Instant Pot

Instant Pot Indian Tomato Coconut Soup

January 15, 2018
4.3
29 Ratings
Photo by Studio Six/Stocksy
  • Prep time 15 minutes
  • Cook time 5 minutes
  • Serves 2 to 4
Author Notes

You may look at this and say, "Meh." It's not "Meh." It's one of my most popular recipes—even amongst those who hate tomato soup. Canned coconut milk and canned tomatoes make this an easy pantry meal that comes together in minutes. Warming, comforting, spicy, tasty pressure-cooker tomato coconut soup made in your Instant Pot or pressure cooker. Taste Indian food like never before. —Urvashi Pitre

Test Kitchen Notes

Featured in: 9 Instant Pot Indian Recipes for Rich, Comforting Flavor Fast. —The Editors

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • 14 ounces full-fat coconut milk
  • 14 ounces canned tomatoes
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
  • 1 teaspoon minced ginger
  • 1 teaspoon minced garlic
  • 1 tablespoon agave nectar or honey
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
  • 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Directions
  1. Put all ingredients into the Instant Pot and cook on High for 5 minutes. Allow the pot to sit undisturbed for 10 minutes. After that, release pressure. If you start to see sputtering and spewing from the valve, close the valve and try again in 5 minutes.
  2. Remove from the pot and use an immersion blender to blend into a smooth soup.
  3. For stovetop: Cook all ingredients together until the tomatoes are soft and bursting. Remove from the pot and use an immersion blender to blend into a smooth soup.
Contest Entries

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Dr. Urvashi Pitre is the President of a global marketing consulting firm, as well as the author of several best-selling cookbooks.

16 Reviews

Elmas21 May 16, 2022
Can someone explain how I would do this with a stovetop pressure cooker?? Instructions seems a bit vague .. would I just cook under high pressure for 5 minutes and then do a natural release? Any additional details or instructions would be appreciated. Would love to try this. Thanks in advance!
 
Lune April 26, 2022
Wow, this is so delicious! Only substitution I made was using Kashmiri chili powder instead of cayenne since I have a big jar of it. The smell when you open the lid is amazing and the taste is just as good!
 
Lynn February 3, 2022
I love her Butter Chicken recipe and trusted that this would also be good - and it was! Absolutely delicious and have to make a double batch each time because my husband likes it so much. Interested to try with water subbing for a can of coconut milk and with some noodles.
 
tastysweet November 6, 2021
Had our 2nd helping of the fabulous soup tonight. Was wondering, if this soup can be frozen for later use. Probably have 2 more servings left.
 
tastysweet November 4, 2021
Made this tonight. My husband and I absoluloved it. I did double it.
Here are my substitutions.
I used Aroy-D whole milk coconut milk. They come in 8.5 Oz cartons from Amazon. So I used 3 cartons.
1 28oz. Can San Marzano crushed tomatoes and 1 16 Oz can Diced tomatoes(had in pantry so used it). Roughly chopped the cilantro(doubled) 2tsp fresh ginger, 2 Tsp minced garlic and a tablespoon and a half of honey.
1 Tbl Red Boat fish sauce and 1 Tsp kosher salt
1 3/4 ts tumeric and 1/4 tsp cayenne.
Instead of my IP, did stove top. Didn’t feel like washing all the parts.
I had used it for a beef barley soup last week. Fabulous.
I also cooked 1cup dry Oreoachiette pasta and out in bottom of a pasta bowl and topped it with the soup. Wow. Surprised the heck out of me. We ate two helpings. Left overs for Sat.
So glad I found this. Great flavors.
 
Kim S. October 30, 2021
If this were the only recipe I made in my instant pot it would be worth it. The flavor is exceeds the sum of the recipes parts. I usually double the recipe and use one can of coconut milk and one can's worth of water instead of two cans of coconut milk.
 
ldamiani February 22, 2021
I couldn't wait to make this when I saw the recipe. It was so good! I doubled it so I would have leftovers and added an extra can of fire roasted tomatoes. Taste better as it sits. I will keep this in my rotation. Thank you!
 
Kim S. February 14, 2021
This is a go to easy recipe that is surprisingly delicious. I usually double it and use half the amount of coconut milk, substituting water for the other half. Still plenty rich and flavorful. It's also an easy recipe to change up the spicing and ingredients. It just always comes out good!
 
Debbie November 10, 2020
This was excellent soup, like others I doubled all ingredients and cooked in my Instapot exactly to the recipe. Thank you so much - glad I found it!
 
tastysweet November 10, 2020
Debbie, what size instapot did you use? Did you have sputtering with the pressure as the author said one might?
 
Chandler March 22, 2020
This was amazing and super easy. I doubled the recipe and had plenty leftover to share with family.
I used diced canned tomatoes instead of whole, which made it easier to blend.
 
tastysweet December 21, 2019
Would love to see more videos with step by step visuals.
 
Marjorie W. November 17, 2019
Delicious! If you use fresh ginger watch out for the kick! My only complaint is that it's such a small recipe. I'm going to make again tomorrow to take to work lunches, but will double it.
 
tenmiler September 29, 2019
No reason you can’t use your immersion blender right in the instant pot. Would prefer cloves of garlic to teaspoon measurements. And I don’t dice stuff that perfectly it is all going to be blended. Much easier!
 
OldGrayMare January 16, 2018
The ginger is listed twice. Should one of them be another ingredient? Can't wait to try this!
 
Eric K. December 3, 2018
Hi there! Yes, the recipe has been fixed. The extra "minced ginger" should have been "minced garlic."