An Instantpot Bean Soup

Background

A year or so ago I was experimenting with putting chicken stock in everything. I combined chicken stock, tomato paste, and spicy sausages together in a soup and the results were pretty good.

I didn't write anything down back then, but we did take a photo. That photo showed up in "Google Memories" (or whatever it's called) the other week, so from the photo I could figure out the ingredients.

Nostalgia then made me recreate the recipe.

I put everything in the new Instantpot and it all worked out.

Video

Results

It's a thick soup with tender beans, veggies and sausages.

You can taste the tomato flavour, but it's accompanied by the sausage (rich and spicy) and kidney beans (sweet).

Since this is made in an Instantpot and not a stovetop pot, the beans and sausages are extremely tender. Most beans have split.

Ingredients

• Phase 1 (pressure cook)
  • 1.5 cups of red kidney beans
  • liquid:
    • 6 cups of water and bouillon cubes
    • 6 cups of chicken stock
  • 2 cut shallots
  • 4 frozen hot Italian sausages
• Phase 2 (simmer)
  • 1 can of tomato paste
  • 2 cup orecchiette
  • 2 cups frozen vegetables

Recipe

Since we want to cook pasta in the liquid, we need more of it left over. This is why we use a bean:liquid ratio of 1:4. With all of the ingredients this won't be pure water, so the pasta will still take more than the usual time to cook through.

Stir the soup with a long laddle: it will bubble when simmering and it's hot!

• Soak beans in cool water for 15 minutes, discard water
• Place beans, liquid, shallots, and frozen sausages into the pot
• Stir
• Pressure cook on high for 40 minutes, with natural release (30 minutes)
  • Note: it may take 20 minutes or more for the pressure to build
• Open the lid
• (optional) discard floating beans
• Add tomato paste, simmer on low for 5 minutes
• Add veggies and pasta, simmer on low for 20 minutes

After the final 20 minute simmer, the pasta should still be a bit chewy. You may want to let them cook a bit more.

Further thoughts

Look for floating beans when you first open the lid after a pressure cook. For whatever reason these are always undercooked. With a spoon (caution HOT!) you can pick them up and discard them. If you simmer the beans for 10+ minutes afterwards, I've found that they're able to finish cooking.

Cooking pasta in a thick liquid can be tricky business. The thicker the liquid, the slower the pasta absorbs water. The results are tasty, but they require diligence.

You can see how the colour and opacity of the soup liquid lightens considerably as everything is further cooked.

As the pasta and vegetables cook so do the beans. Everything thickens. The appearance is a lot like the cans of "tomato soup" you can buy at the store.