Instant Pot Black Beans (no soaking required!)

Once you know what you are doing, it’s easy to cook beans in an instant pot. Since you can’t check beans while beans are cooking, you need to use well-tested recipes (like this!) to get perfect results on your first try.

The most important part of cooking black beans in a pressure cooker is the right thing to do is the beans water ratio. If using the wrong ratio, you will end up with some tender beans, some still as hard as rocks.

(Any beans that are not completely immersed in water will not be cooked, for reference only.)

I first wrote these beans in the Instant Pot Cookbook, but since then I’ve tested them a little more. Perfectly tender and seasoned beans every time!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Featured Comments

“Love this recipe. Perfect, great, very delicious. I will never soak overnight again, just canned black beans. These are very delicious.” – Melanie

Black bean ingredients for pressure cooker

Here is what your delicious beans need:

• Dried black beans. Most of the time, I cook black beans without soaking them first, just because I didn’t plan too far. The age of beans can affect cooking time, so it is best to work with recently purchased beans instead of the beans that have been sitting in the pantry in the restaurant for years.
• Storage room spices. For experienced beans, I like to add ground cumin, oregano and bay leaves. If you wish to make beans that can only replace regular canned beans in recipes, you can omit these. (For example, if you plan to make brownies with them, you may not want experienced black beans.)
• Salt. Rumors are that salt may stop beans from softening, but this is not the case when cooking black beans. However, I do not recommend using more than 1 teaspoon of salt per cup of dried beans.
• water. If you are used to cooking beans on the stovetop, you may be disappointed to see how the black beans look when they are cooked in a pressure cooker. That’s because the beans must be completely immersed in water to cook correctly, so don’t reduce the water required for this recipe. Later, you can always cook the liquid to make it thicker.

How to Cook Instant Pot Black Beans

Step 1:

Add dried beans, cumin, oregano, bay leaves, salt and water to the stainless steel bowl of the instant pot. Or, for regular black beans, seasonings are omitted.

Cook every 8 ounces of dried beans, use 3 1/2 cups of water. (If you don’t own a kitchen scale, a half pound of beans is about 1 cup of dried beans.)

Step 2:

Secure the lid to the instant pot and move the steam release valve to the “sealed” position. Use the Manual or Pressure Chef button on the machine to cook under high pressure for 30 minutes.

The pan will take about 15 minutes to pressurize, so the screen will continue to read until the floating valve in the lid pops up. (Once this happens, you will know that the pot will pressurize.)

Step 3:

After the cooking cycle is completed, please be patient. You need to let the instant pot release stress naturally, which takes 25 to 30 minutes. Do not perform a quick release.

When the floating valve in the cover drops, you will know that the pressure has been released and the cover can be opened safely.

Remove the lid and remove the bay leaves. (This is a choking danger, so don’t put it in the beans.) The beans look watery, but should be tender. You can test some by mashing them with a fork to the sides of the pan.

Use a fine mesh filter to drain the beans and then be edible.

More Instant Pot Black Bean Tip

If you are curious, this is something I learned from the experiments I have done in a few weeks.

• Cook with less water. I initially tried cooking 8 ounces of dried beans in 3 cups of water, but still some of the beans were not completely submerged with the 6 quart instant pot. Even this is the case when I double the recipe, using 1 pound of black beans to 6 cups of water. Any beans above the water level are not tender, and I do not recommend any undercooked beans for safety reasons.
• Add onion and garlic. The cool thing about instant pots is that you don’t have to stir-fry vegetables and spices to develop aromatic flavors. (You can, but not required.) If you want to add onion and garlic, add 1/2 cup of diced white onion and garlic with dried beans cooked every 8 ounces.
• Boil soaked beans. If you wish to soak the beans first, cover them with 3 inches of water and then soak for 8 hours or overnight. The soaked beans will double or triple in size. When you are ready to cook the beans, drain the soaked water and cover them with 3 1/2 cups of fresh water, every 8 ounces of soaked dried beans. Cook under high pressure for 9 minutes, then let the pressure release naturally for 25 to 30 minutes.
• Not all bean varieties are the same. This tutorial is only for cooking black beans. Pinto beans, chickpeas, and chili beans may require different water ratios or cooking times, so if you have another type of beans, be sure to look for another recipe.

Recipe using black beans

If you try these Instant Pot Black Beans, Please leave a comment and a star rating below Let me know their results.