Instant Pot Mini Lasagna Soup
Continuing on with my new Instant Pot Mini journey I decided to try Lasagna Soup. It’s another one that I’ve seen come up in the Facebook groups. I was sufficiently intrigued by the concept as it feels like it would be simpler to make than trying to assemble a traditional pan of Lasagna.
So I started with a few different recipes (Simple Happy Foodie, 365 Days of Crockpot, Eating on a Dime, and Skinny Taste – not Instant Pot) to create my own mashup.
What I knew I wanted, aside from a recipe that fit within my Instant Pot Mini, was one that was more soup than thick tomato soup.
The below recipe probably still needs some tweaking but here are comments on this round:
- 6 minutes of cooking time on the pasta was probably ok, but the 5 minutes of Natural Pressure Release was too much. I should have done a quick release. The pasta is pretty soggy at this point.
- Flavor-wise I was happy with it. I decided to use chicken stock and not beef stock because a) I’ve found beef stock to be overwhelming in other recipes and b) I had half a box on hand after making Instant Pot Whole Wheat Mac and Cheese.
- I’m trying to stack up recipes that finish off partial ingredients from other recipes. So this one used the other half of my Mac and Cheese Chicken Stock. I now have leftover grated Mozzarella and Ricotta. You can try freezing them so I’ll probably do that.
Instant Pot Mini Lasagna Soup
A soup for when you want Lasagna without the hassle of building a traditional pan of it!
Ingredients
- Olive oil spray (or 1 tbsp or so of olive oil)
- 1/2 pound Bulk Italian Sweet Sausage (I was able to get this from the meat counter. Or use Spicy if you like it hotter)
- Salt, to taste (I usually skip this)
- 1/2 small Onion (yellow), chopped
- 3 cloves Garlic, chopped
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tbsp Italian Seasoning (totally eyeballed it)
- 3 shakes Red Pepper Flakes (optional and depending how hot you want this)
- 2 cups Chicken Stock
- 1 8 oz can Tomato Sauce
- 1 16 oz can diced tomatoes (I opted for no salt otherwise you can also use petite diced too)
- 1 1/2 to 2 cups Pasta (I used bow ties but you could break up lasanga noodles or use another fluted pasta)
- 1 bag grated Mozzarella Optional, for serving
- 1 container Ricotta Optional, for serving. Ideally find the smallest one you can.
Instructions
- Make sure your Mini’s inner liner is in. Press the Saute function. Once hot spray with Olive Oil spray or add a little olive oil. Add the sausage and season if using salt. Break apart and stir until no longer pink.
- Add onion, garlic, and seasonings. Stir and cook until onion is translucent (a few minutes).
- Add chicken stock to deglaze pan. NOTE: This is very important scrape the bottom of the pan well to avoid the “Burn” warning!!)
- Add the tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, and pasta. Stir. Cancel the Saute function.
- Put on the lid. Ensure the value is set to seal. Press Pressure Cook to High and set for 5-6 minutes (depending on the pasta you’re using).
- Once done, carefully do a controlled quick release. Note: if you leave the pasta on for a natural release too long you’ll end up with mushy pasta.
- Serve immediately topping with grated Mozzarella and Ricotta (optional)
This was FABULOUS!!! I absolutely loved it!! (A suggestion: I did find that storing leftovers in the refrigerator for the next day meant the pasta had absorbed much of the liquid and the spices and was not nearly as flavorful. Better to take out half (or some other appropriate fraction) of the soup and pressure cook both portions with the proportional amount of pasta on separate days. This really does have all the flavor of lasagna in a much easier-to-make format. Yum!