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.
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. Making soups with an Instant Pot electric pressure cooker is awesome because you can do so much with it in so little time. Once we’ve diced our onion, carrot and celery, we add them to the Instant Pot and use the saute setting with a couple of tablespoons for olive oil. Once the oil is hot, we add our vegetable mix and saute 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 sauteing for another 3 minutes.
Let the Instant Pot do its magic
After we’ve sauteed everything, it’s soon time for the other star of the show, the barley. But first, we press cancel to stop the saute mode and add in the 4 cups of vegetable broth. I always like to use low sodium broth, as regular broth can be way too salty. You can always add as much salt as you like along the way. 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 sauteed 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 and will fill out the soup perfectly when cooked. Finally we stir in our herbs. A 1/2 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 3/4 teaspoon of kosher salt (regular salt is fine). But feel free to adjust the salt and pepper to your liking.
Instant Pot Mushroom Barley Soup
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 30 mins
- Total Time: 40 mins
- Yield: 6-8 cups
Ingredients
- 8oz mushrooms. sliced
- 4 cups vegetable broth, low sodium
- 1/2 cup barley, pearled
- 2 celery stalks
- 1 carrot
- 1/2 onion, diced
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon marjoram
- 1/2 teaspoon sage
- 1/2 teaspoon parsley flakes
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 2 bay leaves
- salt to taste
Instructions
- 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.
- 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.
- Secure lid and cook on manual (pressure cook) on high for 20 minutes.
- 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.
This was very flavorful, thank you for the recipe!
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Thanks for the feedback, Rachael! I love this recipe too. Soups in the Instant Pot are a lot of fun to make.
I only made 1x the recipe. Still wondering if you think I could double the recipe in my 6 qt Instant Pot?
Shouldn’t be a problem.
I doubled the carrots, used extra large celery, a medium onion, and 1/4 tsp pepper. I seasoned with salt as I was sauteeing the vegetables and then tasted when finished cooking to adjust salt to taste. This was good, easy and filling. Thanks for the recipe.
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Awesome! Sorry I didn’t get a chance to respond before you made it, but sounds like it went perfectly. Thanks for the feedback, Cheryl!
Can this recipe be doubled in a 6 qt Instant Pot?
Due to my lack of cooking skills, most recipes I try out either turn out to be “meh” or end up getting thrown away and I order out for pizza. This one actually rocked! It was so good to the point that I couldn’t wait to eat the leftovers for 3 days straight.
The only thing was it was a bit too salty for me (which is maybe why it tasted SO good, lol) but that was likely due to the broth that I used. I will just get the low-sodium broth and maybe add a cup of water to dilute a bit.
Any idea if this freezes well? Can’t wait to make this again….and again. Thanks for an amazing recipe that boosted my cooking confidence!!
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Soup was delicious! I substituted beef bone broth for the vegetable broth and cut the pepper in half.
Served it over fresh spinach and topped with some freshly grated parmesan cheese. Excellent!!!!
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Oh that spinach and Parmesan cheese sounds awesome! I’m going to have to try that! Thanks for the feedback, Jackie!
I liked it, but I thought the black pepper in the recipe overpowered the soup. I made it again with half the amount of pepper in the recipe and it was still spicy – for me. But if you like pepper, this may be the soup for you.
Tha is for the feedback, Victor. I’m definitely guilty of being a pepper guy. 🙂
I bought my InstantPot 18 months ago and have been pretty intimidated by it. I’d used it maybe twice before trying this soup. This recipe is foolproof and delicious. I am intimidated no more! Will be making this regularly. My 16 month old son begged for it.
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Hi Bonnie. Glad you finally got comfortable with your Instant Pot. They’re great for making soups. Thank you for the feedback!
This is to die for. I can see this being a standard recipe to make
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Thanks, Laura!!
I can only find “quick” pearled barely, will this still work?
I’ve not tested with the quick cook barley. My thoughts are that it would not work the same.
I’m just starting to use my instant pot. Your instructions were clear and easy to follow. The soup was great. My only change was to add 3 cloves of garlic. Thanks.
Thanks for the feedback, Bonnie. My biggest goal in starting the site was just what you mention – to have clear and easy to follow instructions. Glad you like the soup!!
We just had this soup for dinner. My daughter, who are 4 and 6 years old, are currently on their second bowl. They absolutely love it. They said I was the best cook ever and they want me to make it this weekend when we visit their grandparents. I am looking forward to getting more recipes from your site. Thank you so much.
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And I thank YOU so much for the feedback, Amy. I’m working on some more great soup recipes that fill debut in the fall. Thank you again!
-Jason
My 6 year old daughter just asked me for a third bowl! What a hit! 🙂
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I love it!!
Sounds very good. Do you have a clam chowder recipe?
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Not yet Gary but lots more recipes on the way.