rated it 5 stars?? What did you think?
We get a ton of compliments on this one! Awesome comfort food!
Omg this is so good, thank you for allowing us to use your recipe
Thanks! I’m glad you like it!
Looks good!
So yummy! <3
nice dish
Thanks! XOXO
I love navy beans and this soup was delicious and so easy to make!! A big hit with my family!!
It is SO easy! Dump it all in and let the magic happen 😉
Thanks for the recipe, we love it!
I love there are no cans in this….so often I find a recipe only to find it is packed with processed ingredients that I just don’t buy!
PLUS you made a bowl of brown/orange soup, look bright and inviting. As a fellow food blogger I know that is a super amazing skill.
You are too kind!! We’re trying to use fresh, natural ingredients whenever possible, and the Instant Pot has made dried beans so accessible given how fast they cook! And yes-SOUP in general is my photography nemesis, even when it’s colors aren’t reminiscent of the 1970s!! Thank you for the sweet compliments!
This looks delicious! I think I need to get an instant pot to try out these yummy recipes!
You will not be sorry!
Yum!! This looks awesome! Definitely pinning this– we have been loving our Instant Pot and are always on the search for new recipes.
Great! This one is a winner so I hope you get a chance to try it!
This sounds like such a delicious dinner recipe! I love bean soup and making it in an instant pot is a great idea!
Such a great dinner! Quick and all whole food ingredients!
I am so excited to find great instant pot recipes like this one that I can try! Looks delicious!!
Thanks! We LOVE our instant pots!
You had me at Bacon and beans! Oh yum! This looks amazing! I’m definitely going to be trying your recipe in my Dutch oven, so I’ll probably soak the beans the night before. Very cool that with a Instant Pot you don’t have too!
It would probably work fine in a slow cooker also, but I would soak the beans first! Enjoy!
I make soup at least once a week, and this sounds like a great one to add to our list, particularly now that I’m trying to use my Instant Pot more often. Your tip about cooking the bacon in the oven is spot-on: it’s such a time saver!
I LOVE my Instant Pot. There is something so freeing about walking away after you dump it all in 😉
I don’t eat bean soup every day, but boy I do get a hunkering for it about once every few months. This looks perfect and I think I am at that hunkering moment.
All natural ingredients and so hearty! Enjoy!
Can’t go wrong with bacon!
You are speaking my language!
You make it sound so easy and so delicious, it makes me want to buy an Instant Pot ASAP!
Oh, you will love your Instant Pot-it really is that easy!
Beans and bacon? Count me in! Soups are best made from scratch and your recipe looks pretty straightforward! It’s still pretty cold here in Northern British Columbia and this delicious looking soup is just what I am craving on a foggy winter day like today!
YES!! Recipe tested during our last few snowstorms! This is the perfect foggy weather soup!
This looks so good! I love any recipe in my Instant Pot!
Right? The Instant Pot has my life easier!
Looks incredibly comforting after a long day of hard work!
Beans were undercooked and hard. I knew not soaking was a mistake. I used homemade bacon so After it was COOKED, it was delicious.
Did you let it natural release? I’ve made this one more times than I can count and I’ve never soaked the beans. I bet your homemade bacon was amazing!
Old beans is usually the culprit for hard tough beans. The ones I buy have a best before date.
I 100% agree with this! I always buy my beans either packaged with a “best by” date or from the coop in bulk where I know they have fast turnover! I have made this one many, many times and never had any trouble with the beans not being fully cooked (and soft).
I did make this as written and it was absolutely amazing. I did add a few cloves of garlic but that was it. Beans were perfectly cooked. Family loved it!!
Glad you liked it!!
Made this tonight (well, half of it!), how well does it freeze?
I haven’t tried freezing it! Let us know how it goes!
Made today, with a couple changes, I added the entire can of tomato paste (because I had no other use for it), and hubby was chopping the veg and assumed that we needed 2 cups of celery, so thats what we got. Another recioe called for liquid smoke, so added 4 drops of that. All in all, tasted great, wish I’d doubled it, cuz I dropped the instant pot lid and broke it:(
If I get to make again I will add more broth.
Sounds like it was quite the day! Glad you enjoyed the soup and I love how you made it your own!
Hi there! Just wondering: do the carrots turn out mushy? Thanks much!
I wouldn’t say mushy but they are definitely soft. Hope that helps.
Wonderful soup! Really reminds me of childhood. I added a bit of Worcestershire, about a tablespoon of garlic paste, and extra pepper. Because of the bacon and Worcestershire, I skipped the salt and thought it was perfect. Thank you so much!
I am so glad you liked it! And garlic is always a welcome addition!
It seemed a bit heavy on the bacon… I used 8 strips (thin sliced) and it was still flavorful and perhaps a tad healthier in terms of fat content. I also used Worcestershire sauce and some garlic powder (ingredients from another old recipe)… but the ease of the pressure cooker can’t be beat!!! Will make this again, for certain!!!
Yay! So glad you made it! You and I are going to have to agree to disagree about the bacon because I personally think that bacon is life (!) but I definitely agree, the less you use the more healthy it will be! I love the worcestershire idea! Such a fabulous ingredient, I’m going to have to try it!
Made this today almost exactly as written. Used very thick bacon cooked crispy & well drained. Used homemade chicken stock and just a pinch of salt since the bacon was very salty. We loved it and it will be part of the fall/winter “rotation”. It took a full hour to naturally release (which was fine with me). The beans are tender and so flavorful.
YAY! Glad you liked it! It’s one of my favorites!
Can I make this with canned beans? How would it change the time/temp?
That is a good question! Absolutely you could do it with canned beans, and since then you’re not actually cooking the beans, you could decrease the time to 20 minutes (I’m sure that would be long enough!). I would still use manual! Good luck, let us know how it turns out!
If I use old beans, can I just cook it longer? Or will that turn the veggies to mush?
I think it would probably be ok. You want the carrots and celery to soft anyway!
Do I cook soup on high in the IP?
YES! On manual high! Enjoy the soup!
Thank you! It was delicious!
I’m so glad you liked it!!
I’ve made this soup as is and with minor variations based on what I had on hand. Example you can use different kinds of dried beans and I’ve added other veggies like peas and/or potatoes. It’s hearty and delicious and the Instant Pot does most of the work. Also it freezes well.
I’m so glad you liked it!
So good! Solid recipe. I omitted the herbs because I didn’t have them on hand, and it still turned out great.
Awesome! I’m so glad you liked it!!
This soup is wonderful. As a child, I too loved the bean and bacon soup that Campbells made. This tastes just like that (but at the same time is much better). I don’t like celery so I never add that. I have made this soup about 5 times in the last two months. It is perfect for the wintertime!
Oh yay! I am so happy to hear this! It really is a great winter comfort soup!
Thank you so much for sharing this! I’m making it a second time cuz it was sooo delicious. I left out celery and carrots but added many cloves of garlic. First time I did not get the bacon as crispy as I would have liked, so second time I have extremely crispy bacon. Can’t wait for dinner!!!!!
Looking forward to trying your other recipes.
I made this soup yesterday afternoon and followed the directions to the letter – it’s delicious! Will definitely make it again. Thanks, Lane and Holly
Another winning recipe, gals! Used our home grown beans (mixture) with some fresh baked bread. It will be your fault if I start gaining weight!
I’ve made this recipe a few times. First time was good but on the salty side, so since then I’ve only put half the bacon. That’s been great! Small pieces are important since the bacon doesn’t stay crisp in the soup. I bet ham cubes would be great but I haven’t tried that substitution yet. This recipe is gluten free, so it’s a great thing for me to make for my celiac friend. Thank you!
I didn’t have navy beans so I substituted Anasazi beans. Followed the rest of the recipe exactly. FANTASTIC! Thanks
Excellent soup! My 15 year old daughter has been begging me to make it again. Thank you for a wonderful, easy recipe!