This Red Kidney Beans Soup is cooked in the instant pot with plenty of fresh vegetables and olive oil. I love serving this beans soup with rice and pickled vegetables. I tend to add some kick to the soup by spreading sliced, raw jalapenos & red chilis to soup bowl.
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Mediterranean Beans Soup
I grew up in Albania and as in many other Mediterranean countries we cook plenty of beans soup, especially in winter time. The most typical Albanian bean soup is made with navy beans and you can find that recipe in my blog too – Instant Pot Bean Soup, Albanian Fasule. We call beans fasule.
Red beans were a bit more rare to find, but we enjoyed cooking them anytime we could find them. They’re healthy and contain a lot of minerals, high fiber and protein. It’s a great food to add to your diet to help with heart health, blood sugar and other health issues.
Typically beans in the Mediterranean are cooked with onions, garlic, peppers, tomatoes and carrots. Then each country adds their own signature herb or spice, and usually most serve it with rice or a salad. And of course we cook it with olive oil:) and drizzle with olive oil when we serve it as well.
Soaking The Beans
I’m not sure if soaking the beans is still considered a best practice, but I continue soaking the beans. I usually soak them the night before and next day drain and rinse them. It’s said that soaking the beans overnight helps with digestion and gas.
Red Kidney Beans Soup Recipe Notes
Before I get into the recipe, please see some of my notes and process pictures below.
- Cooking time in the instant pot might vary. I usually cook for an hour on the beans/chili setting, de-pressurize, check if it is cooked then add more time if needed. This time it took me 1 hr and 40 mins to get the soup cooked as I wanted. The cooking time varies a lot on type of beans and how old they are (which you can’t see in the package unfortunately).
- You can use other types of multi-cookers to make this soup, even a regular pressure cooker. Please follow safety instructions of each device.
- Some recipes require an almost surgical precision with instructions. But this beans recipe is so easy, you just need to saute everything, add beans, add tomato paste, water and cook. That’s it!!
- Mediterranean flavors don’t rely on a lot of spices. Mediterranean food usually has a lot of fresh vegetables and herbs. I add some spice to this soup with the raw slices of red pepper and jalapeno on the bowl. However, if you like your soup itself to be spicy or have a kick you can add more spices in before you close the pressure cooker lid and let them cook with the beans.
- In Albania, we pair bean soups with salads made with pickled vegetables. Some people even add the dressing of the pickled salad back in the soup to add more flavor.
Here’s a picture of all the ingredients before I started cooking. Hope it helps you visualize quantities and help with shopping list.
Another image that I thought might be helpful is the below collage of 4 process pictures taken while I was cooking the soup.
Instant Pot Red Kidney Beans Soup [V]
Equipment
- Instant Pot
Ingredients
- 3 cups red kidney beans
- 1 yellow onion
- 3 garlic cloves
- 3 carrots
- 1 green bell pepper
- 1 red bell pepper
- 2 tbsps tomato paste
- 4 tbsps olive oil
- 1.5 tsp salt (add to taste)
- 6 cups hot water
- 1 bunch fresh parsley, chopped leave about 1 tbsp or so for garnishing at the end
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 0.5 tsp paprika
Instructions
- Clean beans from impurities like small rocks. Soak them overnight if possible.
- Chop onion and bell peppers. Clean and chop the parsley too.
- Start sauteing onions and minced garlic in olive oil. Once onions become translucent add bell peppers. Lower heat to medium.
- While bell peppers are sauteing, peel carrots and slice them. You can also buy carrots already sliced.
- Add carrots to pot, stir and saute some more. Add the beans.
- Mix everything well, add tomato paste and chopped parsley. Add salt & water. Also at this point add chili powder and paprika. Stir one more time.
- Close the lid to Instant pot, cook for an hour. De-pressurize following safety instructions and check for taste and consistency. Add more to cooking time if needed. It took me 1 hr 40 minutes to cook the soup this last time but time varies on beans.
- Serve with rice, sliced chilis or jalapenos and if you like the combination of flavors, add a salad made with pickled vegetables for more authentic taste.
Notes
- Cooking time varies on the beans, there’s no way you can read that on the label or get that information before hand. So usually I would cook the beans on a day that I’m home. This is a very easy recipe, with little active cooking time. Instant pot does the rest, but you need to check on it to make sure soup reaches the perfect consistency.
- I tend to use less salt while cooking this soup because I love serving it with pickled vegetables and olive oil which are kind of salty and make up for less salt in soup. So please add salt as needed, especially if you are not serving the soup with something salty.
- If I have leftovers, I store them in the refrigerator for few days. If you want to make enough for freezing, then store in airtight snap containers and it should be good for up to 6 months. I haven’t tested longer than that because if I freeze this soup, we’ll usually have before winter is over.
- If you’ll not use red chilis or jalapenos to serve on the soup bowl, you can add them in the instant pot to cook with the beans. In that case soup will be spicy. If you don’t like the soup to be spicy but you want to be a little more flavorful, you can add cumin and other spices to it.
Nutrition Label
Nutrition
If you would like to save this recipe for later, please save the below image in Pinterest. You can reach out to me if you made it or have questions in social media:)
Instagram: mediterranean_latin_love or Facebook: Mediterranean Latin Love Affair.
Other Mediterranean Soups:
- Lemon, Egg, and Rice Chicken Soup
- Cream of Asparagus Soup
- Yellow Split Peas Soup with Spinach
- Orzo, Turkey Soup
Ty
Do I have to cook the kidney beans in advance? You’re recipe did not say to do that so I will try to it without pre-cooking the beans. Thanks for the recipe Sonila 🙂 Ty
Sonila
Hi Ty, I didn’t cook the beans before adding them to pressure cooker. I only soaked them overnight. Thank you for checking out my recipe!
Amy
Used chipotle powder and smoked paprika for the spices. Didn’t have a green pepper so used my red one and some celery. Incredible flavor!! Will put it into rotation.
Sonila
Hi Amy, it made me so happy to read your comment!! I often substitute too especially if I don’t have all ingredients available. Or I’d make it in dutch oven instead of pressure cooker if I’m using IP for another dish etc. It’s an easily customizable dish:). I appreciate your comment so much!! Have a great day! Sonila
Lee Fraser
Love the flavours! I made it as a stew (not soup) without an instant pot: cook the beans in water 30 mins, drain, add sauteed vegetables, parsley and two tins of tomatoes. Delicious here in New Zealand summer.
admin
Hi Lee, so happy to hear that you loved the flavors:)). It’s definitely a very versatile dish you can adapt to your liking.
Enjoy the summer there:)). I lived in Auckland back in 2009 and got to visit South Island and took several short trips on the North. It’s a beautiful country with great people!! Hope one day to visit again with the kids. All the best:).
Sonila
Taty
This red kidney bean soup looks amazing. I am getting my installer ready to make it!
Monica Chic
Esto se ve súper delicioso, yo soy súper fan del picante y los frijoles negros para mí son mi debilidad gracias por compartir esta receta, solo hacerlo pero muy de vez en cuando
Sonila
Gracias Monica!! A mi me encanta el picante tambien y no lo puedo cocinar con picante por los ninos. Asi que me acorde de este metodo que se comen los picantes crudos con la sopa. Pero si todos puden comer picante, les puedes hechar en instant pot antes de cerrar.
Estefania
That kidney bean soup looks yummy and nutritious! It’s perfect for this weather, thanks for the recipe
Silvia
I love red kidney beans but I don’t cook them often. With this soup in the instant pot I’ll be eating them a lot!
Vicky
This red kidney bean soup looks so delicious! I love you posted a pic with the ingredients. It is very helpful to have a visual with all we need!
Sonila
Thank you Vicky, it makes me really happy that you liked the picture with ingredients. Having lived in 3 different countries, I’ve noticed produce can wildly vary in size so for me saying use 1 green bell pepper might look different in US than in Europe. But if people see the picture they might realize, hey these peppers look huge, let me double up and adjust. I’m glad the visual helps!!!