Homesteading · Prepping · Preserving · Recipes · Urban Homesteading

Pantry Staples: Instant Pot Dehydrated Vegetable Soup

Instant Pot dehydrated vegetable soup combines the simplicity of Instant Pot cooking with one of the best methods of pantry stocking.

One of the easiest methods of preserving your garden’s harvest is to dehydrate the produce. I often have our dehydrator running for days in summer, processing produce from our gardens or from good deals in season I pick up.

Come the middle of winter, as canned goods dwindle down, you might look into your pantry and see jars of dried food staring you down, asking you to use it up. Because it’s pretty easy to preserve, you don’t quite know what to do with it.

One caveat of dehydrated food is the longer it sits, the longer it can take to rehydrate. If you don’t get it rehydrated enough, it can cause your tummy to not like you, as it’s harder for it to digest. This easy soup recipe fills the belly, and more so, the quick cooking process makes it last-minute friendly. And the pressure cooking process allows the vegetables to rehydrate perfectly.

Add in garbanzo beans at the end, or cooked chicken, for a heartier soup, if you like.

Side note: This recipe fits into a quart mason jar, tamping down between each dried vegetable. Make a few up for last-minute meals to tuck into your pantry.

Instant Pot Dehydrated Vegetable Soup

Ingredients:

Directions:

Add 16 cups water, broth powder, and dried vegetables to Instant Pot (we use an 8 quart model).

Close and lock the lid of the Instant Pot, position the steam release handle to Sealing. Press the “Manual” or “Pressure Cooker” function and adjust the time to 7 minutes.

Once done, let count down 10 minutes, then do a manual release. Check for valve being down, open carefully.

Stir well, taste for seasoning.

Time taken:

It takes about 30 minutes for the pressure cooker to come up to pressure, then 7 minutes to cook, and 10 minutes to cool, and another 3 minutes or so to vent. So, while not truly instant, it takes around 50 minutes to cook, and you don’t need to be involved for 99% of the time. The other benefit between pressure cooking and slow cooking is the vegetables stay firm in texture and don’t get as mushy. You also don’t lose broth to evaporation over the 6 to 8 hours.

Slow Cooker Method:

Add everything to a large slow cooker, cook on “Low” for 6 to 8 hours.