Instant Pot Black Bean & Butternut Squash Soup
This Instant Pot Black Bean Soup is the perfect healthy dinner to make any night of the week. Hearty, easy to whip up and is veggie-loaded with delicious butternut squash. Vegan and gluten free.

“Mmmmmmm. This is so so so good, Mom! Can you make it for dinner again tomorrow night?” said my 8 year old daughter, Alice, as she inhaled a bowl of this Instant Pot Black Bean and Butternut Squash Soup.
Now, let me tell you. This is not an every night occurrence. Don’t get me wrong, my daughter has definitely been raised to appreciate that she has food to eat and to value the love and effort put into the meals she is served. However, she knows she has an important job to the TNN community.
My family is truly my harshest critics when it comes to recipes. My daughter (who is 8 and takes her job as being the voice for all the kiddos who eat my recipes very seriously) will be the first to tell me when something is a no-go. No sugarcoating. Just “Yeah, no Mom. That looks weird” or she takes two bites of something and will make a dramatic face and say “I’m not eating that.”
Some people might be offended by their child rejecting their food, but I know that when Alice loves something as much as she loved this soup that you all are going to go nuts over it. And this Black Bean and Butternut Squash Soup is a total and complete veggie-loaded hit that you simply have to make!
Is this Instant Pot Black Bean and Butternut Squash Soup kid-friendly?
Oh yes! If you can’t tell from my daughter’s reaction recorded above, she believes that this cozy, veggie-loaded soup is going to be a hit with the littles in your house.
I find that blended soups like this one tend to be well received by young eaters. There is an even conscience instead of random color and textures in one bowl that might overwhelm them.
Can I use dry beans when making this Instant Pot Black Bean Soup?
I love cooking beans from dry and often do it (check out my slow cooker black beans or my Instant Pot Cuban black beans), but the thing about cooking beans from dry is that they take A LOT longer to cook then veggies and require a good amount of liquid. I wanted to make a hearty, veggie-loaded plant based soup recipe that you all could quickly make on the busiest of nights or when you had a hungry crowd asking when dinner was over and over again as you were trying to figure out what the heck to make.
So, no. Dry beans that haven’t been cooked won’t work in this recipe.
I highly recommend either cooking a big ‘ol batch of black beans and freezing them (they freeze so well after they are cooked) to keep on hand or keeping a stash of canned black beans in your pantry. Both options will come in so handy and you will find yourself grateful to have an emergency stash of beans more often than not.
When seasoning, keep your broth in mind.
If I have learned one thing over my many years of soup making, it is that the broth I use matters A LOT in the overall flavor of the soup.
Not all broths are made exactly the same. If you make your own and even brand to brand. Low sodium to regular. Vegetable or chicken or beef. They all will taste different.
Whatever broth you use, be mindful of how salty or seasoned it already is….and adjust the seasoning in this recipe to fit your own unique tastes!
Suggested Adaptions
- Use frozen butternut squash. Don’t feel like you have to stick to fresh. Grab a bag of frozen, pre-cut butternut squash and make the prep for this even easier!
- Use butternut squash puree. If you have a can of that kicking around, totally feel free to add that instead of the cubbed. I mean, the soup is going to be pureed anyway, so knock yourself out! I would say 1 1/2 cups of puree should do!
- Sub the butternut squash with sweet potato or pumpkin. Not a butternut squash fan? Or maybe you just don’t have any on hand? Sub equal amounts cubed sweet potato or pumpkin in this recipe for an equally tasty soup!
- Crank up the spice! I made this mellow in the spice department because I was serving it to a little one with sensitive tastebuds. But if you and your crew love a little extra heat, I totally suggest upping the amount of chili powder in this recipe to fit your personal taste! Also, when buying your diced tomatoes, grab some with green chilis for an extra punch of heat!
- Make it in your slow cooker! No Instant Pot? That’s cool. Just sauté the onions, garlic and spices in a pan before adding them to the slow cooker with the remaining ingredients. Cook on HIGH for 4 hours or until the butternut squash is fork tender and puree as normal.
- Make it on the stove top! After you sauté the onions, garlic and spices, add the remaining ingredients to the pot and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat and let the soup simmer for about 15-20 minutes or until the squash is fork tender. Puree as normal.
Other veggie-loaded soup recipes you are going to want to curl up with…
- Instant Pot Lentil Soup
- Mexican Slow Cooker Chicken Stew
- Slow Cooker Turkey Taco Chili
- Slow Cooker Chicken & Butternut Squash Stew
- Instant Pot Paleo Pumpkin Chili
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Instant Pot Black Bean and Butternut Squash Soup
Ingredients
- 1 Tablespoons olive oil or avocado oil
- ½ cup red onion, minced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced and to taste
- 1 Tablespoon cumin, or to taste
- 1 ½ teaspoon chili powder, or to taste
- 3 cups cooked black beans , drained and rinsed (about 2 cans)
- 14 ounces can diced tomatoes, with juices
- 3 cups peeled and cubed butternut squash
- 3 cups vegetable broth
- 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
Equipment
- Instant Pot
Instructions
- Turn the sauté function of your Instant Pot on and add oil.
- Once oil is hot, add the onions, garlic, cumin, and chili powder. Sauté for a few minutes until onion and garlic are fragrant. About 3 minutes
- Turn off sauté function and add remaining ingredients to the pot.
- Place lid on your Instant Pot and lock into play. Be sure valve is turned to sealing. Cook on HIGH pressure for 5 minutes. It will take your Instant Pot about 10 minutes to get up to pressure.
- Once cooking time is up, carefully quick release the pressure and carefully remove the lid.
- Using an immersion blender, puree the soup. If you do not have an immersion blender, you can puree the soup in batches in your blender. But be careful, as the soup will be incredibly hot.
- Taste and adjust seasoning as desired.
- Serve warm topped with sour cream, grated cheese, extra red onions, avocado, chips, salsa or whatever you desire. Store leftovers in fridge for up to 4 days.
This sounds delicious! But my husband cannot have tomatoes… Is there a sub for it? Or you think it would taste OK leaving it out?
Hmmmm. I haven’t tried it without tomatoes and I feel like it would need something to bring the sweetness. Perhaps red bell pepper?
Think it would be ok to sub a can of tomato sauce for the diced tomatoes?
I haven’t tried it but I bet it would work!
Delicious!!! I used a fresh butternut squash- I HATE peeling them through, so I just cut in in half & roasted for an hour, scooped it out, then blended with everything else. Also used Rotel tomatoes. So good!
DELICIOUS!! As in I put cheese on everything and this did not require cheese DELICIOUS!!!
Yay! I am so glad you enjoyed it!
Is there a recommendation for slow cooker adaptation? Looks delish, but no instant pot
Look under the Suggested Adaptations portion of the post! I tell you how to do it in your slow cooker and on your stove top!
This was very tasty
I made this last night and added in some veggies I had on their way out (chopped baby carrots and a red pepper, white onion instead of red). The flavor of this soup is great and I love the consistency it has after blending! Will definitely a be a new go-to for us!
I love the additions! And I am so glad you enjoyed the soup as much as we do!
Yum, I just made this and am eating it now. Raw squash is too hard to peel & cube, so I cooked it in instant pot for 5 minutes. Still to hard so cooked in instant pot for 5 more minutes!. Much easier to peel & cube!
I doubled the chili powder, added some crushed red peppers, used the jarred minced garlic, and accidentally added som refrigerated minced ginger!
Cooked per instructions, then threw it all in my vitamin blender.
It’s got some great heat! This recipe is definitely a keeper!
It made about 9 cups so I think it serves more than 4.
Love the little changes!
Do you have a dry beans version that doesn’t involve two rounds of cooking? I will attempt to adapt – for me the whole joy of the instant pot is that dry beans are much less expensive and can cook pretty fast. 🙂
I do not. I love cooking beans from dry in my IP, too. However, they require a lot more liquid than I think would be idea in this soup.
For what it’s worth, I cooked my beans in the IP (first) and used the bean liquid instead of broth and I had to add another cup of liquid! So it should be pretty doable. It’s be something like 4-5 cups of liquid and cook for 25min – and should get the same texture. Will experiment and report back!
Yay! So good to know!
What brand of vegetable broth do you recommend?
I actually make my own with this base recipe and then I toss in veggie scraps from the week to add bonus flavor.
https://thenaturalnurturer.com/easy-vegetable-broth/
Can this be made with frozen butternut squash?
yes!
Hi Taesha,
I thought you also used to have a recipe for black bean and butternut squash IP chili. It had red lentils? I love it and now can’t find it! Please repost if it exists somewhere. 🙂
Thanks for considering it!
Julia
Hi Julia. I don’t think I do. I have a pumpkin chili you make in the IP, but it has ground turkey. And a sweet potato chili, but I don’t have (or have had) anything fitting your description. Though now I kinda want to make one! It sounds delicious.
So good! Made a few substitutions based on what I had in my kitchen and it still turned out yummy. 🤗
So glad you enjoyed it, Mandy! I love how forgiving this recipe is and it always turns out so good.
This soup is DELICIOUS. A hint of spice, and just so flavorful. My 8, 5, 3 and 1 yr old ALL devoured it which truly never ever happens.
I roasted the squash first, then just added it when we blended the soup. Used Rotel tomatoes with cilantro and lime, even added a diced sweet potato I needed to use up. Topped it with homemade fried tortilla strips and avocado this time. This is the second time I’ve made it and people have raved both times. THANK YOU!!
I’m so glad it was family approved, Alison! Love the idea of using roasted squash. I bet it added such a little boost of flavor.
The flavors are terrific! I went a little too far with my immersion blender though. Any recommendations for thickening it up after blending?
So glad you enjoy this soup as much as I do, Hannah! You could simmer it down a bit to reduce the liquid!
So easy and so good! I used canned pumpkin because I had it on hand and it was a total pantry clean out. So good!
So happy you enjoyed it. This is probably one of my favorite soup recipes and I love how easy it is.