Transforming your St. Patrick’s Day feast into another incredible meal is simpler than you think! If you have leftover Ninja Foodi corned beef brisket, this **Pressure Cooker Leftover Corned Beef Soup** is an absolute must-try. Imagine a rich, creamy chowder-like soup, easily prepared in your Instant Pot or Ninja Foodi, ready to warm your soul for dinner tonight. This recipe isn’t just about using up leftovers; it’s about creating a fantastic new dish that stands proudly on its own.
Just a little creativity in the kitchen can lead to truly remarkable results. This corned beef soup, born from a spontaneous idea, turned out incredibly creamy and utterly delicious – perfect for a satisfying lunch or a comforting family dinner. For those constantly searching for the ultimate leftover corned beef recipe, we believe this delightful chowder is a strong contender. Its ease of preparation has quickly earned it a spot on our list of favorite easy Instant Pot recipes, proving that simple ingredients can yield extraordinary flavors.
Reinventing Your Feast: What Can You Make with Leftover Corned Beef?
After a festive meal featuring corned beef brisket, you often find yourself with a delicious, albeit sizeable, amount of meat remaining. The good news is, you absolutely never want to let a single bite go to waste! That flavorful hunk of meat from yesterday holds the potential for another amazing culinary creation. This versatile recipe allows you to transform your leftovers into a succulent soup using various appliances, including your Ninja Foodi, Crockpot Express, or even a traditional stovetop pot. The key is to simply dice up your leftover corned beef on day two, and you’re well on your way to a hearty and satisfying meal. It’s a wonderful way to extend the enjoyment of your initial cooking efforts and prevent food waste, while still savoring the rich, unique taste of corned beef.
The Ultimate Leftover: Instant Pot Corned Beef Soup Recipe
If you’re seeking the absolute **best way to use leftover corned beef**, look no further than this incredibly satisfying Instant Pot recipe. We’re confident that after just one bowl of this rich, flavorful goodness, you’ll wholeheartedly agree. Even if your corned beef has spent a day or two in the fridge and become a bit dry, this soup works wonders. The pressure cooking process, combined with creamy liquids and fresh vegetables, will rehydrate the meat, infusing it with renewed moisture and making it incredibly tender and delicious once again. This isn’t just a leftover dish; it’s a culinary revival that elevates simple ingredients into a gourmet experience.
For those new to the world of pressure cooking, embarking on this journey can open up a whole new realm of quick and easy one-pot meals. To help you get started on your culinary adventures, here are a few essential tips:
- Make sure to bookmark our comprehensive InstaPot recipes page. We consistently update it with exciting new recipes each week, ensuring you always have fresh ideas at your fingertips.
- Then, for perfect results every time, print this invaluable —–> Instant Pot cooking times cheat sheet. It will serve as your go-to guide for understanding the ideal cooking durations for various meats, vegetables, and beans in your pressure cooker.
- I highly recommend you invest in a non-stick inner pot for your pressure cooker. This small upgrade significantly enhances your cooking experience by making sautéing easier and cleanup a breeze.
- While knowing how to deglaze a pressure cooker after sautéing is a useful skill, a non-stick liner minimizes the chances of food sticking, making the deglazing process less critical and more efficient.
The model I personally use for all my recipe creations is a 6-quart Instant Pot, which I find to be the perfect size for most family meals.
Crafting Your Corned Beef Soup: Why No Cabbage?
For this particular creamy corned beef soup, we intentionally omit cabbage. While cabbage is a traditional accompaniment to corned beef, its texture doesn’t hold up well in a creamy soup base after being reheated or pressure cooked. Leftover cooked cabbage tends to become overly soft and mushy, which can detract from the soup’s desired consistency. Even though I’m usually against food waste, I’d suggest discarding any leftover cooked cabbage from your previous meal for this recipe. Instead, we’ll introduce fresh or frozen mixed vegetables, which maintain their structure and add vibrant color and essential nutrients to the soup.
I find that many of the necessary ingredients are typically on hand, making this a convenient meal to whip up. For my version, I utilized frozen mixed vegetables, which are perfect for their ease and accessibility. However, canned vegetables are also a good option if you prefer, though they will yield a slightly softer texture. Onions, a staple in nearly all my savory dishes, were an obvious addition for their aromatic depth. The beauty of this chowder-style soup is that you don’t need a huge quantity of meat to make it incredibly satisfying. Just a single bite-sized piece in every spoonful is enough to deliver that rich corned beef flavor. So, even if you only have about a cup of diced corned beef left, you’ll still be able to create a truly amazing and flavorful soup.
This year, we once again enjoyed our Instant Pot corned beef and cabbage recipe. From a 3.5 lb brisket, we were left with approximately 1.5 cups of perfectly diced leftover corned beef. This amount proved to be ideal for creating what we affectionately call our Instant Pot corned beef chowder – a dish that quickly became a family favorite.
Essential Ingredient Notes for Your Hearty Soup
To craft this delightful corned beef soup, you’ll need just a few key components. The star, of course, is a few cups of your **Leftover corned beef**, carefully chopped into bite-sized pieces. Don’t worry about removing any caraway seeds if they’re present from your original cooking method; they’ll only add to the rich flavor profile.
- **Beef broth:** Opt for a low-sodium beef broth to maintain control over the overall saltiness of your soup. If desired, chicken broth can be used as an alternative, but beef broth truly complements the robust flavor of the corned beef.
- **Onions:** Finely diced onions are essential for building a foundational layer of aromatic flavor that permeates the entire dish.
- **Heavy whipping cream:** This is the secret to achieving that luxurious, creamy, chowder-like consistency that makes this soup so comforting and satisfying.
- **Mixed frozen vegetables:** These are convenient and hold their texture well during cooking. You can also use canned mixed vegetables, but be aware they will likely become much softer. Choose your favorite blend, like peas, carrots, corn, and green beans.
- **Salt and pepper:** Season to taste. Since corned beef and many beef broths already contain a significant amount of salt, it’s often best to add salt sparingly at the end of the cooking process.
- **Cornstarch:** This acts as a thickening agent, allowing you to achieve your desired chowder consistency. It’s an optional addition, but highly recommended for that classic creamy texture.
Making Soup with Frozen Corned Beef
If you’ve thoughtfully diced your leftover corned beef before freezing it, you can certainly use those frozen pieces directly in this soup. For optimal tenderness and even cooking, ensure the pieces are separated before adding them to the soup liquid. If your corned beef was frozen in a larger block or hasn’t been diced yet, it’s best to follow our specific Instant Pot frozen corned beef recipe first. Once it’s cooked and easily diced, you can then proceed with the steps for this soup below.
Modern pressure cookers have truly revolutionized the way we approach dishes like cooking corned beef and cabbage. The convenience and incredible results they deliver are unmatched. They consistently produce fall-apart tender meat brimming with flavor, which is precisely why I always recommend seasoning your soup at the end, allowing the natural savory essence of the corned beef to shine through.
Flavor Gold: What Can I Do with Leftover Corned Beef Liquid?
One of the most overlooked treasures after cooking corned beef is the flavorful cooking liquid. Do not discard it! This liquid is packed with incredible taste and can be a fantastic asset for your next meal. Once it cools down, transfer it to a sealed mason jar and refrigerate it. It becomes an excellent, highly flavorful alternative to regular beef broth, especially when you’re making soup with corned beef leftovers. The rich corned beef broth contributes such depth of flavor to your soup that you’ll find you need to add very little, if any, additional salt.
We generally aim to reduce our overall salt intake, and many commercially available beef broths already contain a significant amount of sodium. Using the flavorful liquid from your initial corned beef cook helps mitigate this while amplifying the beefy essence of your soup. Ultimately, whether you choose to add salt during the cooking process or prefer to season to taste at the very end is entirely up to your personal preference and dietary needs.
Regardless of how you prepared your initial corned beef—whether you baked it, smoked it, or made air fryer corned beef brisket the night before—this soup recipe will work beautifully. Simply dice your leftover meat into bite-sized pieces and incorporate it directly into the pot. If you truly crave the addition of some fresh cabbage in your soup, you can add finely shredded cabbage at the very end, once the soup is on the sauté function, allowing it to gently soften without becoming mushy.
And what if you prefer to make this delectable **corned beef chowder** on your stovetop? That’s entirely possible and equally delicious! Just like we initially cooked our Dutch oven corned beef, the stovetop method yields a wonderfully rich and comforting soup.
Step-by-Step: How to Make Creamy Corned Beef Soup in Your Instant Pot (or on the Stovetop)
This recipe is incredibly straightforward, allowing you to create a hearty and flavorful soup with minimal effort. Here’s how to bring this comforting dish to life:
- Begin by preparing your star ingredient: **Dice your leftover corned beef** into small, uniform bite-sized pieces. This ensures every spoonful has a perfect balance of meat and broth.
- Next, combine the foundation of your soup: **Add the diced onion, frozen mixed vegetables, and beef broth** directly into the inner pot of your pressure cooker. You can choose to add a pinch of salt now, but I personally prefer to season at the very end, as corned beef and broth often already contribute significant saltiness.
- **Stovetop method:** If you’re using a pot on your stovetop, place it over medium heat. Bring the mixture to a gentle boil, stirring occasionally until the vegetables reach your desired softness and the meat has warmed through and re-tenderized. This process typically takes about 20 minutes.
- For **Instant Pot users**, securely close the lid and set the pressure cooker to **high pressure** for 2 minutes. Once the cooking cycle is complete, allow a natural pressure release for 5 minutes. After this, carefully quick-release any remaining steam before opening the lid.
- While the soup is cooking, prepare your thickening agent: **Whisk together your heavy whipping cream and cornstarch** in a separate small bowl. Continue whisking until the mixture is completely smooth and all lumps are dissolved.
- Once the pressure cooker has depressurized, turn it off. Then, **press the sauté function** and wait for the soup to begin gently bubbling.
- Carefully **pour your cornstarch mixture** into the bubbling soup. Stir continuously for approximately 2 minutes, allowing the soup to thicken to a luxurious, chowder-like consistency. Serve immediately and enjoy the warmth!
- **Stovetop method:** Once your vegetables have reached your preferred tenderness, reduce the heat to low. Stir in the cornstarch mixture and continue stirring until the soup thickens to your desired consistency. Remove from heat and serve promptly.
For a slightly lighter take, I’ve also prepared a healthier corned beef and cabbage soup in a slow cooker, using similar ingredients (minus the whipping cream and cornstarch). This slow-cooked version simmers on low for 4-6 hours, with the cream and cornstarch whisked together and added during the last 30-60 minutes on high heat to thicken.
Creamy Leftover Corned Beef Soup
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Equipment
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1 pressure cooker
Ingredients
- 1.5 cup corned beef, diced (or more, according to preference)
- 3/4 cup onion, diced
- 2 cup beef broth
- 1 cup frozen mixed vegetables
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 3 tbsp cornstarch
- 1/4 tsp salt, optional, season to taste at the end
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Instructions
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Dice your leftover corned beef into small bite-sized pieces. Add this, your diced onion, frozen mixed vegetables, and beef broth into your pressure cooker. You can add salt now, though it’s often best to season at the end since corned beef and broth can already be quite salty.
For stovetop: Place the pot on medium heat.
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Set your pressure cooker to high pressure for 2 minutes. Allow for a natural release for 5 minutes, then quick-release any remaining steam.
For stovetop: Bring the soup to a rolling boil, stirring occasionally until the vegetables are as soft as you desire and the meat has softened.
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In a separate bowl, whisk together your whipping cream and cornstarch until all lumps are completely gone.
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Turn off your pressure cooker, then press the sauté button and wait for the soup to begin bubbling. Pour in your cornstarch mixture and allow it to bubble for about 2 minutes, stirring continuously, until the chowder or soup thickens to your preferred consistency. Serve immediately!
For stovetop: Once your vegetables have softened to your desired texture, reduce the heat to low and add the cornstarch mixture. Stir until it reaches your desired thickness. Remove from heat and serve immediately.
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We love to serve this hearty soup with a side of warm, crusty rolls.
Video Tutorial
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Nutrition Information (Approximate per serving)
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Additional Information
Elevate Your Meal: Creative Serving Suggestions
Once your rich and creamy corned beef soup is ready, consider these delightful pairings to truly elevate your dining experience. For a harmonious blend of salty and sweet, a dollop of cranberry sauce on the side can be surprisingly delicious, offering a vibrant contrast to the savory broth. If you’re looking for an extra layer of flavor and texture, warm a piece of crusty bread or a roll and serve it alongside a crisp garlic pickle; the tangy crunch beautifully complements the soup’s richness. And for dipping those tender bites of corned beef, my personal favorite is a zesty corned beef mustard sauce. Alternatively, a sweet chili sauce can provide an intriguing and flavorful dip, adding a subtle kick that enhances every spoonful. This versatile soup is not just a meal; it’s an opportunity to experiment with flavors and make it uniquely yours. A printable recipe, complete with nutritional information, is provided below for your convenience.
More Culinary Adventures: Other Leftover Corned Beef Recipes You’ll Adore
While this creamy corned beef soup is a star, the versatility of leftover corned beef allows for many other delicious transformations. It’s truly a gift that keeps on giving, and we love exploring its potential beyond the initial meal.
- One of our absolute favorites is our hearty homemade corned beef hash recipe. It’s a breakfast or brunch classic that turns humble leftovers into a savory, satisfying dish.
- And of course, for a quick and timeless option, you can always whip up delectable corned beef sandwiches. Whether hot or cold, with Swiss cheese and sauerkraut, they’re a crowd-pleaser.
While we typically don’t have enough leftover corned beef to create more than one additional dish from our initial cut, there have been those fortunate occasions. Above, you’ll find an image of our irresistible corned beef potato hash, featuring a creamy and utterly addictive twist that makes it truly special.
