Press the Saute button on the Instant Pot and adjust to Medium. Add butter and saute until it gets brown, foamy, and fragrant. I stir or swirl occasionally to get even distribution. You’ll know when it’s ready because it smells nutty and not burned.

To the butter, add celery, carrots, onion, and garlic. Saute for 5 minutes. Make a well in the center of the pot and add the can of tomato paste to cook down.  Be careful not to let it burn!

Deglaze the pot with chicken broth and scrape any browned bits off the bottom of the pot. If there is anything stuck on the pot, it may not come to pressure (see above).

Add the diced tomato and tomato sauce, sugar, basil pesto, salt, and pepper. Give it a quick stir. Lock the lid, turn the knob to sealing, and cook on manual high pressure for 20 minutes. Allow a 10-15 minute natural pressure release.

Use an immersion blender or high powered blender (I use my Blendtec blender) to blend the soup together. I usually have to do this in batches to ensure I don’t overfill my blender. You can blend maybe 2 batches super smooth, and leave one batch a little chunkier to add some texture, or just do it all the same. After blending, return the soup to the Instant Pot and add heavy cream to taste.

Serve with sour cream, extra heavy cream, pesto, fresh basil, croutons, bread, or cheese.

Follow all the above instructions for Instant Pot Tomato soup but in a regular stovetop pot. Transfer the sauteed vegetable and tomato mix to a Crock Pot. Cook on low for 8 hours, or high for 4-6 hours. Then, blend as directed and add heavy cream.