Black Beans (Dry) in an Instant Pot

[Lowjiber]

The wife likes black beans & rice as a side dish, so much so that she'll even eat canned black beans. (The Horror!)

I've had my Instant Pot for a little over a week and have been running it through its paces for a few days, just to get the "feel" of it. Everything I've read have told me to soak beans before pressure cooking, and my one pot of Navy beans on Monday came out great cooked that way in the IP.

She had a hair appointment yesterday after work, and an exact dinner time was going to be at the mercy of how much the girls at the beauty shop chewed-the-fat after her haircut. So, I needed a set-it-forget-it dinner that could hold for an extra hour or two beyond my anticipated dinner hour. Sous Vide/Reverse-Seared ribeyes and a small salad would fit the bill. No big deal.

My morning poker game wrapped up at noon, and my thoughts turned toward the kitchen. I thought it might be a good time to cook some black beans in the IP and just let 'em sit in warm-mode until I was ready to serve. The rice is a no-brainer, but I hadn't put any black beans to soak... Arrrgh!

I thought, "What the heck. Let's try 'em right outta the bag. If it's a "fail", so what?" Again, no big deal.

Here's my recipe...

• 1 Tbsp bacon grease or EVOO
• 1 Handful diced, thick bacon or ham
• 1 small onion diced
• 1 lb bag black beans... rinsed and inspected
• 1 tsp salt (optional)
• ~ 5 cups water

1. Saute bacon in bacon grease and add onions when bacon is almost done.
2. When onions are clear and bacon done, add black beans and stir contents of pot.
3. Add salt if desired.
4. Add water and stir. It's important that the amount of water be at least three times the depth of the beans/onion/bacon "mix" at the bottom of the pot to account for the absorption as the beans are cooking. I found that with a pound of beans, my depth was 1", so I added and additional three inches (~ 5 cups)
5. Set IP to "seal" and set "Manual" mode to 35 minutes. When done, allow "Natural Release" for 20 minutes before releasing any residual stem to open the lid.

The beauty of this cook is that it is indeed set-forget. I opened the pot after the 20 minutes release time just to check that the beans were done. Beans were perfectly cooked with just a bit of water over the top, and I replaced the lid loosely on the IP and left them on "warm" for about another hour until ready to serve. Now that I know the cook time is correct, I'll truly forget 'em until dinner time.

[CandySueQ]

I think that soaking is completely wasted with the IP. I've done two batches of Great Northern beans with ham. I soaked one and most of the beans were broken up. My first batch without soaking had more whole beans (but too much liquid). I've got a cheesecake recipe I want to try next.

[customtrim]

CandySueQ Only thing i have found with the cheese cake in a pressure pot is the crust became soggy really hard to keep the moisture out of it. I used a Cuisinart pressure cooker other than that they were not bad

[Lowjiber]

My "soaked" Navy beans didn't have any more "broken up" beans that what I naturally get with a cook on the stovetop. Since Navy beans are smaller than Great Northern beans, that may account for the difference?

[CandySueQ]

I would have thought that too Lowjiber, but the soaked ones were way more split up than the dry batch. Beans may have been older too.

[Thunder77]

Y'all have me thinking now about some good split pea soup! Has anyone done that in the IP?

[Lowjiber]

Here's a Split Pea recipe from Instant Pot's website...

http://instantpot.com/split-pea-with-ham-soup/