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    You are here: Home » Instant Pot Recipes » Instant Pot Mushroom Barley Soup

    Instant Pot Mushroom Barley Soup

    Last Modified: October 3, 2021

    Jump to Recipe·Print Recipe·5 from 23 reviews

    Here’s a recipe for a delicious Instant Pot mushroom and barley soup that’s super easy to make. Filled with natural goodness and cooks up in an Instant Pot pressure cooker in less than an hour.

    Recipe for Instant Pot mushroom barley soup
    Jump to:
    • The Perfect Easy Recipe for your Instant Pot
    • Simple Ingredients
    • Soup starts with a mirepoix base
    • Building the Soup Flavor
    • Pressure Cook for 20 minutes
    • Ready to serve
    • Recipe
    • ???? Comments

    The Perfect Easy Recipe for your Instant Pot

    I absolutely love making fresh homemade soup recipes in my Instant Pot.  They’re easy to make and there’s nothing quite like having a nice hot bowl of soup that you’ve made from scratch. Soup recipes are also great starter recipes for anyone who’s just getting started with instant Pot cooking. They’re very forgiving and the results are almost always excellent. This mushroom barley soup uses barley, fresh mushrooms, fresh carrots, fresh celery, onions, a few simple herbs and broth to to create a hearty soup you can call all your own. Making soups with an Instant Pot electric pressure cooker is awesome because you can do so much with it in so little time.

    Simple Ingredients

    We love recipes that are easy to make and use simple ingredients. You probably already have lots of the ingredients already in your pantry and spice rack. Naturally mushrooms are one of the stars of the show. Baby bella or white mushrooms are your best bet. They both provide a great texture with a flavor profile what works so well with the barley and other ingredients. Pearl barley is the other featured ingredient of the soup. Make sure to use the regular barley and not the quick cook kind.

    Ingredients include:

    • White or baby bella mushrooms
    • Pearl barley
    • Onions, celery, carrots
    • Vegetable broth
    • Marjoram, sage, parsley
    • Bay Leaves
    • Salt and pepper
    All the ingredients for making Instant Pot mushroom barley soup

    Soup starts with a mirepoix base

    This soup recipe starts with a foundation of onion, carrot and celery. This is commonly refereed to as Mirepoix. This combination of ingredients are the base of so many delicious recipes, and for this mushroom barley soup, it all starts here. Once we’ve diced our onion, carrot and celery, we add them to the Instant Pot and use the “sauté” setting with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. Once the oil is hot, we add our vegetable mix and sauté for 4 minutes. The carrots and celery will get a bright orange and green color and the onions will start to become translucent. And the smell is awesome too! Then, we add in the sliced mushrooms and continue sautéing for another 3 minutes.

    Easy recipe for Instant Pot Mushroom Barley Soup.

    Building the Soup Flavor

    After we’ve sautéed everything, it’s soon time for the other star of the show, the barley. But first, we press cancel to stop the sauté mode and add in the 4 cups of vegetable broth. You can use your favorite brand vegetable broth. After the broth is added to the pot, use a wooden spoon to scrape the bottom of the pot. This is called deglazing and basically just gets any little bits of the sautéed vegetables off the bottom. And it’s a flavor that also adds to the whole experience. Then, it’s time for the barley. We’re only using a half cup of barley, which doesn’t seem like a lot, but trust me, it’s plenty! Those little grains grow a lot when cooked. Finally we stir in our herbs. A ½ teaspoon of each makes it all easy to remember. We’ll use parsley flakes, marjoram, and rubbed sage. This blend of herbs works so well with the mushrooms and barley. It brings a nice full, comforting and earthy flavor, without being to overwhelming in any particular direction. You can also add salt and pepper to your liking. I actually like to use a whole teaspoon of fresh ground black pepper and about ¾ teaspoon of kosher salt. But feel free to adjust the salt and pepper to your liking.

    Recipe for Instant Pot mushroom barley soup

    Pressure Cook for 20 minutes

    Ah, the beauty of pressure cooking! While many soup recipes can take several hours on the stovetop or slow cooker, our Instant Pot gets the job done in a fraction of the time. With all the ingredients now loaded into the pot, secure the lid, set the vent to “sealing” position and pressure cook (on high pressure) for 20 minutes. Once the cooking time is up, let the pressure naturally release for 10 minutes, before quick releasing the remaining pressure.

    Recipe for Instant Pot mushroom barley soup

    Ready to serve

    Carefully remove the lid and use the ladle to stir everything, as well as to fish out the bay leaves. Your soup is now ready to serve.

    Recipe for Instant Pot mushroom barley soup
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    Recipe

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    Instant Pot mushroom barley soup

    Instant Pot Mushroom Barley Soup


    5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star

    5 from 23 reviews

    • Author: Recipe Teacher
    • Total Time: 40 mins
    • Yield: 6-8 cups
    Print Recipe
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    Description

    A delicious and hearty Instant Pot mushroom barley soup that’s easy to make and loaded with fresh ingredients.


    Ingredients

    • 8oz mushrooms, sliced
    • 4 cups vegetable broth, low sodium
    • ½ cup barley, pearled
    • 2 celery stalks
    • 1 carrot
    • ½ onion, diced
    • 2 tablespoons olive oil
    • ½ teaspoon marjoram
    • ½ teaspoon sage
    • ½ teaspoon parsley flakes
    • ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
    • 2 bay leaves
    • salt to taste

    Instructions

    1. Set Instant Pot to saute setting and add olive oil. When oil is hot, add carrots, onions and celery. Saute for 4-5 minutes or until onions are just becoming translucent. Then add mushrooms and continue sauteing for another 3 minutes.
    2. Press cancel to stop the saute cycle and add vegetable broth. Use a wooden spoon to deglaze the bottom of the pot (scrape the any cooked-on bits). Add herbs, barley, salt and pepper. Stir well.
    3. Secure lid and cook on manual (pressure cook) on high for 20 minutes.
    4. Let natural release for 10 minutes, then quick release the rest. Remove lid, remove the bay leaves and stir. You’re now ready to serve.
    • Prep Time: 10 mins
    • Cook Time: 30 mins
    • Category: Soup
    • Method: Instant Pot
    • Cuisine: American

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    Instant Pot mushroom barley soup recipe
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    Comments

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      Recipe rating 5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star

    1. Karen S says

      February 05, 2025 at 6:09 pm

      Delicious! Added a couple of cloves of minced garlic, subbed Herbes de Provence for the sage and marjoram, and subbed about 1/3 cup of chopped fresh parsley (added after cooking) for the dried. Will definitely make it again! Thank you!

      Reply
    2. Rina says

      November 19, 2024 at 6:44 am

      This soup was tasty and easy to follow. My family enjoyed it. I love the instant pot and it’s purpose.

      Reply
    3. Greg Thomas says

      April 16, 2024 at 5:03 pm

      I added a little minced garlic and couple dashes of tabasco. Recipe is easy, tasty, and heart heathy.

      Reply
    4. Anne says

      October 07, 2023 at 11:32 pm

      Just made this soup and it’s delicious! Good and hearty and very tasty. It’s really easy to make too!

      Reply
    5. Bev Bennett says

      April 17, 2023 at 11:54 am

      Excellent soup. I made this exactly as written and would not change a thing. Great flavor with baby Bella mushrooms.

      Reply
    6. Kristen Duke says

      January 25, 2023 at 8:47 pm

      Easy to make ahead for a healthy delicious work lunch

      Reply
    7. Christine in New York says

      November 17, 2022 at 7:05 pm

      DELICIOUS!! I did reduce the black pepper to less than 1/8 teaspoon. Didn’t have marojam, so used rosemary instead. Easy.recipe using readily available ingredients.

      Reply
    8. Heather Klan says

      November 02, 2022 at 9:53 am

      I doubled the recipe and it was perfect! I did add a bit of Worcestershire sauce and lower Na+ soy sauce to the broth after cooking. It was a winner with 2 teenage boys. I’ll be adding to my winter soup rotation!

      Reply
    9. Aimelie says

      September 08, 2021 at 10:33 am

      One of my favorite soup ever! Delicious!

      Reply
      • Jack says

        January 05, 2022 at 7:36 am

        We love this recipe and have used it a few times. The barley really soaks up the broth however and soemtjmes we add more water to serve afterwards.

        Reply
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    Jason of Recipeteacher.com

    Hi, I’m Jason and i’m here to help you make easy, delicious homemade recipes. My approach is to provide the easy-to-understand instructions, use simple ingredients, and have you make the best meals possible.

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