You do not need to soak beans when you cook them in the Instant Pot, whereas you
do need to soak them when you cook them on the stove, so the Instant Pot already
has a leg up because it makes it easier and quicker. but there are a few caveats
that might make you want to soak them regardless. the first reason you might
want to soak your beans is that beans make us toot. Well for some of us. some of
us don't have trouble digesting them, but for others...you get pretty farty when you
eat beans. so if you fall into that latter camp and want to minimize your
farts, I suggest soaking your beans because it will help eliminate those
difficult to digest starches found in beans. the second reason you might want
to soak beans is that it creates a more even textured bean. without soaking them,
they tend to have some split skins and the texture is a little bit varied - some
beans are really soft and some are a little harder. and the final reason you
might want to soak of beans is that it dramatically reduces the cook time. of
course you have to remember first to soak them but once you do that -- pour the
water on the beans, cover the thing, it takes five seconds - you will dramatically cut
down the cook time from like 30 to 40 minutes to like 8 to 10 minutes.
Regarding the soaking method you just want to cover the beans in a large bowl
with a bunch of water. you can add salt at this stage or you can wait until
later, which I'll talk about soon and you want to soak them in cool water for like
eight to twelve hours or overnight, but there's also a quick soak method that
you can do, and I outline it in the blog post that you can find in the
description box below.
So if you've decided that you do want to soak your beans -- because either you want
smoother beans, or you want a shorter cook time, or you don't want to fart as much --
then you should really check out the Delay Start setting on the Instant Pot.
Fill up your Instant Pot with the amount of beans you want to cook, along with
water and salt. Select the Pressure Cook setting and
select the appropriate cook time for your variety of beans, making sure to use
the cook time for soaked beans. then use the Delay Start button. Use the plus
and minus buttons to adjust how many hours you want to soak the beans and
then press this button again to adjust how many minutes you want to soak the
beans. If you select eight hours, your beans will soak in the salted water for
eight hours and when that eight hours is over, the Instant Pot will start pressure
cooking the beans automatically. so you can set your timer before you leave for
work and then come home to a pot of cooked beans in the evening. One thing I
should mention is that if beans give you a really hard time with digestion -- like so
bad that you need to lock yourself in a room and isolate yourself so nobody
smells your smelly farts -- if it's that bad, then the Delay Start setting is
probably not the best option for you. that's because when the beans are
soaking in the Instant Pot, they'll automatically start cooking in the same
soaking water and those difficult to digest starches in the beans will have
leached out into the water. of course, the water is going to get drained, so it's
going to be easier to digest than if you hadn't soaked the beans at all, but if
you're someone who has a lot of trouble digesting beans, then this method is
probably not the best option for you.
Here's my ideal ratio for cooking beans in the Instant Pot: for every one pound
of beans you want to cook them in 5 to 6 cups of water with 2 to 2 1/2
teaspoons of kosher salt, which is about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2
teaspoons of sea salt. You'll use the Pressure Cook setting on your Instant Pot
which is the Manual setting on older models. Again in my cookbook you will
find a cook time chart for all the various different types of beans -- how
much time you should cook them, whether they're soaked or unsoaked.
Even if you're just making a really simple pot of beans -- not a chili or stew --
you can still amp up the flavor of those beans. So, first of all you don't have to
just use water, beans and salt. you can use vegetable broth instead of water.
it'll give your beans a more savory, richer mouthfeel. I also want to
emphasize that you should not skip the salt when you're cooking beans or
soaking them. if you just wait until the end to sprinkle on a little salt, your
beans are gonna be bland and nobody wants bland beans. or if you generously
salt them at the end, your beans are gonna taste too salty. when you salt the
cooking water or soaking water, the little salt granules are going to infuse every
little bean and each bean will be well-seasoned and perfect instead of
bland or over salty. and then feel free to add other seasonings to the water and
beans. you can add whole black peppercorns or freshly cracked black
pepper, bay leaves, fresh herbs like oregano or thyme, cumin seeds, coriander
seeds. you can add chopped garlic or onion or carrots. there's just a whole
variety of things you can do to spice up your beans, so try to experiment the next
time you make a pot of beans.
if you're making a big pot of beans there are a couple of things you should
know. When I'm making a pot of beans the volume expands a lot and it gets really
foamy, so I try to stick at the halfway mark or below on the inner pot. Also if
you're making a pound of beans, that's gonna create seven cups of beans which
is quite a lot. so unless you have a lot of bean lovers in your family to feed,
you might want to freeze a little bit. what I like to do is freeze them in two
cup increments. that way, in the future, when I'm making a
recipe and it calls for a can of beans, I can just quickly defrost that small jar
of two cups of beans, which is about the same amount of beans you would get in a
can of beans.
I usually just use the universal Pressure Cook setting to make beans, but
there's also a Bean/Chili setting. the Bean/Chili setting will automatically
default to certain cook times. if you want firmer beans, it'll default to 25
minutes; kind of medium soft beans to 30 minutes; and really soft beans to 40
minutes. On newer models you can change that 25 minutes to 27 minutes or that 40
minutes to 38 minutes, but I have heard on that older models of the Instant Pot,
those default cooking times are set and you can't change them so if you want
more flexibility and customization then just go ahead and use the Manual setting.
This last tip is important because if you don't want to get sprayed in the
face with bean foam -- I can't imagine you want to -- then you want to make sure you
use a natural pressure release for at least 10 minutes or 15 to 20 minutes.
That just means when the Instant Pot is done cooking, you let it sit, hangout,
don't touch it. and then after 10 or 15 minutes you can move the valve to the
venting position and release the remaining steam. Alright those are my
tips for cooking beans in the Instant Pot. I hope you found them useful. Now I'm
going to share with you two super easy recipes for beans. They require no
hands-on cooking so I hope you enjoy them.
For these spicy Mexican red bean, I'm going to soak some kidney beans in
water for eight hours or overnight. this really improves the texture of the beans
as well as aids with digestion. in addition to the soaked kidney beans, I'm
adding some diced red onion, along with chopped jalapeno peppers. you can omit
the seeds and membranes for a milder version. I'm also adding some minced garlic
along with a mixture of spices and bay leaves, and a generous amount of kosher
salt. Then I'm adding canned green chilies. you can use mild, medium or spicy.
As well as enough water to cover everything, and a jar of salsa. I'm using
salsa verde because that's my favorite but you can use any salsa you like.
Since these beans have already been soaked, they only need to be cooked for
eight minutes at high pressure using the Pressure Cook setting.
I like to finish my beans with some fresh cilantro and you can serve them as is, but I really
like them paired with rice for "rice and beans" as well as spooned over corn
tortillas for an easy taco night.
For this Mediterranean chickpea salad, I'm using unsoaked whole chickpeas. I'm
also adding some garlic, along with fresh thyme and oregano, as well as, again, a
generous amount of kosher salt. I'm also adding bay leaves, black peppercorns,
cumin seeds, and coriander seeds and some vegetable broth instead of water to add
more flavor.
Since these beans are not soaked, we'll cook them at high pressure for 35
minutes using the pressure cook setting.
I finished this chickpea salad with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, lemon
juice, chopped parsley, and freshly cracked sea salt.