Ahh, this dish is so simple to make! Don’t be intimidated! Instant Pot French Onion Soup is simple, but tasty and impressive!
Way back in high school, my favorite class was French. I took four years of French classes. To this day, oh so many years later, there are some French words and phrases that just stick with me.
One fun part of French class was being a member of French Club. We took trips, visited restaurants, and tried to improve our French together.
A highlight for me was going to a French restaurant and ordering “classic” French food. We enjoyed escargot, French Onion Soup, Coq au Vin, and Crème Brûlée. It was a decadent meal, but obviously memorable since high school graduation was nearly 30 years ago for me!
Instant Pot French Onion Soup:
I make French Onion Soup occasionally. A few of my family members don’t really care for onions, and let’s face it, that is the base of this soup!
To make this soup, I used vegetable stock instead of the classic beef stock. My vegetarian daughter, Mary, wanted to eat it, so I made this version for her. It’s a pretty simple soup to make, especially if you have an Instant Pot!
Begin by slicing onions, not too thick and not too thin. Turn the IP on to saute, add butter and onions.
Saute the onions, stirring frequently.
Keep stirring. And don’t be alarmed by the fond on the bottom of the pot. The Instant Pot uses a stainless steel insert, which is easily cleaned. But, this fond will be combined with your soup.
Just use a wooden turner to scrape the bottom as you stir the onions. Add the vegetable stock and scrape the bits of yumminess into the soup. This gives your soup a deep flavor and richness.
Once you’ve added the stock and seasonings, close the IP lid, and set the valve to pressurize. Using the manual setting, set the timer for 10 minutes.
Allow the IP to do a NPR (natural pressure release), but don’t turn the IP off, allow it to stay on the keep warm setting.
Turn the oven to broil and toast the French bread.
In an oven-proof bowl, place a slice or two of French bread toast. Scoop the soup into the bowl, top with sliced Gruyere cheese. Place on a baking sheet and put it under the oven broiler until the cheese is browned and melted.
Serve immediately. Enjoy!
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Instant Pot French Onion Soup
Ingredients
- 4 large onions
- 3 Tablespoons butter
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- 5 cups vegetable stock
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 4 thick slices French bread
- 4 slices Gruyere cheese
Instructions
- Slice onions, taking care to cut them evenly, not too thick and not too thin.
- Turn the Instant Pot to saute.
- Add butter and olive oil to IP.
- Add onions to IP.
- Saute onions, stirring frequently.
- Once onions are cooked and have turned brown, add vegetable stock to IP.
- Scrape the fond from the bottom of the IP.
- Add bay leaves, thyme, salt and pepper.
- Attach IP lid, set valve to pressurize.
- Use the manual setting and set timer for 10 minutes.
- Allow IP to do a NPR (natural pressure release), with the IP remaining on the keep warm cycle.
- Turn oven broiler on.
- Toast the French bread slices.
- Spray oven-proof soup bowl with non-stick spray, add a slice of French bread toast to bottom.
- Ladle soup, with plenty of onions on top of bread.
- Add Gruyere cheese.
- Broil until cheese is browned and melted.
- Serve immediately. Enjoy!
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It took too long to brown the onion using the Instant Pot’s saute and so I had to finish them using a skillet. Even thought the onions did not brown well in the Instant Pot, the bottom of the Instant Pot got burnt, imparting a burnt taste to the soup. Used half the salt and pepper and it was still quite salty. I used fresh homemade beef broth and that helped. Overall good rich flavor. Don’t know if it’ll be that flavorful with store bought broth. It’s a keeper, with modifications: use skillet to brown onions and use less than half of the salt and pepper.
Hi, Jan.
Thanks for visiting and sharing your experience.
Cooking is such a fun activity and we all add our own tweaks.
How long have you had your Instant Pot? Isn’t it just the best kitchen gadget ever?!
Out of curiosity, why didn’t you use the soup button for this?
I’m using the soup button for the first time just now for my own french onion soup and popped onto pinterest to see if there was a trick to it. Just wondering if people know something I don’t!
I generally use the manual button for most foods that I cook in the Instant Pot.
How did your soup turn out using the soup button?
I use the soup button and do a manual release after 5-10 minutes and it’s delicious!
Your recipe has been in regular rotation here since I got my IP.
I love this!
What other meals do you make in your IP?
I made this using beef broth and halved the recipe. Found that it made two small servings, so if you’re a big onion soup lover I might double the recipe for larger servings. I also used smaller Vidalia onions so maybe that’s why! I made croissant croutons made with a recipe from another site. All said, this was fantastic! I will def make again! Thank you for sharing!
I’m so glad you liked it!!! Thanks for your kind comment! 🙂
Excellent. Followed this recipe and it was delish!
I’m so glad you tried it and liked it!
Thanks for your comment! 🙂
This was amazing soup………followed the recipe and it was wonderful…BIG HIT for lunch! This is an amazingly easy recipe with great results. Reminds me of CHELSEA STREET PUB’s ONION SOUP recipe back in the 80’s. Thanks for sharing this with the world in general and sticking that little PINTEREST BUTTON on the recipe so I can keep it in my 5STAR RECIPES 🙂
bRENDA IN hIGHLAND bEACH, fLORIDA
THANK YOU for your comment, Brenda!! I’m so glad that you enjoyed this recipe!!!
I had French Onion Soup at a restaurant on a trip this weekend and decided I wanted to find a recipe for my new Instant Pot. Wah Lah! Your recipe turned up on my Facebook threads. Can’t wait to try it! Thanks!
I’m so glad you found my recipe! I hope you enjoy it! 🙂
How do we know how much ingredients to use? Is this a 3 qt or a 6 qt recipe? In all the recipes I have seen, it does not men5ion which size of pot to use?
Sorry!
I have a 6 qt Instant Pot, so all of my recipes use that size. The ingredient list is included in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. 🙂
This took me a heck of a lot longer than 30 mins. Over an hr. Took 3o mins to saute onions alone in instant pot
How many onions did you use?! 30 minutes to saute the onions seems rather excessive.
I’d suggest slicing them thinner in order to saute in a shorter amount of time.
I’m sorry it didn’t work out well for you.
All I did was swap for beef broth and opt out of the salt since low sodium wasn’t avail., and my god this was ridiculously awesome. THANK YOU!
Woot! So glad you loved it! Thanks for sharing!! 🙂
I’m an Instant Pot newbie. I tried the onion soup today. I had trouble browning my onions. When I do onion soup in the crock pot, my recipe calls for a little bit of sugar to help with the browning. After some time I thought they were getting brown, added stock (I used chicken for added flavor) and other ingredients. After cooking, I don’t think the onions we’re brown. Good news, it was a very flavorful soup and I’ll make it again.
I’m glad you tried this recipe and liked it! Thank you for your comment and suggestion!
My first attempt and making French onion soup. I waited like forever because I didn’t have bowls for broiling in the oven. I have an instant pot and just had to finally make it so I used two casserole dishes, which was perfect because my favorite part of French onion soup is the bread and the cheese. This way, I used a whole mini French bread loaf between the two casserole dishes and lots of cheese. This recipes tastes perfect. Absolutely perfect!!!!
Oh, your comment made my day, Tammy!
Thank you!