Lemony Instant Pot Tortellini Soup

When you need a bowl of comfort food, you'll love every spoonful of this lemony Instant Pot tortellini soup! Tender cheese tortellini and fresh spinach cook in a creamy, silky broth full of bright citrus notes, and the Instant Pot makes the process as quick and simple as can be. Dinner is on the table in under 30 minutes when this creamy tortellini soup recipe is on the menu.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• Makes cheese and pasta lovers alike swoon. 
• Calls for just a handful of simple ingredients and three easy steps to make one hearty soup. 
• Requires no advanced cooking techniques — cooks of all skill levels can master this recipe.
• Cooks just as easily on the stove if you don’t have an Instant Pot.

Ingredients

Cheesy tortellini: For best results, I recommend fresh or frozen tortellini. Depending on the grocery store, you can find fresh tortellini in a refrigerated case near the pasta or by the prepared-food section.

Spinach: The spinach measurement is for fresh spinach, not frozen spinach. 

Stock: I prefer chicken stock for its rich flavor, but you can use vegetable stock if you prefer. 

Heavy cream: This adds a slightly luscious touch and texture to give it a bit more body than stock alone. To get the full effect, I definitely recommend heavy cream over half and half or milk.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: To start our soup, we turn the Instant Pot to the Sauté function and add the olive oil. Once the oil is nice and hot, we add some chopped shallots and cook them for three minutes. By now, the shallots should be perfectly soft, so we add the garlic and stir constantly for 30 seconds (photo 1).

Step 2: For our next step, we pour in the chicken broth or vegetable broth and add the tortellini and a touch of white pepper (photo 2). We secure the Instant Pot lid and cook the soup on the Manual setting for a quick two minutes. As soon as it finishes cooking at high pressure, we move the valve on the lid of the Instant Pot for a quick release. 

Step 3: After the quick release, we remove the lid and stir in the fresh baby spinach, heavy cream, lemon juice and tarragon with a wooden spoon (photo 3).

And that’s it! For a little added decadence, we can add some freshly grated Parmesan cheese and chopped parsley and serve with a hunk of crusty bread. Isn't it one delicious, easy meal? 

How to Store

If you’re lucky enough to have leftovers, this soup keeps well. Allow the soup to cool completely and then store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator. You might want to store the tortellini and broth in separate containers — the tortellini will continue to soak up the liquid as it sits.

I prefer to enjoy it within two to three days, but it will last up to four or five days. When you’re ready to eat, you can heat the soup in the microwave or stove-top.

You can even freeze it. Sometimes cream-based soups don’t freeze well, but it’s brothy enough that it freezes just fine. That said, for the best texture, you’ll want to freeze the soup and tortellini separately like if storing in the refrigerator. I recommend using any frozen leftovers within three to six months. 

Recipe FAQs

Variations and Substitutions

• Substitute fresh or frozen tortellini for dried tortellini: Dry pasta takes longer to cook. You’ll just need to adjust the pressure cooking time from two minutes to six to seven minutes, and you may want to add another cup or so of chicken stock. 
• Add a protein: Sweet Italian sausage is popular in a lot of other tortellini soup recipes, but I didn’t want to simply recreate what’s already out there. That said, if you’d like to add sausage, you can brown it in the Instant Pot after adding the shallots and garlic.
• Stir in tomato sauce with the cream: Like the sausage, this is also a popular variation. Personally, I love the creamy lemon base, but you do you. 
• Use your other favorite fresh herbs: Tarragon is wonderful here, but just about any fresh herb would work. Fresh basil, rosemary, and thyme are other wonderful options.

Expert Tips

Go fresh: Fresh lemon juice and tarragon are so much more flavorful than bottled juice and dried tarragon. With so few ingredients, you definitely want to opt for quality. 

Don’t stop stirring the garlic: Garlic burns easily, so you want to keep it moving. 

Don’t add the heavy cream until after cooking in the Instant Pot: Heavy cream can curdle while pressure cooking. For this recipe and other soups, always add the cream at the end.

Perfect Pairing

If you’d like a beer on the side, a witbier was made for this soup. The lemon juice from the soup pairs well with the light body and citrusy notes while the beer has the perfect carbonation for cutting through the cream and rich ricotta. 

For a wine, a sauvignon blanc is lovely. Like the witbier, this light wine shows off a citrus-forward profile, and it has an acidic finish to brighten the creamy texture. 

When cold weather hits, let’s get cozy with a big bowl of this creamy, lemony Instant Pot tortellini soup. You’ll love those tender bites of cheesy pasta in that bright, citrusy broth.

Cheers!

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