Instant Pot 15 Bean Soup With Sausage. It's time for a hearty soup with ALL THE BEANS, with sausage and Cajun flavors, ready in under an hour, thanks to pressure cooking.
All it took was the word Cajun.
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I've made a lot of recipes with 15-bean soup mix (like my recent Instant Pot 15-Bean Chili), and I love the combination of beans and sausage (like Pressure Cooker Lentil Sausage Soup and Pressure Cooker Senate Bean Soup). So, when I saw Hurst's HamBeens Cajun 15 Bean Soup mix at my local grocery and a sale on Andouille sausage, I knew what I was having for dinner. Here is my recipe for 15 bean soup in an Instant Pot.
Ingredients
- 15 bean soup mix
- Fine sea salt
- Olive oil
- Andouille sausage (or smoked sausage or kielbasa)
- Onion
- Celery
- Red bell pepper
- Garlic
- Cajun seasoning
- Cayenne pepper
- Chicken broth
- Canned diced tomatoes with green chilies
- Salt and Pepper
See the recipe card for quantities.
How to make Instant Pot 15 Bean Soup
Sort, Rinse, and Soak the beans: Sort and rinse the beans. Sprinkle the beans with 2 teaspoons of fine sea salt, cover with 8 cups of water, and soak the beans overnight. Drain the beans.
Brown the sausage: Heat the olive oil in an Instant Pot set to Sauté mode - high until the oil starts shimmering. Add the sliced sausage and cook until it starts to brown around the edges, then remove to a bowl with a slotted spoon.
Sauté the aromatics and spices: Add the onion, celery, bell pepper, and garlic, and sprinkle with ½ teaspoon salt. Sauté until the onions soften, about 5 minutes. Stir in the cajun seasoning and cayenne pepper, and toast for a minute.
Everything in the pot: Add the drained beans, browned sausage, chicken broth, water, and diced tomatoes with chilies.
Pressure Cook for 15 minutes with a Natural Release: Lock the lid and set the Instant Pot to pressure cook at high pressure for 15 minutes. Let the pressure come down naturally.
Season and serve: Unlock the lid. Stir the salt and fresh ground pepper into the pot. Serve and enjoy!
Substitutions
- Other bean mixes: I use Hambeens 15 bean soup mix because it is the most common bean mix in my grocery store. But...13 bean? 16 bean? Whatever it takes. If your store carries a bean mix, use it. I discard the seasoning packet, though (like the Cajun seasoning packet that came in my bag of beans), and do the seasoning myself.
- Homemade bean mixes: I'll make my own bean mix by saving leftover beans when I don't use a whole bag in my recipe. It won't have quite as much variety, but it still works in this recipe.
- Single bean varieties: You can substitute different types of beans for the 15-bean mix. Try navy beans, great northern beans, black beans, black-eyed peas, small red beans, or cranberry beans. Of course, you can use Red beans or Pinto beans, which I use so often that they deserve their own recipes: Pressure Cooker Red Beans and Rice and Instant Pot Cajun Pinto Beans.
- Other sausages: Andouille is a garlicky, spicy smoked sausage from Louisiana. You can substitute a regular smoked sausage, with smoke and no spice, or kielbasa, with garlic but no smoke flavor.
- Other pork: If you don't have sausage, a smoked ham hock, leftover ham bone, or some diced ham make a good substitute.
- Cut the heat: If you want to cut back on the heat, skip the cayenne pepper, cut the cajun seasoning back to 1 tablespoon, and substitute smoked sausage for the andouille.
Tips and Tricks
The key to this Instant Pot 15 Bean Soup recipe is the dry beans. Sorting, rinsing, and soaking the beans is extra work and can discourage a novice cook. Don't get intimidated - you can do it! Homemade dried beans are so much better than store-bought beans - the results are well worth the extra effort. (Especially with quick pressure cooking - dry beans are one of the reasons my pressure cooker never wound up on the "kitchen gadgets I never use" shelf in the back of my basement.)
Equipment
Scaling
This recipe bumps up against the max fill line in a 6-quart pressure cooker. To double it, you must move up to an 8-quart pressure cooker. Or, if you want a smaller batch, cut all the ingredients in half, and this recipe will fit in a 3-quart pressure cooker. The cooking time does not change; it takes the same amount of time to cook the beans, no matter how many there are.
Storage
Soup makes excellent leftovers. This soup will last, refrigerated, for a couple of days. I portion leftovers into 2-cup containers and freeze them, where they will last for up to 6 months.
What to Serve with 15 Bean Soup with Sausage
This soup is a hearty one-pot meal, especially if you serve it with a loaf of crusty bread and a green salad. Or, I make it into the classic combo of rice and beans by adding a pot of white rice or brown rice to mix in at the table. And, I always serve it with a bottle of hot sauce (Tabasco or Crystal are New Orleans style, and match the theme of the recipe.)
Frequently Asked Questions
Soaking the beans helps them cook more quickly. I do an overnight soak (or a quick soak) to speed up the cooking process. If I forget to soak the beans - hey, it happens - I increase the chicken broth to 6 cups and the pressure cooking time to 30 minutes with a natural pressure release.
Beans are an agricultural product, and stuff tends to creep in during picking and processing. Beans should always be sorted and rinsed before use to remove any twigs, stones, clumps of dirt, or broken beans.
To sort beans, I pour them out on the far side of a rimmed baking sheet. Then I slowly pull the beans towards me, a little at a time, running my fingers through the beans and watching for anything that doesn't look right. If something catches my eye, I find it and discard it. I repeat this several times until I'm satisfied everything is out of the beans.
Then I rinse the beans in a fine mesh strainer under cold running water to wash off any dirt or dust still on the beans.
Now the beans are sorted, rinsed, and ready for soaking or cooking.
Instant Pot 15 Bean Soup Recipe
- Total Time: 8 hours 50 minutes
- Yield: 16 servings 1x
Description
Instant Pot 15 Bean Soup With Sausage. It's time for a hearty soup with ALL THE BEANS, with sausage and Cajun flavors, ready in under an hour, thanks to pressure cooking.
Ingredients
Dry Beans - Soak
- 20-ounce bag 15 bean soup mix (dry beans)
- 8 cups water for soaking
- 2 teaspoons fine sea salt for soaking
Instant Pot 15 Bean Soup With Sausage
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 pound andouille sausage, cut into ½-inch rounds (or smoked sausage or kielbasa)
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 1 rib celery, diced
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2 tablespoons cajun seasoning
- ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 4 cups chicken broth (homemade chicken broth or store-bought low sodium)
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt (if using homemade broth)
- 2 cups water (or more chicken broth)
- 15-ounce can diced tomatoes with green chilies
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
Instructions
- Sort, rinse, and soak the bean mix: Sort the beans, discarding any stones, dirt, or broken beans. Rinse the beans, then do an overnight or a quick soak.
- Overnight soak: Cover the beans with 8 cups of water, and sprinkle with 2 teaspoons of salt. Leave the beans to soak for at least 8 hours or overnight. Drain the beans and discard the soaking liquid.
- OR: Pressure Quick Soak for 1 minute with a 30-minute rest: Put the beans and 8 cups of water in an Instant Pot or another pressure cooker. Sprinkle with 2 teaspoons of salt. Pressure cook at high pressure for 1 minute (use Manual, Pressure Cook, or Pressure Cook - Custom mode in an Instant Pot). Let the beans soak in the pot for 30 minutes, then quick release any remaining pressure. Drain the beans and discard the soaking liquid.
- Brown the sausage: Heat the olive oil in an Instant Pot set to Sauté Mode - High (use medium-high heat in a stovetop PC) until the oil starts shimmering. Add the andouille sausage and cook, occasionally stirring, until browned around the edges, about 3 minutes. Scoop the sausage out with a slotted spoon and move it to a bowl.
- Saute the aromatics and spices: Add the onion, celery, bell pepper, and garlic to the pot, and sprinkle with ½ teaspoon salt. Sauté, stirring often, until the onions soften, about 5 minutes. Stir in the Cajun seasoning and cayenne pepper, and sauté for 1 minute to toast the spices.
- Everything in the pot: Pour the soaked beans into the pressure cooker, and add the browned sausage. Stir in the chicken broth (and 1 teaspoon of salt if using homemade broth), water, and diced tomatoes with chilies.
- Pressure cook the bean mix for 15 minutes with a Natural Release: Lock the lid on the pressure cooker. Cook at high pressure for 15 minutes in an Instant Pot or other electric pressure cooker. (Use Manual, Pressure Cook, or Pressure Cook - Custom mode in an Instant Pot, set for 15 minutes). Or, cook for 12 minutes in a stove top PC. Let the pressure come down naturally, about 20 minutes. (If you're in a hurry, you can quick pressure release any remaining pressure after 15 minutes.) Unlock the lid, tilting it away from you to avoid the hot steam.
- Serve: Stir 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of fresh ground black pepper into the soup. Serve with hot sauce and enjoy!
- Prep Time: 8 hours
- Cook Time: 50 minutes
- Category: Sunday Dinner
- Method: Pressure Cooker
- Cuisine: Cajun
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Diane says
Made it, loved it! And your corned beef and cabbage are coming again soon. So good! (I miss seeing you on YouTube...)
Mike Vrobel says
Thanks! And, I’m hoping to have time for some more YouTube in a few months. Stay tuned!
Trey P. says
Soooo good!!
Mike Vrobel says
Thanks!
John Bolz says
Creole or Cajun Seasoning?
Mike Vrobel says
Both Cajun and Creole seasoning will work in this recipe. Use whichever one you have on hand.
Ben W says
More beans! Looking forward to this one.
Mike Vrobel says
It’s great -give it a try!