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Hearty delicious instant pot hamburger soup with barley is so easy to make! Ground beef makes this soup so thick, it almost tastes like a stew.

The season of delicious soups is here. Its very common to cook soups any time of the year in my house but winter cooking is just something special.
For all my pressure cooker recipes i use my 8 qt Instant pot. If you have a smaller pressure cooker don’t worry about adjusting the size. The soup will fit easily in a smaller pot.
How to make instant pot hamburger soup with barley
First you need to start with browning ground beef and onions. You can put them in the pot together or start with onions. Add oil into the pot and chopped white onions. Saute for a few minutes and then add ground beef.
Once the meat is well browned, add chopped celery and carrots. You can slice or chop them any way you want. Don’t cut them too small though so they don’t dissolve during pressure cooking.
Add diced tomatoes from the can and all the juice. If you don’t like chunks of tomatoes in your soup, just add equal amount of tomato sauce. Its time to add spices and beef bouillon (this is totally optional). If you don’t want to use bouillon add equal amount of salt.

Rinse pearl barley couple times under the running cold water. Add to the pot and the next step is adding potatoes. I peel mine but you can leave the skin on if you want to. Cut in small chunks and stir into the soup base. Add water and close and lock the Instant pot lid.

The soup will be pretty thick and delicious. Barley will cook perfectly and all vegetables will still have a bite in it.
Serve with chopped cilantro on top, some crackers on the side ( like my husband does) and i love to add a little bit of hot sauce into my bowl. A dollop of sour cream sound good too!

Instant pot makes best soups! Who agree? I made so many delicious soups in my pressure cooker, here are my favorites:
Instant pot hamburger soup with barley
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef
- 2 celery ribs
- 1/2 onion chopped
- 2 carrots peeled and chopped
- 1 can diced tomatoes
- 2 teaspoon beef bouillon
- 1 cup barley rinsed
- 2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 8 cups water
- 3 medium potatoes peeled and cubed
Instructions
- Push instant pot SAUTE button. Heat oil and add chopped onions. Cook onions for 5 minutes, stiring. Add ground beef and cook for another 3-5 minutes until browned.
- Add the rest of ingredients and stir. Close and lock the lid. Pressure cook for 20 minutes. Quick release the pressure once cooked.
Notes
Tools used in this recipe
Nutrition information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. This information comes from online calculators.
Our 30+ BEST Instant Pot Ground Beef Recipes – The Kitchen Community
Friday 25th of March 2022
[…] 12. Instant Pot Hamburger Soup […]
Michael Jacques
Monday 21st of February 2022
In your instructions: 1. Cook onions for 5 minutes, stiring. There are two r’s in stirring!
Jacque
Tuesday 1st of February 2022
Nutritional Content? Thanks!
Marilyn
Thursday 20th of January 2022
What size of can of the diced tomatoes?
Judy
Wednesday 8th of December 2021
Made this yesterday for lunch. Delicious!! Much easier and quicker than the stove top or slow cooker versions. I love my Instant Pot!