Instant Pot Beans: How to Cook Dried Beans in a Pressure Cooker with No Pre-Soaking Required: The EASIEST, FASTEST way to cook dried beans with success.
Do you guys have an Instant Pot?
No?!!!
Well, you need to get on it and get one ASAP!! I mean, like yesterday! I myself was skeptical of these magical pressure cooking pots, but I figured that since I am looked to for answers on all things food-related, I owed it to you all to get one and see if all the buzz was true.
It was.
The number one reason to fall in love with your pressure cooker is when you make Instant Pot Dried Beans!
If beans aren’t your thing, check out my collection of Easy Healthy Instant Pot Recipes.
These pressure cookers are the BEST thing ever in a person who is busy but wants to cook home-cooked meals. I was hooked the first time I used my Instant Pot–which by the way was when I tried to make my 5 Ingredient Pot Roast with a frozen chuck roast and it was ready in less than an hour!! Crazy–right?!!
My latest obsession is making my dried beans in the Instant Pot.
I use beans in so many dishes like Black Bean Tacos, Minestrone, and Tex Mex Stuffed Peppers, that to be able to make beans quickly without pre-soaking, is a dream come true for me.
And in seriously a matter of 5 minutes prep and less than an hour, I have cooked dried beans that are ready to use. Not to mention, pressure cooking the beans results in the most tender beans I have EVER had! They have a better texture than canned beans.
Instant Pot Beans
Okay, let’s break cooking dried beans without soaking down for you.
YES, you can cook dried beans WITHOUT soaking first. I know, mind-blowing!
How To Make Instant Pot Beans
- Rinse and sort your dried beans–just look over your dried beans to be sure there are no rocks that have snuck in!
- Place 1 pound dried beans with 8 cups water in your Instant Pot.
- Cook on high pressure for the directed time.
- Once cook time has released, let the pressure release naturally for at least 20 minutes before trying to do a quick release of pressure.
- Once beans have finished cooking, add in a splash of apple cider vinegar and salt. The salt flavors the beans, the vinegar helps make the beans easier to digest.
- I do like to store cooked beans in a bit of the cooking liquid to keep them moist and tender while they sit in the fridge, this is not necessary, but suggested.
Instant Pot Bean Cook Time
- Black Beans–30 Minutes on High Pressure
- Chickpeas–40 Minutes on High Pressure
- Kidney Beans–35 Minutes on High Pressure
- Pinto Beans–25 Minutes on High Pressure
- Navy Beans–30 Minutes on High Pressure
- Great Northern Beans– on 35 Minutes High Pressure
How to Flavor Beans
Instead of just cooking dried beans in water alone, I like to add a little flavor to my beans. This step of course is optional but highly encouraged.
- Along with beans and water, add a half an onion and bay leaf.
- You will want to add salt or homemade taco seasoning AFTER your beans have been cooked. Adding salt BEFORE cooking dried beans can make it harder for your beans to break down and soften properly.
How do I know how much dried beans to cook for a recipe?
- First of all, let me start by saying that one pound of dried beans is equivalent to about 2 cups of measured dried beans. Therefore, if you don’t have a one-pound bag of dried beans, just measure out 2 cups of beans for this recipe.
- Dried beans will triple in quantity when cooked. So for 1 pound, or 2 cups, of dried beans, you will have 6 cups cooked beans.
- Most recipes call for 15 ounce cans of beans. This is about 2 cups COOKED beans.
- Therefore this recipe for dried beans makes 6 cups cooked beans or the equivalent to 3 cans of beans.
How do I store leftover cooked beans?
You can cook extra beans in your pressure cooker to have on hand for recipes.
- Store leftover cooked beans in the refrigerator for 5 days. I keep the beans with a bit of the cooking liquid (much like you see in canned beans to keep them moist.) Just drain before serving.
- Or freeze prepared beans in 1 to 2 cup portions in freezer safe bags/containers in the freezer for up to 3 months. You can add a bit of cooking liquid to the beans you plan to freeze as well.
A Few Hints For Cooking Instant Pot Dried Beans
- If you like your beans SUPER soft, without a bite left to them, cook for an additional 10 minutes on high pressure.
- If you have pre-soaked your beans, reduce the cooking time by 10 minutes.
- Never fill the inner pot of your pressure cooker more than 1/2 full when cooking beans.
- It is best to let the pressure release naturally for beans to retain shape. However, you may do a rapid release after 10 minutes, by putting on oven mitts and pushing the steam valve to release. Just be careful not to stand too close–that steam can burn your face!
- If you find beans to be hard on your stomach or make you gassy, either pre-soak beans overnight first and/or add in 1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar after cooking.
- You will most likely have liquid left after cooking the beans in the instant pot, just drain off the liquid before using in recipes.
Recipes to Use Cooked Beans
- Healthy Black Bean Baked Tacos
- Sweet Potato Black Bean Burritos
- Slow Cooker Minestrone Soup
- Vegetarian Lentil Chili
- Vegetarian Butternut Squash Chili
Let’s Make Instant Pot Beans
Instant Pot Dried Beans
Ingredients
- 1 pound dried beans rinsed and sorted (this is equal to 2 measuring cups full of dried beans)
- 8 cups water
- 1 bay leaf optional
- 1 onion, sliced optional
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar optional
Instructions
- Place beans, water and onion and bay leaf if using in pressure cooker.
- Place lid on Instant Pot and close valve to "seal."
- Cook on High Pressure for Following Times:Black Beans--30 Minutes on High Pressure Chickpeas--35 Minutes on High Pressure Kidney Beans--35 Minutes on High Pressure Pinto Beans--25 Minutes on High Pressure Navy Beans--30 Minutes on High Pressure Butter Beans--40 Minutes on High Pressure Great Northern Beans-- on 35 Minutes High Pressure
- Allow to naturally release until pressure subsides, or at least 20 minutes before doing a quick release.
- Once beans have finished cooking, stir in salt and vinegar if using. Store cooked beans in a bit of the cooking liquid to keep them moist and tender while they sit in fridge, this is not necessary, but suggested.
Equipment Needed
Notes
- For incredibly soft beans without much structure left, and 10 minutes to cook time.
- For pre-soaked beans, decrease cook time by 10 minutes.
- For cooking in your pressure cooker at higher altitude, keep in mind these Instant Pot Altitude Conversions.
I cooked mine for 45 minutes with 20 minutes natural pressure release, and they were perfect! I added all my other seasoning at the end as well. Thank you 🙏🏽
YAY! Glad you had the results you were hoping for!
My beans came out with TONS of extra liquid. Is that normal? 8 cups of water seems like a lot for 1 pound of beans.
That is normal Johnny. The cooking time is based on the liquid used, so I would not decrease the liquid without increasing time.
Hi there! I always added salt to my stove top beans during cooking. I never knew it interfered with softening! Thanks for that useful bit of info. And cant wait to try the a
pple cider tip too. I always add cumin to my beans as well, should I add cumin powder at the end too, or can I add it during cooking alongside the onion and bay. Thanks!
Hi Angela! I am glad you found the tip helpful! You can add the cumin to the beans before or after cooking. It will not interfere.
Hi! I’m wondering if you’ve tested the theory about salt adding to cooking time? Epicurious did a series of test of a bunch of things that we have known about beans for generations. Soaking, not soaking, salt, no salt, etc. They found that beans that were salted at the beginning of cooking were actually more tender, which was pretty interesting to me and I’ve been doing every since (in the instant pot, not on the stove like they did). It was only one series of tests, and I haven’t seen anyone repeat it, so I wondered if you’ve tested and gotten different results. There are lot of factors, of course. This is the article: https://www.epicurious.com/expert-advice/soaking-salting-dried-bean-myths-article.
Hi there! I have had success seasoning my beans, but they certainly were not more tender. Honestly, it comes down to age of the beans. BUT if the beans are older, salt DOES interfere (at least when it comes to the Instant Pot) I have experimented with that time and time again.
Thanks! That helps a lot! I have a tendency to stockpile beans :-). That probably explains some of the inconsistency I’ve seen.
I think this is one of the best resources out there for making any/all beans in the instant pot. Thank you for creating and sharing your expertise.Grace
You are so welcome Grace. So glad you found this helpful!
Dear Kristen Chidsey,
I’ve been struggling with rehabilitating some very old pinto beans. I tried boiling, simmering, and for several hours but never got a satisfactory result (old beans want to stay hard). I began using a NuWave pressure cooker and that helped, but I still had to cook for about 90 minutes under HI pressure. So today my instant pot arrived and I’m going to try using your approach. But because the beans are older (they’re left from Y2K if you remember that idiocy), I expect to cook them longer than the time you recommended. I’ll let you know how things turn out.
Richard
Need to cook the beans for one hour minimum. Thirty five minutes they were like bb’s
Can I ask what variety of beans you used? And did you add salt or cook in stock or just water. Adding flavoring can interfere with cook time.
I used 1lb of Great Northern beans, did not soak them. To get the perfect texture I had on high pressure for 40 mins. 25-30 was still top hard. Also I used 7 cups of a mixture of beef stock and water to give extra flavor. (6qt pot)
Hi Ceecee! Keep in mind when you use stock, it has added salt. If salt is added prior to cooking, some of beans may not be able to soften–especially if they are older. In the future, only cook with water and season afterwards–that will make a huge difference 🙂