Instant Pot Tomato Bisque
Instant Pot Tomato Bisque is so much easier to make than the classic version. It only takes a few minutes to prepare and just 10 minutes to cook in the Instant Pot. Silky-smooth with bold cherry tomato flavor and sweetness, balanced by the cream, which adds the perfect velvety texture, this soup tastes like it has been slowly simmered for hours!
The cold winter nights call for something warm, and this dish fits that description perfectly! A soup recipe like this is a mainstay. Prepping it in the pressure cooker is so effortless and simple that it can be planned for a fuss-free weekend dinner. If you want to go all fancy, I recommend trying my Instant Pot Lobster Chowder or Instant Pot French Onion Soup.
Table of contents
Instant Pot Tomato Bisque is a restaurant-quality dish sure to impress your friends. It’s ideal for low-key family dinners, but also so tasty that it can be served as a starter for when you have company. Actually, one of my favorite ways to make it a meal is to serve it with bacon-wrapped shrimp and roasted red peppers on the side. I call it a tapas-style meal, and my friends always look forward to it because all the flavors and textures complement each other and create a harmonious balance!
Why you will love this recipe
- Homemade soup in minutes: Everyone loves soup from scratch, but nobody likes having to wait hours for it to cook. This recipe takes only 10 minutes to cook, and the result is a velvety creamy bisque.
- Perfect for sandwiches: The family and I love dipping grilled cheese sandwiches into this sweet, tangy, creamy soup for lunch or a light dinner.
- Comfort food: When someone is not feeling well, a bowl of this homemade bisque is perfect for a cozy feeling.
- Just a few ingredients: Tomatoes, cream, and some seasonings are all I need to make this hearty soup. The cream makes it filling enough for a meal.
What you will need
- Produce: I like to use organic cherry tomatoes, cut in half, because they have concentrated flavor and a naturally sweet flavor, so there is less need for extra sugar. I also add San Marzano crushed tomatoes for their bold, meaty taste and texture, which provide superior flavor and velvety mouthfeel. Diced yellow onions balance the tomatoes’ acidity and caramelize easily, enhancing the soup’s richness with a mellow, smooth flavor. Fresh minced garlic provides a bold, garlicky flavor without the bitter aftertaste. Diced celery gives the soup its savory, slightly earthy hint, adding body and layers.
- Wet ingredients: I use olive oil for sautéing because it has a high smoke point, a mild flavor, and health benefits. Low-sodium vegetable broth provides a savory flavor without the extra salt or meat. Heavy cream, added at the end, is essential for giving this bisque its thick, luxurious creaminess and helping it stand out from regular tomato soup.
- Seasonings: Besides salt and pepper, I also use white sugar, which provides a pure sweetness to balance the acidity of the canned tomatoes. I only need a little bit because I use sweet San Marzano tomatoes. A pinch of red pepper flakes adds gentle warmth, paprika provides smoky depth, and dried basil lends an herbal sweetness.
How to prepare
Sauté the onion: First, I heat the oil in the sauté pan until it is simmering, then add the onion and sauté for 2 minutes, stirring.
Sauté the veggies: I add the garlic next, cooking it for 30 seconds before tossing in the tomatoes and celery and cooking them, stirring, for about 4 to 5 minutes.
Cook the soup: Next, I cancel the saute function and add the remaining ingredients except for the heavy cream. I seal the lid and cook it on high for 10 minutes, then let it release naturally for 15 minutes.
Add the cream: Then I carefully open the lid, stir in the heavy cream, and season with salt and pepper to taste.
Blend: I puree the soup with an immersion blender until smooth.
Serve with basil: After, I serve it with fresh basil.
Expert tip
How to prevent the burn notice
Because heavy soups like tomato tend to cause a burn notice after sautéing, I like to add a bit of broth to mine right after I saute the tomatoes and aromatics so I can deglaze the bottom. It is easy to do with a wooden spoon or spatula and takes just a minute or two, better than having to turn off the pot in the middle of cooking to clean away the burnt bits. Those glazed bits at the bottom also provide a lot of flavor before they get burnt when they turn bitter.
More tips to consider:
- Don’t add the cream until after pressure cooking, so it won’t curdle.
- The order of ingredients is important when cooking in an Instant Pot to prevent a burn notice.
- I highly recommend San Marzano tomatoes. They are super sweet and have fewer seeds, resulting in a better-tasting bisque with a smoother texture.
- Use fresh herbs and spices for the best flavor.
Recipe variations and add-ins:
- Add meat: For a meaty soup, add some shredded or chopped ham, chicken, or pork. Bacon would be a good addition, too.
- Make it vegan: Instead of heavy cream, I sometimes use coconut cream to make this a vegan bisque.
- More nutritious: Add more vegetables like carrots, peas, corn, bell peppers, and green beans.
- Add croutons: For a crunchy texture, I like to toss some croutons on top right before serving.
- Thicker soup: To thicken the bisque, add cream cheese to the cream.
Serving suggestions:
Grilled cheese is my favorite sandwich to serve with this soup, but I have a new favorite. With sweet fresh strawberries, strawberry jam, gooey cheese, crispy bacon, and lightly grilled sourdough bread, this strawberry-bacon grilled cheese is the perfect sandwich to go with tomato bisque. I have to say, I am very proud of this creation, and everyone who tries it falls in love with it!
Sure, other sandwiches are good with this soup too, like my Monte Cristo grilled cheese with runny eggs, cranberry jam, crunchy bacon, and fried ham, or a ham sandwich with Swiss cheese. Another way to enjoy this soup is with my homemade breadsticks, warm from the oven, or some dinner rolls, biscuits, or crusty bread of any kind. I sometimes add a salad too, and a homemade dessert such as my rich and decadent banana cream cheesecake.
How to store leftovers:
- Refrigerate: Leftover soup can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for 4 to 5 days.
- Freezing: To keep it longer, I fill freezer bags, squeeze out the air, and lay them flat in the freezer. They don’t take up any room and can stay frozen for up to 6 months.
- Defrost: Before reheating to serve, I thaw frozen leftovers in the fridge overnight.
- Reheating: I pour the bisque into a saucepan and let it simmer on medium-low for several minutes, stirring frequently.
Frequently asked questions
This can happen if you use milk instead of heavy cream or if the heavy cream is added too soon. I use heavy cream with at least 36% milkfat and do not add it until after the soup is finished cooking and the pot is turned off. Otherwise, the cream can curdle. Another way to prevent this is to add ¼ teaspoon of baking soda to the soup before stirring in the cream, which will reduce the tomatoes’ acidity.
For the fresh tomatoes, I recommend cherry tomatoes because they have a sweeter flavor and lower moisture content. They also have fewer seeds, and I just have to cut them in half. Actually, if they are really small, I don’t have to cut them at all. For canned tomatoes, I always choose San Marzano tomatoes because their low acidity gives them a wonderful, robust taste and sweetness.
It could be that there was too much liquid from the tomatoes. I use cherry tomatoes because they have less liquid. Large-sliced tomatoes have a lot of excess juice, which is good for some things but not for soup. If using large tomatoes, reduce the broth by about a cup or thicken the soup at the end with a cornstarch slurry. Use 1 tablespoon of cornstarch mixed with 1 tablespoon of broth until the cornstarch dissolves. Then, stir it into the soup at the end.
If you don’t scrape the bottom of the pot after sautéing the vegetables, the bits that get stuck there may burn, making the soup taste bitter. If you get lucky and the pot does not stick you with a burn notice, you’ll still end up with bitter pieces of onion, garlic, and celery floating around in your soup.
More Instant Pot soup recipes to try:
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Instant Pot Tomato Bisque
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 yellow onion diced
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 stalk celery diced
- 1 pound cherry tomatoes cut into halves
- 14 ounces crushed tomatoes
- 1 teaspoon white sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/8 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
- 1 pinch red pepper flakes
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 4 cups veggie broth or chicken broth
- 1 cup heavy cream
Instructions
- Select the Sauté option and set it to High or More. Once it displays HOT, pour in the olive oil.
- Once the oil is simmering, saute the onion for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds.
- Add the celery and tomatoes and cook, stirring for 4-5 minutes.
- Turn off the Sauté function, then add all the remaining ingredients, excluding the heavy cream.
- Close the lid and point the valve to Sealing.
- Cook under pressure for 10 minutes. Then allow a 15-minute natural pressure release, followed by manually releasing any remaining pressure.
- Open the lid, stir in the heavy cream, taste and adjust for salt and pepper, and use an immersion blender to puree the soup.
- Serve garnished with fresh basil.
Video
Notes
How to prevent the burn notice
Because heavy soups like tomato tend to cause a burn notice after sautéing, I like to add a bit of broth to mine right after I saute the tomatoes and aromatics so I can deglaze the bottom. It is easy to do with a wooden spoon or spatula and takes just a minute or two, better than having to turn off the pot in the middle of cooking to clean away the burnt bits. Those glazed bits at the bottom also provide a lot of flavor before they get burnt when they turn bitter.More tips to consider:
- Don’t add the cream until after pressure cooking, so it won’t curdle.
- The order of ingredients is important when cooking in an Instant Pot to prevent a burn notice.
- I highly recommend San Marzano tomatoes. They are super sweet and have fewer seeds, resulting in a better-tasting bisque with a smoother texture.
- Use fresh herbs and spices for the best flavor.
I know for sure this Tomato Bisque would be a huge hit in my house!
Add a grilled cheese on the side, and I am good to go! Looks delicious. 🙂
It’s cold and rainy here so this would be perfect! Tomato is my fave!!!
Just made this and it is so delicious! Keeper for sure. It did need to be a bit thicker. When I realized this may be the case, I strained it a little, added 1 Tbls cornstarch, and boiled it down for 30 minutes. Then it was perfect for my liking!
That’s just what we did. Home made bread grilled cheeses and instant pot tomato soup. I added fresh basil to mine and aome corn starch to make it thicker! So delicious
I’ve tried a few different recipes but this one I like the best. And my neighbors that I use as tasters, this was her favorite. I added more of the spices to my taste. Will be sticking with this recipe 😋
I love the Pacific brand tomato soup especially if my stomach is off but it is too expensive for my budget to have as more than a treat. This is a great, easy copycat! Delicious enough to eat daily, easy enough to make even if I don’t feel well. I use coconut milk since I try to avoid dairy but still want it creamy and it’s still good even for my dairy lover husband. It’s now a staple in our house!
This has been my go to tomato bisque recipe for a long time. I’m sorry I forgot to comment before but it is fabulous. I’ve been making it for five years now.
Thank you for your feedback, happy that you liked it.