The BEST Instant Pot Beans

With no need for soaking, beans are so easy to make in the pressure cooker! This easy recipe makes lovely, creamy beans with a nice smoky flavor and a tiny bit of a kick that makes your taste buds want to dance.

I’ve tried many internet recipes for Instant Pot beans, and I was disappointed. Even the ones that said they were the best … well, yeah, they weren’t. I don’t like partly crunchy cooked beans. Who wants that? It took me a few tries before I finally got to the answer: just cook them longer. And once I’d achieved bean nirvana, I made them again and again.

In fact, I’ve made this recipe several times and I have meant to blog it, but I just somehow never got around to photographing it. Several times I made the beans, stashed them away in the fridge and then put most of them in the freezer so there weren’t enough left in one bunch to photograph. Oh well, I thought … I shall make them again. (The challenges of being a food blogger!)

Today I went to make my yummy Instant Pot beans again, but today I used the water method and it worked beautifully! The beans were still tender and creamy and soft and wonderful. Today I actually cooked the beans without ANY seasonings or salt (because I wanted some un-flavored beans for a sweet recipe I have concocting in my brain) … I took out enough for my diabolical plan that I have cooking up in my head … and THEN I added sauteed onions and garlic, bay leaf, herbs and seasonings and cooked for a bit longer to infuse the flavors. I just want you to know that you can do this this sans seasoning and your beans will still be lovely.

Why make beans in the pressure cooker?

First, there’s no soaking required. (Ah but if you’ve been following my blog for a long time, you might have seen that I never did soak my beans, so then is there still a benefit to using the Instant Pot? Well, yes, in the sense that there’s a set-it-and-forget-it simplicity to it.) You just throw everything in the pot, set it to 50 minutes and let it cook and release all on its own. In a couple hours, you have perfect creamy delicious beans, ready for however you want to use them. Put the beans in chili, make hummus (or zummus!) or bean dip or toss them in a burrito, huevos rancheros, a bean salsa or taco salad.

What if I don’t have some of the ingredients?

This recipe is so versatile! If you don’t have jalapeno or chipotle powder, throw in a bit of cayenne or green chile or whatever peppers appeal to you. I do recommend freshly chopped garlic and onion, but in a pinch you can use powdered onion and garlic. You can even leave out all of the seasonings and cook with just water and beans and add seasonings later (like I did today). Fresh herbs add a really lovely flavor, so choose herbs that you love. Heartier herbs (like rosemary) can go in before cooking, while leafy herbs (like cilantro or chives) will need to go in at the end. Feel free to customize this recipe to your liking.

If you do make tweaks to this recipe, please comment your changes below. It brings me joy to hear about your adventures!

The BEST Instant Pot Beans

• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
• Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 1 medium onion, peeled & chopped
• 2 – 5 cloves garlic, peeled & chopped
• 1 jalapeno, seeded & chopped
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 cup pork juice (reserved juices from pork roast or ham … or substitute 1 cup water + 1 teaspoon liquid smoke)
• 7 cups water
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil or bacon butter (reserved fat from baking bacon)
• 1 lb dry beans
• Other herbs or seasonings as desired

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Instructions

1. Put all ingredients in the instant pot (or other pressure cooker).
2. Turn the lever to the sealed position. Set pressure cooker for 50 minutes.
3. After cooking time is up, wait until the pressure is naturally released (about 30 minutes). Remove the lid and check the beans. Add Red Robin Seasoning (or salt) and other seasonings to taste.Remove the bay leaves and strain off any excess liquid. Enjoy!

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Notes

Use a mini food processor to chop the onion, garlic and jalapeno into little bits.

For vegan beans, use all water with some liquid smoke. If you are freezing any of the beans, make sure to reserve the cooking liquid.

I use a mix of beans and some of them are large, so I always set it to cook for 50 minutes.If your beans are small, you might be able to reduce them.

Suggested seasonings to add: chipotle powder, fresh rosemary or oregano, Trader Joe’s 21 Seasoning salute, cilantro, cumin.

RECIPE SOURCE: http://www.sumptuousspoonfuls.com/

© Copyright 2019, Sumptuous Spoonfuls. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to publish any of my images, please ask first. If you want to republish this recipe as your own, please re-write the recipe in your own words or link back to this post for the recipe.

Here’s a shot of a few of the beans I had in my mix. My mom grows these lovely beans in her garden, dries them and mixes them together and gives them to me! I’m such a lucky, lucky girl.