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This thick and creamy potato soup is full of delicious herb flavors and easy to make in the Instant Pot.

I’m one of those people who can eat soup pretty much all year long, but I’ll be making a lot more now that the cooler fall weather is here. When I first got my Instant Pot, I had a really hard time with it. I’ve now gotten the hang of it, and it’s one of my favorite ways to make a quick weeknight meal. If you’re new to Instant Pot cooking, I recommend this Instant Pot Guide over at Kristine’s Kitchen.

This version of the soup is vegetarian, but you can always garnish with bacon. Typically I would begin by cooking some chopped bacon and then the onions, but I was making this for a potluck where I knew there would be some vegetarians.

Some of my other favorite soup recipes are Instant Pot Chicken Pot Pie Soup and Pulled Pork Tortilla Soup.

Recipe Notes & Step-By-Step Photos

I recommend first getting all of your veggies prepped and herbs and spices ready to go. This will make things a lot easier once you start cooking.

Turn on Instant Pot and start saute setting. If your Instant Pot has a high and low saute setting, use low. Wait about 2 minutes for the pot to heat up. Add olive oil into the Instant Pot, followed by the diced onion. Cook the onions, stirring frequently, for about 2 minutes or until they begin to get translucent. Add the carrots and celery. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, for another 2 minutes.

Press “off” or “cancel” to end cooking on saute mode. Stir the ground thyme, paprika, dried parsley, kosher salt, black pepper, and garlic.

Why not add the garlic at the same time as the onions? I used to do this in a lot of my recipes, but then I learned that adding the garlic too early can cause it to burn. Nobody wants to eat a dish with burned garlic!

Can I use garlic powder instead of fresh? What about minced garlic in the jar? Sure! I’d recommend using about 2 tsp of garlic powder or 2 tsp of the jarred variety.

Add the potatoes and vegetable stock. Stir.

Place the lid on the Instant Pot and close. Set the valve to the seal position. My Instant Pot model seals automatically when I close the lid (not all models do this), but I always double check it.

Pressure cook for 7 minutes. The Instant Pot will take several minutes to come to pressure and will then cook for the 7 minutes. After the soup has cooked for the 7 minutes, press “off” or “cancel.” Let the soup sit for 2 minutes before carefully releasing the steam by moving the valve to the “vent” position.

Whisk together the evaporated milk and cornstarch. Carefully open the lid of the Instant Pot (there will be lots of steam). Stir in the cornstarch and evaporated milk mixture. Let the soup sit for about 5 minutes to thicken. Stir in cheese and serve.

What can I substitute for the evaporated milk? I’ve tried this recipe a few times with other choices, such as milk, half and half, and heavy cream. Heavy cream works best. The soup sometimes doesn’t get as thick with those options than it does with the evaporated milk, but still tastes very good.