❤️ You’ll Love This Quinoa Vegetable Soup
This instant pot quinoa vegetable soup makes a filling, vegetarian (vegan too) meal. This can be your lunch or dinner. It is Indian-inspired, but not spicy at all. It has the perfect balance of all the spices. This quinoa soup is highly customizable when it comes to the veggies. Add whatever you like, whatever you have on hand or whatever is in the season. It is quick and easy to make, just 30 minutes and delicious soup is ready. Make a big batch and freeze the leftover for later busy days.
🧾 Ingredients & Substitute Options:
Here is the pic of the ingredients required to make this delicious, flavorful Instant pot quinoa vegetable soup. All of them easily available, the exact amount is mentioned in the recipe card below.
Quinoa: I have used white quinoa, but you can use any type of black, red, or tri-colored. Use whatever you have in your pantry. Veggies: Onion, celery and garlic make the flavor base for the soup. You should not skip those. I have used Yukon gold potatoes here as this is what I had in my pantry available. You can use red potato or other similar ones like sweet potato, pumpkin, winter squash. Use what you have in season. I have used fresh tomatoes, you can use canned tomatoes. I have used frozen peas and frozen corn. While I have used fresh carrots and bell peppers. To shorten the prep time and for convenience, many time I use frozen mixed vegetable pack which contains peas, carrot, corn and beans. Vegetable stock: Instead of buying veggie stock packs, I prefer to use ‘Better than bouillon vegetable base’. I always keep a jar of it in the refrigerator. You just have to mix it up in hot water and your vegetable stock is ready. Turmeric powder: It gives a nice color to the soup. Plus, it has many powerful medicinal properties. As being Indian, I use it every day in my recipes. Roasted cumin powder & Coriander powder: Easily available in Indian grocery stores or sometimes in American grocery stores as well. Paprika: I recommend adding paprika instead of red chili powder (the one most commonly used in Indian cooking). It gives you a mild taste vs spicy, hot. Parsley: This time I have added parsley as garnishing. But you can add cilantro as well.
👩🍳 How To Make Instant Pot Quinoa Vegetable Soup?
Prep: Take the quinoa in a colander and rinse under running cold water by rubbing the quinoa slightly. Let the excess water drain out. Also, chop up the veggies and keep them ready.
- Turn the instant pot on with saute mode. Add oil and once the oil is hot, add onion, celery, carrot and garlic.
- Mix and saute for 3 minutes (or until onion starts to soften and there is no more raw smell of garlic).
- Now add turmeric powder, coriander powder, roasted cumin powder and paprika.
- Mix everything well.
- Now add the rest of the veggies (potato, peas, corn, bell pepper, tomatoes).
- Add rinsed quinoa, salt and pepper.
- Add vegetable stock.
- Cover the instant pot with a lid. Cancel the saute mode and pressure cook on manual (High pressure) for 3 minutes. As soon as the timer stops do the QPR (quick pressure release) by pressing the valve (or positioning to venting). Once the pin drops, open the lid and garnish with chopped fresh herb parsley or cilantro.
💭 Expert Tips
This soup is easily adapted to seasons like in summer use zucchini or yellow squash, in winters use winter squash, pumpkins, otherwise use root veggies like sweet potato or potato. Other vegetable substitutions are already mentioned above in the ingredients section. You can add a handful of greens like spinach, kale, collard greens. If so, you add them once pressure cooked and simmer for a few minutes according to what greens you are adding. To make it protein-rich, you can add cooked beans like chickpeas, kidney beans, great northern beans, black beans, pinto beans, cannellini beans, etc. Even though they are cooked, add them along with quinoa and pressure cook so they absorb the flavors.
🥣 Storage Instructions
In the refrigerator, this soup keeps well for about 4 days. Store in an airtight container. In the freezer, it stays good for up to 3 months. Store in individual serving portions in freezer-safe containers. Thaw and reheat as required.
PS Tried this instant pot quinoa vegetable recipe? Please leave a star rating in the recipe card below and/or a review in the comment section. I always appreciate your feedback! Plus, Subscribe to my newsletter and follow along on Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook for all the latest updates.
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