This Instant Pot Loaded Baked Potato Soup is leveled up with heavy cream, garlic, and onions, and topped with bacon, and cheddar cheese.
If my family’s reaction to this soup is anything like your own, it will quickly become your favorite soup to make. It’s super easy to preparing in the Instant Pot and is just pure comfort food.
You can keep this soup simple with just potatoes, or dress it up with all your favorite baked potato toppings. Anything goes with this warming potato soup.
» You might also like these Instant Pot Scalloped Potatoes.
Ingredients You Need
- Potatoes – Not all potatoes will behave the same way in soup. You can choose your potatoes based on how you like your soup. See below for suggestions.
- Butter – Butter will give a richer flavor to the soup.
- Onion – They’ll add a unique sweet flavor when they sauteed in the butter. Use white or yellow onions. I often prefer to use sweet onions because I like their flavor and low bitterness.
- Garlic – Always use fresh garlic that hasn’t been kept in the refrigerator for too long. This has the best flavor and no bitterness that comes from older garlic.
- Flour – All-purpose white flour.
- Heavy Cream – This will give the sauce a nice creamy texture and a bit of added fat.
- Chicken Broth – Use low-sodium chicken broth so that you’ll be able to adjust salt to your liking.
- Sour Cream – While not an absolute necessity, we add about a 1/2 of sour cream just before serving to add more creaminess.
- Salt and Pepper – adjust the seasoning as you like. I find that potato soup needs quite a bit of salt.
- Bacon, green onions, sour cream, and cheddar cheese – These are our favorite toppings. Cheddar cheese will instantly melt in the warm dish and the onions and bacon will add a slightly crunchy texture.
Helpful Tips
- Lightly mashing the potatoes will give the soup a thicker consistency and incorporate the potatoes better. Mash them as much or as little as you wish.
- If you like a smooth soup, be sure to use a high starch potato, and when you add the potatoes back to the pot you can puree it with an immersion blender.
- If the cubed potatoes aren’t fully cooked through after pressure cooking, just leave them in the pot with the water on sauté mode until they are.
- Add a tablespoon of vinegar while the soup simmers to make the flavors more pronounced. This is an extra step, but it will brighten all of the flavors, which gives a final restaurant-style touch to the dish.
- You might also like to cook some carrots with the potatoes to add sweetness and color to the soup.
- It’s good to note that potatoes absorb so much salt, so you might like to add more salt when you’re done cooking.
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Instant Pot Loaded Baked Potato Soup
Note: Made in a 6-qt Instant Pot
Equipment
- Collinder
- Potato masher
Ingredients
- 2 pounds (907 g) Yukon gold potatoes cubed (about 8 medium potatoes)
- 1 1/2 cups (355 ml) warm water
- 2 tablespoons (28 g) butter
- 1 small onion diced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 2 tablespoons (15 g) flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons (9 g) salt
- 1/2 teaspoon (1 g) ground black pepper
- 1 cup (237 ml) heavy cream
- 3 cups (710 ml) chicken broth
- 1/2 cup (115 g) sour cream
Garnish:
- 6 slices bacon cooked and chopped
- Green onions chopped
- Cheddar cheese shredded
- Sour cream
Instructions
- Pour the cubed potatoes into the Instant Pot along with the warm water. Close the lid and set the valve to sealing (if necessary for your model). Press the pressure cook or manual button and set the cook time to 5 minutes on high pressure, then allow a 10 minute pressure release before releasing the remaining pressure.
- Drain the potatoes into a colander and set aside.
- Turn the Instant Pot to sauté. Add the butter and onion. Sauté for 5 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté for 30 seconds.
- Add in the flour, salt and pepper. Whisk to combine the flour and butter and cook for 1 minute.
- Pour in the heavy cream and whisk vigorously to dissolve any lumps.
- Pour in the chicken broth. Whisk to combine.
- Add potatoes back to the pot and gently mash the potatoes so that they are slightly broken up. Simmer on sauté mode until the soup has thickened. Feel free to mash the potatoes more until you've reached your desired consistency.
- Just before serving stir in a 1/2 cup of sour cream to add some extra creaminess.
- Serve garnished with bacon, green onions, and cheddar cheese.
Notes
- Lightly mashing the potatoes will give the soup a thicker consistency and incorporate the potatoes better. Mash them as much or as little as you wish. If you like a smooth soup, add the potatoes back and puree with an immersion blender.
- You can use russet or red potatoes.
- I leave the skins on red or Yukon, and peel the russets.
- If the cubed potatoes aren’t fully cooked through after pressure cooking, just leave them in the pot with the water on sauté mode until they are.
Nutrition
What Potatoes to Use
There are different types of potatoes that you can use. The level of starch in the potato will determine if they are firm and don’t fall apart, or if they disintegrate into the soup and make it thicker. You can choose your potatoes for this recipe based on how you like it to be.
Potatoes low in starch content will work best in this recipe because they’ll hold their shape best. These are red, new potatoes, or fingerling potatoes. Medium starch potatoes will soak up more liquid and keep their shape pretty well. More starchy potatoes, like Yukon Gold or Russets will give the soup a creamier, smooth texture, but they don’t hold their shape well.
Possible Substitutions
This recipe is packed with flavorful ingredients, but there’s room for flexibility. Here are the alternatives we recommend in case you’re missing some of the ingredients.
- You can use powdered onion or garlic instead of their fresh counterparts.
- Use half and half instead of heavy whipping cream to make the soup lighter.
- You can use cornstarch instead of flour to thicken the soup. Stir cornstarch into cold water before adding the mixture to the soup to avoid forming clumps.
- Add cubed ham just before serving.
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Laura is a passionate home cook and the owner of A Pressure Cooker Kitchen. She is dedicated to helping people create delicious Instant Pot meals with ease. Laura is an expert at developing recipes that can be prepared quickly and easily using a pressure cooker.