September marks the start of pumpkin season, so say hello to this Instant Pot Pumpkin Lasagna Soup! Pumpkin season is usually about the pumpkin sweets – pumpkin muffins, pumpkin lattes, pumpkin cookies, the works.
Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE pumpkin treats. But, I also think there are some incredible savory pumpkin recipes that get overlooked. Like this unique and fun pumpkin lasagna soup! If you are wondering, what exactly is a pumpkin lasagna soup, let me explain!
First we turn lasagna into soup form (lasagna soup is a thing, Google it). Then we add the flavors of pumpkin and woodsy herbs to make it taste like Thanksgiving. And that’s how we get a pumpkin lasagna soup!
Why you’ll love this recipe
Fun and Unique. This soup combines everything you love about two great things in life: lasagna and fall flavors. Plus, it’s unique flavor profile is guaranteed to impress.
Easy to Make. The main work involves chopping up and sautéing vegetables. Then you get to dump everything in the Instant Pot and let the machine do its work. So you get to enjoy the flavors of lasagna with a fraction of the work.
Instant Pot Magic. The cook time for this recipe is just 4 minutes, which is far less time than any stovetop soup! (Disclaimer: it does take some time for the soup to come to pressure, like any Instant Pot recipe, but it’s hands-off so you can do other things in the meantime).
Simple Ingredients. This lasagna soup is made with simple, readily available ingredients (think carrots, onions, garlic, chickpeas, lite coconut milk, vegetable broth, fresh herbs, etc.).
Cozy Fall Comfort Food. This pumpkin lasagna soup is the coziest autumn-inspired comfort food! Creamy from lite coconut milk, pumpkiny from, well, the pumpkin, and herbaceous from the bouquet garni, it has everything about fall comfort food that you love!
How to Make Vegan Instant Pot Pumpkin Lasagna Soup
First, chop up your veggies (dice the onions and carrots, and mince the garlic), and break up the lasagna noodles into small pieces. Then, prepare your bouquet garni.
A bouquet garni is a fancy French term for a bundle of herbs tied together. If you don’t have all of the specific herbs called for in the recipe, feel free to double up on another herb or use a similar herb (e.g., if you don’t have oregano, add a sprig of rosemary or add double the amount of thyme).
Then, it’s time to start cooking the soup. Select the Sauté setting on your Instant Pot and add the olive oil. Once it’s hot, add the diced onions and carrots and cook until they start to soften. Then add the garlic sauté for 1-2 minutes.
Deglaze the pot with the vegetable broth, scraping up any browned bits on the bottom of the pot.
Then, pour in the coconut milk, chickpeas, lasagna noodle pieces, salt, pepper, nooch, and tuck in the bouquet garni. Finally, scoop the canned pumpkin on top but do not stir the pumpkin into the soup. To help prevent triggering that burn error, I like to spoon or scoop thick ingredients on top of everything else, so they’re less likely to sink to the bottom and scorch the bottom of the pot.
Use the Pressure Cook setting at high pressure for 4 minutes. When the timer is done, perform a quick pressure release. A natural pressure release risks overcooking the lasagna noodles.
While the soup is cooking, you can prepare the Tofu Ricotta. All you need is a food processor and it takes 5 minutes!
When the soup is done, select the Sauté setting and add the tomato sauce, and stir until slightly thickened, just a few minutes. The reason I don’t add the tomato sauce during pressure cooking is it’s one of those very thick, viscous ingredients that is likely to trigger the burn error.
Watch! How to make Instant Pot Pumpkin Lasagna Soup
Tips for making this recipe
Be sure to break up the lasagna noodles into smaller pieces. You don’t need bite-sized pieces, but don’t stick them in the Instant Pot whole. The noodles won’t cook evenly and might stick to the bottom of the pot.
Use traditional lasagna noodles, not the no-boil noodles. I haven’t tried this recipe with the no-boil variety so I can’t say for sure, but 4 minutes was perfect for my traditional lasagna noodles, so it’s possible that 4 minutes would overcook no-boil noodles.
Deglaze the pot! When you sauté something in the IP, and then pressure cook thick ingredients like coconut milk, pumpkin, or canned tomatoes, deglazing is key. If you leave browned bits stuck to the bottom of the pot, you risk triggering the Instant Pot burn sensor.
Don’t stir the pumpkin into the soup before pressure cooking it. When you add very thick or viscous ingredients to the Instant Pot (think tomato sauce), it can stick to the bottom of the Instant Pot’s inner pot and trigger the machine’s burn sensor.
I have made recipes where I have stirred the pumpkin into the rest of the ingredients and the Instant Pot has been fine, but since we’re also using pasta (which has a tendency to stick), it’s best to play it safe and not stir in the pumpkin. If you’re wondering how to do that, just use a spoon to scoop out the pumpkin on top of all the ingredients and don’t stir. Or just watch the video above (around the 01:30 mark) for a visual reference.
If you don’t want to add chickpeas to the soup (maybe you think they don’t belong in lasagna soup, fine), then you can simply omit them. If you want to add a different protein to your soup, you can stir some baked tofu at the end.
Don’t skip the bouquet garni! It’s what infuses the soup with a deep aroma of woodsy herbs. It really makes the soup!
That’s about all you need to know about this vegan Instant Pot Pumpkin Lasagna Soup, so put on your fuzzy socks, light some apple spice candles, and start making this soup. And be sure to tag me on Instagram with your creations!
Vegan Instant Pot Pumpkin Lasagna Soup
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large yellow onion, diced
- 3 medium or large carrots, finely diced
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 4 cups vegetable broth
- 1 cup “lite” or reduced-fat coconut milk
- 1 (15-ounce) can of chickpeas (or 1 1/2 - 2 cups cooked chickpeas)
- 8 pieces lasagna noodles (6 ounces), broken into small pieces
- 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
- Freshly cracked black pepper to taste
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- Bouquet garni: 2 bay leaves + a few sprigs each of flat-leaf parsley, oregano, and thyme, tied tightly together with kitchen twine
- 1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie)
- 1/2 cup tomato sauce
Tofu Ricotta (makes about 2 cups)
- 1 14-ounce (400g) block extra-firm tofu
- 4 tablespoons (16g) nutritional yeast
- 1 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
- 2 tablespoons white or yellow miso paste
- 3/4 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 15 fresh basil leaves (optional)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons freshly grated lemon zest
- 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 1 medium-large lemon)
Instructions
- Select the Sauté setting on the Instant Pot and let the pot heat up for a few minutes before adding the olive oil. Once hot, add the onions and carrots and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until starting to soften. Add the garlic and cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring frequently, until fragrant.
- Add the vegetable broth to deglaze the pan, using a wooden spoon to scrape up any browned bits on the bottom of the pot. Select the Cancel setting.
- Add the lite coconut milk, chickpeas, lasagna noodle pieces, salt, pepper, nutritional yeast, and bouquet garni. Stir well to submerge the lasagna noodles. Using a spoon, scoop the pumpkin on top of everything, but do not stir or submerge to prevent burning.
- Secure the lid and set the Pressure Release to Sealing. Select the Pressure Cook (Manual) setting at high pressure and set the cook time to 4 minutes.
- While the soup is cooking, make the Tofu Ricotta. Drain the tofu and blot away the excess water with a few paper towels. For a smooth ricotta, crumble the tofu into a food processor. Add the remaining ingredients and blend until you have a creamy, smooth texture. Taste for salt, acidity, and cheesiness, adding more salt, lemon juice, or nutritional yeast, respectively, as needed. For a chunkier ricotta, place the tofu in a large bowl and break it into smaller chunks using a fork. Add the remaining ingredients and mix together until the consistency resembles ricotta cheese.Note: the ricotta can also be made a few days in advance and stored in the fridge.
- Once the 4-minute timer has completed and beeps, perform a quick pressure release by carefully switching the Pressure Release knob from Sealing to Venting.
- Open the pot and remove the bouquet garni. Stir well, add the tomato sauce and select the Sauté setting. Heat the soup for 2-3 minutes until the tomato sauce is incorporated and the soup has slightly thickened. Taste and adjust the flavor, as needed, with additional salt or pepper.
- Serve the soup in bowls and top each bowl with a few spoons of Vegan Ricotta Cheese and stir to combine. Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for 1-2 days.
WOW!!! GIRL! This is so good!!!!
We’re so happy you think so, Heidi! :)
Can I make this in a crockpot?
Hi Courtney, we don’t have a crockpot and haven’t tried it ourselves but based on our research you can! Complete steps 1-3 in the crockpot minus adding the lasagna noodles and cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 3-4 hours. Cook the lasagna noodles separately at the end and add them in. Enjoy!
Hello! I haven’t made this receipe yet, but I had a question?
I live in Australia, canned pumpkin doesn’t exist here.
Can I just use cubed real pumpkin instead? And if so, do I need to prepare it or can I just put it in?
Thanks
Hi Ethan, sorry to hear that! You’d need to make pumpkin puree from the pumpkin yourself. To do so, you’ll need to roast the squash and blend it into a puree.
The ingredients call for tomato sauce, but when do I add it in?
Hi Carol, the tomato sauce gets added in in step 7 (at the very end)!
Big hit! I thought I was only going to like this but I (and the picky eaters who I was initially hesitated to cook this for) loved it!
Janet, So glad to hear everyone enjoyed the soup!
Made this tonight. Just as delicious as I remember last time i made it!!
Awesome, Robin! Thanks for sharing :)
This was so delicious and easy to make! I followed all directions for the soup as written and it came out great – I did play around a bit with the seasonings for the tofu ricotta, I ended up using a little less nutritional yeast and a few shakes of dried basil instead of fresh because it’s what we had and it was great. My partner kept commenting, “This is so good!” and “Man I love this tofu topping!” throughout dinner, then after asked, “This was vegan right? Wow!”
Another winner from Nisha!
Elizabeth, So glad to hear you two loved the soup! Thanks for the lovely comment :)
Hi, I’ve made this before and LOVED it. However, I’m thinking of bringing it to my PB potluck and some cannot have coconut milk. Do you think I could use soy milk instead? Thanks!
Great to hear you’re a fan of the recipe, Debby! Yes, but soy milk may be a little too thin depending on if that’s okay with you or not. You can try using some cashew cream mixed in to make it a bit thicker. Enjoy!
Can I make this as a double batch in a 6 qt instapot?
Hi Kirsten, we aren’t sure because we haven’t tried it ourselves. As long as it doesn’t pass the max fill line, you should be good!
How would I go about making this soup if I do not have an instant pot?
Hi Rebecca, we haven’t tested this ourself, but based on our research of similar recipes, you can try (1) sautéing the aromatics in a soup pot, (2) adding the liquid, pumpkin, chickpeas, herbs and simmer for 10 minutes, (3) add the broken lasagna pieces and cook for another 7-10 minutes until al dente, stirring often to prevent sticking.
I’d love to try this recipe, but I don’t have an Instant Pot. Is there another way to make it?
Hi Wallis, we haven’t tested this ourself, but based on our research of similar recipes, you can try (1) sautéing the aromatics in a soup pot, (2) adding the liquid, pumpkin, chickpeas, herbs and simmer for 10 minutes, (3) add the broken lasagna pieces and cook for another 7-10 minutes until al dente, stirring often to prevent sticking.
Hi Wallis, I did pretty much what was suggested below but only because I wanted to put the soup through the Vitamix blender to get a super smooth soup. After I blitzed the soup I added it back to the pot and added the noodles. I didn’t have chickpeas on hand so I left them out but I would have added them when I added the noodles back into the soup. The noodles cooked perfectly on low with the pot covered for about 20 min, I did keep a close eye and stirred about every 5 min. It is really a delicious soup
This is amazing! I’ve made it for multiple non-vegans and it was very popular.
Can this be doubled?
We’re happy to hear it, Erin! Yes, it can be doubled but it also depends on what size Instant Pot you have. The contents must not go above the max fill line. Hope that helped!
Out of this world good. WE loved it and making it for guests next week for Thanksgiving.
Awesome, Bob. Thanks for your comment and for taking the time to review!
This recipe is absolutely delicious and super unique! I was a little skeptical at first but Nisha’s recipes never disappoint so I gave it a go and I’m so glad I did. The zesty tofu ricotta complimented the sweet base of the soup so nicely — the tofu ricotta is definitely an important part of the dish. I added an extra 2oz of lasagna noodles and made the soup in my Dutch oven on the stove top instead. Highly recommend!
Thanks for sharing, Katherine! We definitely agree the tofu ricotta is a lovely addition to the recipe!
Awesome recipe!! I used 3 cups broth instead of 4 and subbed tahini for miso paste. Turned out amazing!
Thanks for sharing, Lydia! :)
Perfect for our family recovering from illness… nourishing, indulgent and healthy!
I put all ingredients except pasta in the instant pot for the soup for 5 minutes, and made the pasta separately since I usually overcook it in the instant pot. I thought the soup was too runny at first, but then when I added some of the ricotta, it was amazing!!! Best vegan ricotta I’ve ever had.
This recipe was devoured by my protein-loving husband and my toddler. We will return to this recipe again and again.
Hi Rebeckah, thank you so much for taking the time to write such a kind review! I’m so glad it was loved by the whole family too. As a mom with a toddler herself, thank you for putting this recipe back on my radar to make for family friendly meals.
Tried without the ricotta, but it was still extremely delicious and not to mention, effortless.
Hi Sudo, I’m so glad this recipe worked for you and that you enjoyed it. Thank you for taking the time to leave a review!
Holy yum! The definition of quick and easy but still so incredibly flavorful. My husband had two large servings and commented several times and that says a lot (he’s a hard food critic).
**commented how good it tasted several times
Mariah, this is too funny! Thanks for stopping by again to share your husbands love for this soup!
Hi Mariah, thank for such a lovely comment! You know it’s good when someone compliments a dish more than once! If you like a little spice, this recipe (link attached below) might be your next favorite fall recipe. Thanks again!
https://rainbowplantlife.com/thai-butternut-squash-chickpea-curry/
This looks so good! Do you think I could substitute a fresh “pie pumpkin” made into a purée?
ABSOLUTELY SCRUMPTIOUS! I made this recipe this past weekend when a friend came to visit. We devoured it! My husband said, “I could eat this every day!” My friend, who is also not vegan/vegetarian, commented, “I would never guess that this is completely vegan!” Nisha, once again, you have amazed me with your ability to make vegan dishes taste amazing. Every. single. recipe of yours that I have made has been a hit! Keep ’em coming, girl!! You are making me look like I know what I’m doing in the kitchen!
Debra, So glad to hear everyone loved this recipe! :)