Basics, Dry Beans, Pressure Cooker

Pressure Cooker Dry Bean Recipe

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Basic Bean Recipe

This recipe assumes you're using a Instant Pot. It is only a minor difference to instead use a stovetop pressure cooker; just use a timer and assume high pressure (except when low pressure is mentioned).
Prep Time5 minutes
Cook Time1 hour
Soak Time6 hours
Total Time7 hours 5 minutes
Servings: 0

Equipment

  • Pressure cooker
  • Spice bag

Ingredients

  • ¾ cup dry beans
  • 1 piece kombu about 4 square inches, which could be a 1” piece if it’s wide, or a 4” piece if it’s skinny – place in a spice bag to make it easy

Bean spices (options; place in spice bag, usually)

  • 1 Bay leaf I put one in nearly pot of beans
  • ½ tsp Peppercorns
  • ¼ tsp Red pepper flakes up to 1 tsp or so, great addition to make the beans spicy to their core
  • ⅓ tsp Oregano
  • Other potential herbs: rosemary, sage, and thyme
  • 1 clove garlic or about ½ tsp granulated / powder
  • ¼ onion or shallots
  • 1-2 stalks carrots and celery these are particularly good additions if you plan on using the bean cooking water as the base of the rest of the dish.

Instructions

  • I recommend pre-soaking. Rinse the beans and remove any broken pieces. (You can leave in broken pieces if you are making a mashed-bean recipe.) Add to a medium mixing bowl along with about 1 quart water and 2 tsp salt. Mix well. Set aside for 4-8 hours, covered to make sure nothing gets into the soaking beans.
  • If you pre-soaked, drain the beans well before moving to the next step. If you did not pre-soak, measure and rinse the beans well before proceeding.
  • Place the beans in the inner pot of the Instant Pot. Cover with about 1” water – I think this is usually about 1 quart water, but it’s not more than 2 quarts for this few of beans. You don’t want too much water. Add your bean spices (from above options), either in a spice bag (or wrapped in cheesecloth) or into the pot directly. Secure the lid.
  • Set the desired pressure-cooking time and bring to pressure. See below for times.
  • Once the machine has stopped the pressure cycle, I would recommend canceling the “Keep Warm” function (if applicable). Allow pressure to release naturally. I think this is the most critical part for soft, well-cooked, but unbroken beans. You should, however, not let this go longer than 25 minutes if you want whole beans as letting the pressure stay elevated (and therefore the water to stay above-boiling) may overcook the beans.
  • If beans are not fully soft, you can bring to pressure again for 1-2 minutes and then release pressure manually and that should finish them off. If they seem to need a lot more time, try cooking for an additional 5 minutes and then releasing pressure after 10 minutes.