Who needs canned beans when you can make perfectly cooked dried beans using your pressure cooker? These Instant Pot black beans are the cheapest, fastest, easiest way to get your beans on.
Why use dried black beans instead of canned?
A few reasons:
- Dried black beans are way better for you than canned beans. They don’t have all that extra sodium that comes with canned beans, and since you’re adding all the ingredients, you know exactly what you’re eating.
- Dried beans are cheaper than canned beans. You can buy a whole pound of dried black beans for about two bucks. But a can of beans (which is just about two cups of beans) is a little over a dollar. So you’re not going to save gazillions of dollars by switching away from canned, but hey, every little bit helps, right?
- Dried beans taste better than canned beans. At least in my opinion. The texture of dried beans is different than canned–for the better, as far as I’m concerned. And since you’re controlling the flavors that get added, you can adjust them to make ’em taste exactly how you want.
How to make dried black beans in the Instant Pot
1. Rinse your dried beans and pick out any stones. There’s no need to soak your beans overnight, so you can do this step right when you’re ready to start cooking.
2. Add the beans and all the rest of the ingredients into the Instant Pot.
3. Lock the lid and make sure the pressure valve is set to sealed position. Cook on high pressure for 25 minutes. When the cooking cycle is completed, wait 20 minutes to let the pressure naturally release, and then switch the pressure valve to release the remaining pressure.
4. Drain the excess liquid with a colander. Then return the beans to the pot, and give it a stir.
5. Pat yourself on the back for a job well done. You just made yourself a big batch of nutritious and delicious black beans.
What to do with leftover black beans
This recipe makes a full pound of beans, but even if you don’t use them all in one meal, the possibilities for the leftovers are endless. There are so many things you can do with black beans:
- Add them to tacos or burritos.
- Whip up some black bean quesadillas.
- Put them on a salad.
- Make black bean burgers.
- Make black bean nachos.
- Eat them with eggs.
- Or, hey, be straight-up crazy and just eat a bowl of black beans with rice.
Mexican-seasoned black beans that come together in less than an hour in the Instant Pot - with no soaking required!
- 1 pound black beans (dried, unsoaked)
- 1 onion (diced)
- 3 cloves garlic (minced)
- 1 jalapeno pepper (seeded and diced)
- 1 tbsp cumin
- 1 tsp salt
- 6 cups water
- lime juice (optional)
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Rinse the black beans and pick out any stones.
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Add all the ingredients into an Instant Pot and stir until well combined.
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Lock the lid, switch the pressure valve to seal and cook under high pressure for 25 minutes. Let the pressure naturally release for 20 minutes, then switch the pressure valve to release any remaining pressure.
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Stir. Drain to remove excess liquid. Add a little additional salt and a squeeze of lime juice if desired.
If you don't want the Mexican flavor added to your beans, you can omit the onions, jalapeno, garlic and cumin. I promise, they'll be perfectly tasty, even without the extra seasoning.
Yes! This looks so much easier than making beans on the stovetop.
I love that electric pressure cookers are making time-consuming dishes like this so quick. We love black beans in our house!
Totally agree! Black beans are such a good staple to keep on hand.