I never jumped on the Instant Pot train. I didn’t feel I needed yet another small appliance to add to the already over stuffed pantry pouring over onto shelves full of small appliances. My mom started buying me small appliances and cookware when I was 19. Thirty years later I’ve accumulated a small collection.
This past year we have been trying to minimize and down size what we have and part with what we do not need. It’s not as easy as it sounds when you are a food blogger who styles their own photos and needs props to do this. This and other reasons are why I resisted until I could no longer resist.
Enter my Father-In-Law. He raves about his Instant Pot, so much so he gave us one for Christmas this year. He’s already given me many tips and tricks on using the pot and recipes he’s tried, so making this soup was pretty simple. We took our tried and true Slow Cooker Hamburger Soup recipe, changed it up a bit and turned it into an Instant Pot Hamburger Soup recipe.
Receiving an Instant Pot for Christmas had me intrigued and started my mind wandering about what I could actually make in one since I never paid much attention to the recipes even though I have an Instant Pot Pinterest Board. So I fired it up and started with a simple soup.
Our Instant Pot Hamburger Soup features ground beef, bacon, carrots, celery and shallots all coming together in a savoury tomato broth. I added bacon hoping the bacon flavour would infuse into the soup and it did a little but not as much as I had hoped plus the bacon didn’t crisp up. Next time I may cook the bacon in advance and crumble it on top.
Tip: I always cook my pasta separately and then ladle it into individual bowls. This method works best when you have leftover soup to ensure the noodles do not soak up the broth leaving you with no liquid when you are ready to eat the soup again. Cooking your pasta separate and adding it to each bowl, and storing separately keeps the soup loose and brothy the next day.
