I love this homemade Instant Pot Tomato Florentine Soup. A nice warm bowl of this is such a great comfort food, and this recipe doesn’t disappoint. It’s full of absolutely delicious flavors and spices. It is a little sweet and creamy and crunchy with the grilled cheese croutons. You’ll be in soup heaven!
This soup is easy to make, comes together quickly, and everyone will be glad you made it. It’s perfect for weekend lunches, or dinner on those chilly nights. It is also freezer friendly with one change, so take note of that awesome option! We promise, this one will be a favorite!
So, let the rain or snow fall, pull on the fuzzy socks and let’s make a batch of this amazing soup. I can practically hear the fire crackling now!
🧅 Why This Recipe Works
- Easy To Cook – Like virtually everything in the Instant Pot, this recipe is simple to make!
- Simple Ingredients – I bet you have everything in your pantry already.
- Tastes Delicious Leftover – I make a bit extra just so I have for leftovers throughout the week. It is easy to reheat.
- Affordable To Make
- Quick-cooking but a slow-simmered flavor
- Grilled cheese croutons add so much flavor
- Sautéing the vegetables really helps to release so much flavor into the soup
🍅 Ingredients
Enjoying a hot bowl of this amazing soup is the comforting meal you have been needing. Let’s talk a little bit about a few of the ingredients:
Seasonings and Herbs: We use a combination of parsley, thyme, oregano, sugar, coarse garlic salt, salt, and pepper in this soup. It’s an incredible group of ingredients.
Veggies: This soup has celery, spinach, and stewed tomatoes. They are perfect together, and you’ll want second bowl when you taste it.
Grilled Cheese Crouton: One of my favorite ingredients is the homemade grilled cheese croutons. They are made with butter, olive oil, garlic salt, garlic, bread, and cheese.
🍽️ Instructions
This is one of the few recipes that we make that have more than just a couple ingredients! Hold onto your hats though as it is worth it.
Step One: Turn the Instant Pot to the SAUTÉ setting. Add one tablespoon of butter and add chopped onion and celery. Sauté until golden brown.
Step Two: Add the finely chopped Spinach and parsley. Cook until it become wilted and a little browned. Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper.
Step Three: Turn SAUTÉ setting off and add the fresh thyme.
Step Four: Stir in chicken broth, stewed tomatoes, tomato puree, and tomato paste. Stir well until the tomato paste is dissolved into the soup. Add water, and stir.
Step Five: Add the Italian seasoning, oregano, brown sugar, coarse ground garlic salt, seasoned salt and pepper. Stir well to blend all ingredients. Place the lid on the Instant Pot and make sure the pressure valve is set to SEAL.
Step Six: Press the SOUP setting on your Instant pot, and let the soup cook. When the Instant pot is done, it will beep.
Let the soup sit in for another ten minutes and do a quick release by turning the pressure valve to VENT. Make sure you use a pot holder or oven mitt to turn the valve so you don’t burn yourself with the steam.
When all the pressure has been released, and the float valve drops down, remove the lid and stir.
Step Seven: Add the cream and stir well. Add the minced garlic and stir.
🍲 How to Make Croutons
While the soup is cooking, make the croutons. You can alternatively, make our Homemade Croutons as well. Both work great for this recipe.
Step One: In a bowl, combine the softened butter, olive oil, garlic salt, and smashed garlic. Blend all together, and spread on one side of each slice of bread.
Step Two: In a skillet, place the bread, buttered side down, and sprinkle cheese on top. Place another piece of bread, buttered side up on top of the cheese.
Step Three: Cook the grilled cheese until golden brown on both sides. Remove from the skillet and place on a cutting board.
Cut the grilled cheese into large crouton-sized pieces, and serve on the side.
If you don’t know how to use your Instant Pot-check out the Instant Pot Manual page here to verify anything that may be slightly different on your model!
🍴Can You Freeze This Soup
Yep! There is one caveat though. If you know you are going to freeze it, I would leave out the cream.
It is easy enough to add the cream when you defrost and reheat it later. Sometimes, the cream just doesn’t freeze that well.
Place the cooled soup in gallon sized freezer safe Ziploc bags. Press the air out and lay flat in the freezer on sheet pans until frozen. Make sure to label them.
To defrost, take out the night before and heat up in a stove top pot (and add the cream you left out!) and serve.
🥣 Expert Tips
- Swap with bone broth for more nutrients. I always do this if someone is getting a cold. It might be an old wive’s tale, but I swear the bone broth helps fight off mild winter colds.
- Pair with a classic grilled cheese, salad, etc.
- Double the recipe, just make sure to not go over the max fill line on the Instant Pot
- Swap and change items in this tomato soup to fit your preference.
🥐 Recipe FAQs
Tomato Bisque is made with shellfish, where classic tomato soup uses just a tomato based soup, with no seafood added into it.
The biggest thing to remember is if you are sautéing you will then need to add your liquid and scrape the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon to remove any stuck bits. If you leave the stuck on pieces, it may cause a burn warning when cooking.
Here you can pair tomato soup with these grilled cheese croutons, classic grilled cheese sandwich, salads, vegetables, etc. It is up to you to serve alone or pair with a sandwich or other side.
Add a dollop of sour cream on top, splash of hot sauce, fresh grated parmesan, etc.
🥘 More soups to enjoy!
Instant Pot Tomato Florentine Soup
Equipment
- Instant Pot
Ingredients
Tomato Soup
- 1 tbsp Butter
- 1 Onion peeled and chopped
- 3 stalks Celery washed and chopped
- 1 cup Spinach Leaves finely chopped
- ½ cup Italian Parsley finely chopped
- 1 tbsp Italian Seasoning dried
- 1 tbsp Thyme fresh
- 1 tbsp Ground Oregano
- 3 tbsp Brown Sugar
- 1 tbsp Coarse Ground Garlic Salt
- Salt and Pepper to taste
- 1 tbsp Minced Garlic
- 2 cans Stewed Tomatoes 14.5 oz cans, chopped
- 1 can Tomato Puree 28 oz can
- 1 can Tomato Paste 6 oz can
- 4 cups Chicken Broth
- 2 cups Water
- 1 ½ cups Heavy Cream
Grilled Cheese Crouton
- 4 tbsp Butter
- 1 tbsp Olive Oil
- 1 tsp Garlic Salt
- ½ tsp Garlic minced and smashed
- 6 slices Bread
- Colby Jack Cheese
Instructions
Instant Pot Tomato Soup
- Gather all the ingredients.
- Turn the Instant Pot to SAUTÉ and melt the butter. Add the chopped onion and celery. Sauté until golden brown.
- Add the finely chopped spinach and parsley and cook until wilted and a little browned.
- Turn SAUTÉ setting off, and add the fresh Thyme.
- Stir in the chicken broth. Add the stewed tomatoes, tomato puree, and tomato paste, and stir well until tomato paste is melted into soup. Add the water and stir.
- Add the Italian seasoning, oregano, brown sugar, coarse ground garlic salt, and salt and pepper to taste. Stir well to blend all ingredients.
- Place the lid on the Instant Pot, and make sure the pressure valve is set to SEALING. Press the SOUP setting on your Instant pot, and let the soup cook.
- When the Instant pot is done, it will beep and turn to OFF. Let the soup sit in the Instant pot for 10 minutes, then do a quick release, by turning the pressure valve to VENTING – make sure you use a pot holder or oven mitt to turn the valve. When all the pressure has been released, and the float valve is down, remove the lid and stir the soup.
- Add the cream, and stir well. Add the minced garlic and stir.
Grilled Cheese Croutons
- While the soup is cooking, make the croutons.
- In a bowl, combine the softened butter, olive oil, garlic salt, and smashed garlic. Blend all together, and spread on one side of each slice of bread.
- In a non-stick skillet, place the bread, buttered side down, and sprinkle cheese on the bread, as much, or as little as desired.
- Place another piece of bread, buttered side up on top of the cheese.
- Cook the grilled cheese until golden brown on both sides. Remove from skillet, and place on a cutting board. Cut grilled cheese into large crouton size pieces, and serve on the side, with the soup.
Notes
Nutrition
Hi, in the recipe, it says to add Italian seasoning however it isn’t listed in the list of ingredients. Did I miss it?
Mary Jo-my apologies! I went back to my written notes and you are correct.. I missed putting it into the recipe card. I added it now as it’s 1 tbsp of Italian Seasoning. Thank you for bringing it to my attention so I could fix it for others. All the best-Ginny