Perfect Instant Pot Black Beans - No Soaking Required (2024)

FAQs

Can you cook black beans without soaking? ›

You can cook black beans with or without soaking, but keep in mind that soaking beans ensures they'll cook faster and more evenly. It can also make them easier to digest by reducing some of the gas-producing indigestible carbohydrates, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Yes: When you soak beans, you dramatically reduce the amount of time it takes to pressure cook them. For instance, unsoaked chickpeas take 35-40 minutes to cook, but soaked chickpeas take just 10 minutes to cook. No: I don't think anyone says no to this question per se, but there is a bit of a tradeoff.

Make a fresh pot of chickpeas, black beans, navy beans, or white beans in the Instant Pot in about an hour—no soaking necessary!—with this all you need guide. Emma Christensen is the General Manager for Simply Recipes, the author of three books on home brewing and a graduate from The Cambridge School for Culinary Arts.

For quick-soak method

Bring up to a rolling boil and cook for 1 minute, then remove pan from heat and let beans soak for 1 hour. Step 2Drain beans and return to pot. Cover with 4" of water and add onion, garlic, and bay leaves. Bring to a boil and cook for 10 minutes, then reduce heat low and cover.

If you forgot to soak your beans the night before you plan to cook them, the hot soak method can come to the rescue. Cover the beans with water, bring to a boil and boil for three minutes. Remove them from the heat and let them soak in the hot water for an hour. Then drain, rinse, add fresh water and cook.

Just take your favorite beans (pinto, black eyed peas, chickpeas, lima beans) and cover them with your favorite broth or stock or even water seasoned with salt, spices, herbs and other aromatics like onion and garlic, and cook on low for 3 to 4 hours.

Add the beans to the pressure cooker with four cups of water and one teaspoon salt for each cup of beans. Cover the pressure cooker and lock the lid in place. Bring the pressure cooker to high pressure over high heat. Reduce the heat to maintain the pressure and cook for two minutes.

Mexican cooks don't pre-soak beans. They just add beans to water and get on with the cooking. No soaking or draining for them.

Just clean them and put them in a pot with plenty of water and you're good. They take about a half hour longer than if they were soaked, give or take - the age of the beans really matters. Or put them in a pressure cooker.

Some beans will be overcooked and completely decimated, while others are still gritty or firm in the center. Soaking the beans not only helps them to cook more evenly, but it also helps make them more digestible.

What happens if you don't rinse beans before cooking? ›

"If you rinse your beans thoroughly, you will have a consistently flavored product, but if you do not rinse them, different amounts of salt will remain in the dish each time you cook it, and it will be hard to cook consistently," he says.

To quick-soak dried beans, simply bring a pot of beans and water to a boil and let them sit for an hour. It takes only about 5 minutes of your attention and works for any type of bean. Step one: Sort and rinse. Pour the beans out onto a sheet pan or somewhere else you can spread them out easily.

Once the water is boiling, reduce the heat to a simmer.

Cook, uncovered, until the black beans are tender. I start checking mine at 1 hour and then again every 15 minutes after that. Depending on the freshness of your beans, it could take up to 2.5 hours.

Beans should soak for 8 to 10 hours overnight. If they are soaked for longer than 12 hours, they can lose their familiar flavor and become overly mushy. For the best result, refrain from soaking them for too long.

If you pre-soaked your beans and still find that they are not softening, it may be because you are cooking them in hard water.

According to the FDA, many beans can be toxic if consumed raw or undercooked, including black, great Northern, kidney, and navy beans. Both Boyer and Hendija say red kidney beans are the riskiest to consume if not soaked and cooked properly, because they have the highest concentration of lectins.

The easiest way is to just put them in a pressure cooker, bring it up to temp and then let it cool. They'll be rehydrated better than soaked and only in an hour. The reality is beans absorb very little water at room temp.

Undercooked beans may seem fairly innocent, if a little gross. However, they can cause food poisoning if you're not careful to cook them properly. The problem is caused by a plant lectin, phytohaemagglutinin or hemagglutinin.