There is just nothing—and I mean nothing—that warms you up faster or comforts you better than a deep, fragrant bowl of chicken soup, especially when the weather decides to turn chilly or you just need a little hug in a bowl. I grew up on slow-simmered stock, which, let’s be honest, takes commitment! But I’ve figured out how to get that incredibly rich flavor in a fraction of the time using my favorite kitchen gadget. Seriously, this **Instant Pot Matzo Ball Soup Recipe** is a game-changer. We’re talking about getting a velvety, herbaceous broth and those perfectly soft matzo balls ready in under an hour. It takes a treasured classic and makes it fast enough for a weeknight. Trust me, you’re going to love simplifying this favorite!
Why This Instant Pot Matzo Ball Soup Recipe Works So Well
I used to think getting that deep, savory gold color in chicken soup meant leaving the pot bubbling away on the stove for half a day. No chance now! The magic of using the pressure cooker is that it extracts all that wonderful flavor from the chicken and veggies so quickly. It’s honestly astonishing.
- This entire method is built for efficiency. We get the flavor profile of a slow-simmered soup without needing to watch the clock all day.
- We’re cutting down on dishes too—big win there!
Speed and Flavor in One Pot
That high-pressure environment pushes all the flavor out of the carrots and onions and into that chicken broth fast. You skip those hours of gentle simmering, and you end up with a broth that tastes like it’s been cooking since morning. It’s pure cooking science working for us, and I love it!
Perfect Matzo Balls Every Time with Our Instant Pot Matzo Ball Soup Recipe
When it comes time for the matzo balls, the Instant Pot is your friend again. Once the broth is done, you just drop the prepared matzo balls in and let them gently steam/simmer. The controlled environment of the **Instant Pot Matzo Ball Soup Recipe** keeps them from getting raggedy or dropping apart. They come out light as feathers!
Ingredients for the Ultimate Instant Pot Matzo Ball Soup Recipe
When it comes to the ingredients, simplicity is key here, which is why this **Instant Pot Matzo Ball Soup Recipe** is so easy to pull off even on a busy day. Since we’ve got the pressure cooker doing the heavy lifting on the broth, we don’t need a million fancy spices. We just need good, fresh basics!
For the soup base, grab 1 tablespoon of olive oil to start things off nicely in the pot. Then, we need our aromatic backbone: one large onion, chopped, along with two carrots and two celery stalks, both sliced up. These get totally tender and fragrant during the sauté step.
The liquid component is simple: 8 cups of good chicken broth—and if you’re adding chicken for extra body, toss in a pound of breasts or thighs. Don’t forget 1 teaspoon of salt and half a teaspoon of pepper. Oh, and for that beautiful fresh finish, 1/4 cup of fresh parsley, chopped, makes all the difference later on. Finally, you’ll need that box of matzo ball mix—just follow what the package says for the liquid amounts to mix them up!
If you’re looking to swap out the poultry, skipping the chicken and using vegetable broth makes this a lovely vegetarian meal. You can see how easy it is to round up everything needed for this amazing version of classic Jewish cuisine.
Step-by-Step Instructions for Your Instant Pot Matzo Ball Soup Recipe
Okay, let’s get to the action! This might sound ultra-fast, but remember that we are building layers of flavor, even in rapid time. Don’t rush the pot or you’ll lose that deep taste we talked about. The beauty of this **Instant Pot Matzo Ball Soup Recipe** is that you mostly set it and forget it once you’ve done the initial sautéing.
Building the Flavor Base
First things first, fire up your Instant Pot and set it to the ‘Sauté’ mode. Get that tablespoon of olive oil nice and hot. Toss in your chopped onion, the carrots, and the celery. You want to let those cook down until they soften up and start smelling heavenly—that’s usually about five minutes of stirring. This is where the soup gets its baseline sweetness and body before we add any liquid.
Pressure Cooking the Broth and Chicken
Once the veggies look happy, pour in your chicken broth. If you decided to treat yourself and add the chicken pieces now too, make sure they are submerged. Add your salt and pepper. Now, seal that lid up tight, flip the valve to ‘Sealing,’ and set it to ‘Manual’ or ‘Pressure Cook’ on High for exactly 10 minutes. When that 10 minutes are up, resist the urge to quick-release! Let it do a 10-minute Natural Pressure Release (NPR) before you manually vent the rest. This resting time deepens the broth so much, trust me on this one.
Simmering the Matzo Balls in the Instant Pot Matzo Ball Soup Recipe
Next up are those fluffy clouds! While the broth finishes its magic, prepare your matzo balls according to the box directions. Please, please, whatever you do, don’t overmix the batter, or they turn into little hockey pucks! Once you’ve shredded your chicken (if you used any) and stirred in that fresh parsley, keep the broth warm on the ‘Keep Warm’ setting. Gently drop those prepared balls right into the simmering liquid. You’ll close the lid again, but this time, leave the valve open or use the Steam setting if your model has one. Cook them for about 15 minutes gently submerged until they puff up beautifully for your **Instant Pot Matzo Ball Soup Recipe**.
Tips for the Best Instant Pot Matzo Ball Soup Recipe Results
Even with the speed of the Instant Pot, a few insider secrets can take your soup from good to absolutely legendary. I’ve tweaked this **Instant Pot Matzo Ball Soup Recipe** enough times to know exactly where beginners might slip up, especially when it comes to the nuances of the broth and those vital soft dumplings.
Achieving a Richer Broth
If you really want to wow people, ditch the store-bought cartons. Using homemade chicken stock is the single biggest upgrade you can make here. Seriously, if you have time to make your own stock, the depth of flavor it brings to this soup is unmatched, even after the quick pressure cook. It just tastes real, you know?
Matzo Ball Batter Perfection
I cannot stress this enough: when you mix the matzo ball batter, just barely bring it together. As soon as the dry mix is incorporated with the wet ingredients, stop stirring! If you beat that batter like you’re making cookies, the balls will come out heavy and sink right to the bottom. We want them light and airy for our **Instant Pot Matzo Ball Soup Recipe**, so light mixing leads to floating, fluffy perfection.
Ingredient Substitutions for Your Instant Pot Matzo Ball Soup Recipe
One of the best things about comfort food is that it’s so easy to adapt to who you’re serving! If you happen to be making this **Instant Pot Matzo Ball Soup Recipe** for someone who doesn’t eat meat, don’t sweat it at all. The flavor base we build with the onions and carrots is super strong, so you just need a solid liquid swap.
If you skip the chicken pieces entirely, go ahead and use vegetable broth instead of chicken broth. Seriously, that’s it! You still get all the wonderful seasonings and the fluffy matzo balls swimming in a flavorful broth. This method for making **Instant Pot Matzo Ball Soup Recipe** is tough to mess up, which I appreciate when I’m trying new things!
Serving Suggestions for Instant Pot Matzo Ball Soup Recipe
Once you’ve finished pulling everything out of the cooker and the matzo balls are floating happily, you’re practically done! But don’t just ladle it into bowls plain. A few fresh garnishes really make this **Instant Pot Matzo Ball Soup Recipe** sing. I always grab more fresh parsley, finely chopped, and sometimes I sprinkle in a tiny bit of fresh dill if I have some hiding in the fridge. Dill adds such a lovely, bright lift to the heavy broth.
For a side, crisp, plain crackers are perfect, or you could serve it alongside a small, simple salad like a simple tossed green salad to keep the meal light but satisfying. Enjoy that steaming bowl of pure comfort!
Storage and Reheating Your Delicious Matzo Ball Soup
We all hope for leftovers, right? This soup reheats beautifully. The trick, and I learned this the hard way with a giant batch of homemade tomato sauce once, is to keep the matzo balls separate from the broth for storage. If you keep them together overnight, they soak up all the liquid and turn mushy!
So, scoop the broth into airtight containers. Keep the cooked matzo balls in a separate small container. When you want soup, just reheat the broth until steaming, and then gently drop your room-temperature matzo balls in for just a minute or two until they warm through. They’ll taste almost freshly made that way!
Frequently Asked Questions About This Instant Pot Matzo Ball Soup Recipe
Whenever I post my **Instant Pot Matzo Ball Soup Recipe**, I always get a ton of questions popping up about the pressure cooker part, which makes total sense! It’s a different technique than simmering, so let’s clear up the biggest ones right here so your soup turns out perfect every single time.
Can I make matzo balls without the mix?
Oh, you absolutely can make them from scratch! Making your own matzo ball batter requires working with schmaltz, matzo meal, eggs, and perhaps some sparkling water, but honestly, it’s quite a bit more fuss than I want when I’m using the Instant Pot for speed. For this quick **Instant Pot Matzo Ball Soup Recipe**, following the box directions ensures the consistency works well with the pressure-cooked broth.
How do I prevent the matzo balls from falling apart?
This is all about mixing—don’t overwork that batter, remember? But equally important is what happens in the pot! Once you add them in for that final 15 minutes, you want the broth to be simmering gently, usually on the low Sauté setting. If the broth is aggressively boiling, it’s going to beat those soft dumplings up and make them disintegrate. Gentle heat keeps them whole and fluffy, which is exactly what we want in our soup!
Estimated Nutritional Snapshot for Instant Pot Matzo Ball Soup
Look, I’m a cook, not a dietitian, so take these numbers with a big grain of salt! These figures are just an estimate based on the ingredients in this speedy **Instant Pot Matzo Ball Soup Recipe**—especially if you skip the chicken and use a standard mix. We’re looking at roughly 250 calories per big serving, with about 10 grams of fat and 18 grams of protein to keep you full.
The carbs are sitting around 25 grams, which is fine because we’ve got some fiber in there from all those lovely carrots and celery. These numbers are great proof that you can make seriously comforting Jewish cuisine without breaking your diet goals. If you snagged an amazing homemade stock recipe, the fat and sodium might shift a little, but overall, this is a wonderfully balanced, low-fat meal!
Maybe skip the slice of cheesecake afterwards if you’re watching those numbers, but I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t!
Share Your Experience Making This Instant Pot Matzo Ball Soup Recipe
Now you have the super-quick blueprint for my favorite comforting meal! I really, truly want to know how it turned out for you. Did your matzo balls rise perfectly? Give those stars if you loved the speed of this **Instant Pot Matzo Ball Soup Recipe**!
Please jump into the comments below and tell me what you thought—did you add any secret fresh herbs? If you snapped a picture of your golden broth, share it on social media and tag me! Happy cooking, and I hope this brings you as much comfort as it brings my kitchen!
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Instant Pot Matzo Ball Soup
- Total Time: 50 min
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
- Diet: Low Fat
Description
A simple recipe for making matzo ball soup using an Instant Pot.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 2 carrots, peeled and sliced
- 2 celery stalks, sliced
- 8 cups chicken broth
- 1 pound chicken pieces (breasts or thighs), optional
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
- 1 box matzo ball mix (follow package directions for liquid amounts)
Instructions
- Set the Instant Pot to ‘Sauté’ mode. Add olive oil.
- Add onion, carrots, and celery. Cook until softened, about 5 minutes.
- Pour in the chicken broth. If using chicken pieces, add them now.
- Add salt and pepper. Secure the lid and set the valve to ‘Sealing’.
- Cook on ‘Manual’ or ‘Pressure Cook’ on High for 10 minutes.
- When cooking finishes, allow a Natural Pressure Release for 10 minutes, then manually release any remaining pressure.
- Remove chicken pieces, shred if desired, and return to the pot. Discard bones.
- Stir in the fresh parsley. Keep the broth warm on the ‘Keep Warm’ setting.
- Prepare the matzo balls according to the mix package directions.
- Gently drop the prepared matzo ball mixture into the simmering broth.
- Close the lid again (do not seal the valve for this step if your model allows cooking without sealing, or use the Steam setting if available, otherwise, cook on the ‘Sauté’ setting on low). Cook for 15 minutes, or according to matzo ball mix instructions for simmering.
- Serve the soup immediately with matzo balls.
Notes
- For a richer broth, use homemade chicken stock instead of store-bought.
- If you skip the chicken, you can use vegetable broth for a vegetarian version.
- Do not overmix the matzo ball batter, or the balls will be dense.
- Prep Time: 15 min
- Cook Time: 35 min
- Category: Soup
- Method: Pressure Cooking
- Cuisine: Jewish
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1.5 cups
- Calories: 250
- Sugar: 5
- Sodium: 650
- Fat: 10
- Saturated Fat: 2
- Unsaturated Fat: 8
- Trans Fat: 0
- Carbohydrates: 25
- Fiber: 3
- Protein: 18
- Cholesterol: 55
Keywords: Instant Pot, Matzo Ball Soup, Chicken Soup, Jewish Cuisine, Pressure Cooker