Instant Pot Tomato Barley Soup

This easy recipe for Instant Pot Tomato Barley soup is full of healthy veggies and hearty barley, and is a warm and wonderful soup that cooks up in your pressure cooker!  Thick, satisfying, warm and wonderful for those chilly winter days.

I would love this easy recipe for Instant Pot tomato barley soup simply for its thick, hearty flavor, all full of tomatoes and carrots and scrumptious barley.  But I also love it because I can whip it up in about a half hour in my beloved Instant Pot.  And in these days right after the holidays, I love it because it is all kinds of healthy after a season packed with hot cocoa ice cream floats and goat cheese truffles and various other scrumptious things.  Ready to give your Instant Pot a soup recipe the whole family is going to love?  Let’s make it!

As you may have heard me mention a time or two, the Southern daughter is getting married in, oh, 73 days.  And I have had my mother of the bride dress hanging in the closet since last summer, and in between then and now we have had various delicious shenanigans going on.  In December alone we celebrated my birthday at one of my favorite restaurants, toasted the Southern daughter getting her master’s degree, and the Southern husband and I clinked glasses for our 27th anniversary.

And if that wasn’t enough, there was a scrumptious Christmas feast at my little brother’s house…

…these two lovebirds did their wedding cake testing (and I may have helped taste things)…

…we had a tailgate party (complete with a full spread of tailgate food) to watch our Clemson Tigers whup up on Notre Dame.  At this point I should mention that one of my dearest friends AND her sweet son both went to Notre Dame, and they were watching with us, and I was very tactful and sensitive about not celebrating Clemson’s triumph too much.

And as if all that wasn’t enough, my mama made about one million of her famous cinnamon rolls, and I took the ones we couldn’t finish and chopped them up and made them into cinnamon roll bread pudding.

I’m still working on that recipe and will share it when it’s ready, which will definitely be AFTER I have successfully fit into my mother of the bride dress.  In between now and then, I will be cooking up things like this healthy and delicious and very well behaved Instant Pot tomato barley soup.

The only slightly naughty thing about it is the dollop of sour cream on the top which is completely optional – or as my friend Ann suggested to me when I was writing this recipe, you could use almond cream instead.  If you want to add a little protein and you have some leftover chicken lying around, tear it up and stir it in once the soup is done.

This easy recipe for Instant Pot Tomato Barley soup is full of healthy veggies and hearty barley, and is a warm and wonderful soup that cooks up in an instant!Click to TweetHow were your holidays, and do you have any healthy, mother of the bride dress-friendly recipes you want to share with me?  Tell me in the comments and Happy New Year!

Instant Pot Tomato Barley Soup

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• Author: Kate Morgan Jackson
• Yield: 4-6 1x
• Category: Soup
• Method: Instant Pot

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Description

This easy recipe for Instant Pot Tomato Barley soup is full of healthy veggies and hearty barley, and is a warm and wonderful soup that cooks up in an instant!

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Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 medium sweet onion, chopped
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 1 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes
• 1 ½ cups chicken broth
• ½ cup pearled barley
• 1 tablespoon oregano
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon pepper
• 2 tablespoons sour cream or almond cream (optional)

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Instructions

1. Add the oil to the Instant Pot and press the Sauté button. Add onions and carrots and stir for 5 minutes until the onion starts to get tender.  Press the Cancel button.
2. Add the tomatoes, broth, barley, oregano, salt and pepper and stir. Put on the lid, make sure the vent is sealed and press the Manual button. Set the timer for 25 minutes on high pressure.
3. When time is up, let the pressure release naturally for 5 minutes, then carefully open the vent for a quick release of any remaining pressure.
4. Stir in sour or almond cream if using and serve!

Notes

This soup thickens up in the fridge, so if you have leftovers you can thin with chicken broth.

Want to round out your meal? This recipe pairs well with...

Avocado Hummus

Warm Fall Vegetable Roasted Salad

Easy Strawberry Peach Sorbet