How to Cook Dried Beans in the Instant Pot

For consistently tender and creamy-textured cooked beans without the hassle of pre-soaking or hunching over a stovetop, use your pressure cooker to prepare them—no soak required. 

Once you know how to cook dried beans in the Instant Pot without pre-soaking them for hours, you’ll never go back!

Why You Don’t Need to Soak Dried Beans When Using a Pressure Cooker

The reason people soak beans for stovetop cooking is because soaking reduces the cooking time of dried beans. It’s a tradeoff though. The pre-soak may mean a shorter cooking duration, but you’ll need to prep hours and hours ahead of time. 

By cooking dried beans in the Instant Pot, you get the best of both worlds—quicker cooking with minimal prep.

That’s because, when you use a pressure cooker, the entire process is sped up so there’s not really a need to shorten the cooking time. 

Instead of hours of simmering to rehydrate unsoaked beans, you can put dried beans in the Instant Pot and walk away, only to sit down to dinner an hour later.  

If you like to (or need to) plan dinner on the fly, depending on what havoc the day has wrought, good news:

Now you won’t need to know by 6:00 am that bean burritos are on the menu in order to use flavorful and cheap dried beans. 

It makes stocking up on dried beans at their rock-bottom prices even smarter (and easier to manage).

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If You Want to Pre-Soak, Here’s How

That doesn’t mean you can’t pre-soak beans when you use a pressure cooker … just that you don’t have to. 

While a dash of apple cider vinegar after cooking can mitigate the gassiness some people experience with unsoaked beans, it’s possible someone in your family is extra sensitive to the indigestible part of the bean.

In that case, by all means, soak away! 

Here’s how you pre-soak dried beans before cooking:

• Dump the bag of dried beans into your Instant Pot.
• Remove any little rocks or bits of debris that made their way into the bag.
• Add salt.
• Fill the bowl with enough water to cover the beans plus 2 inches.
• Soak for at least 4 hours (up to 12).
• Then seal your pot, and you’re good to go.

How to Cook Dry Beans in the Instant Pot 

Okay, so it’s 4:00 pm, and the craving for bean burritos strikes. Let’s say the dinnertime target in your house is 6:00 pm, and a pantry inspection reveals you are OUT of canned beans.

No problem. It couldn’t be any easier to pressure cook dry beans quickly in your Instant Pot.

Before you start, you’ll need to do a basic sort-and-rinse to get rid of dirt, rocks, and other unwanted detritus in the beans.

Pour the bag of dry beans into a colander, sort through them, and then rinse.

We’ll talk about water amounts and cooking times in a minute, but the basic steps look like this:

• Add the beans
• Add water
• Add a little oil (to reduce foaming)
• Season how you want
• Pressure cook

You don’t even need to stick around the kitchen to release the pressure. A natural pressure release is preferred when you’re cooking beans in a pressure cooker. 

Although some say not to salt beans before cooking, most agree that adding salt at this point creates a tastier bean. 

As for other seasonings, add them now as well.

If you’re cooking up a large batch to freeze for various later meals, then salt and maybe a chunk or two of onion (intact) are probably sufficient. But if you know what you’ll be using the beans for, season them accordingly. 

Looking for suggestions?

• Try cumin and/or chili powder for Mexican cuisine
• Whole garlic cloves and Italian seasoning for minestrone and fagioli
• Allspice, cardamom, or coriander for Indian-style dishes

Then just set the timer on the Instant Pot, and go on about your business.

Video Tutorial

Determining the Water-to-Bean Ratio for Whatever Amount You Need

So how much water will you need to add to cook your beans properly in the Instant Pot?

It’s important to cover the beans by at least a few inches because unsoaked beans absorb a lot of liquid while cooking. 

Eight cups of water per pound of beans is recommended, but you can go as low as six cups per pound (for more concentrated flavors), as long as that amount covers the beans properly and leaves a few inches to spare.  

In any case, be sure not to go about the “fill line” on your pressure cooker.

How Long to Cook Your Beans Depends on the Variety

When you’re trying to determine how long to cook dry beans in a pressure cooker, you’ll want to take the type and age of the bean into account, as well as how you’ll be using the end product.

Cooking times for different kinds of beans vary, and fresher beans mean a shorter cooking time than older beans. 

If you’re planning to serve them as a side dish by themselves, then go for the higher end of the cooking time range. If you want firm beans for tacos or plan to add them as an ingredient to another recipe, such as soup, then start on the low end of the suggested range (below). 

NOTE: If you do end up pre-soaking, shorten the cook time by 5-10 minutes.

Here are some estimates. 

Pinto Beans

For unsoaked pinto beans, set the manual pressure timer for 30-40 minutes. 

Kidney Beans

Kidney beans that aren’t pre-soaked should be ready to eat in about 35-45 minutes

Black Beans

For black beans, put them in for the same length of time as pintos, 30-40 minutes. If you plan to use them in tacos, start with 30.

Chickpeas

Chickpeas, or garbanzo beans, need a little more time. 40-45 minutes is usually about right for fresh chickpeas.

Remember, if your beans aren’t as soft as you’d like once the cooking is done, you can put them back in the pot for awhile longer.

The Instant Pot won’t take nearly as long to come back up to full pressure as it did at first, since the contents and the pot are both already hot.

How I Preserve My Instant Pot Beans for Long-Term Storage

It might sound strange, but I dehydrate my beans immediately after removing them from the Instant Pot.

By dehydrating fully cooked beans, you create “instant” just-add-water beans. Bonus: They are shelf-stable, so no wasting valuable freezer space.

Here are detailed, step-by-step instructions up for dehydrating beans.

As a general rule of thumb, a full (up to the fill line) pot of Instant Pot beans yields 7 pints of dehydrated beans. Each pint holds 2 cups dried beans, which equate to 4-5 cups of cooked beans—far more than you get in a can at the store.

FAQS

How much water do you put in Instant Pot for dry beans?

You’ll need 6-8 cups of water for a 1 lb bag of dried beans (usually a full 8 cups).

What if some of the beans are still hard?

If your beans are still hard once you’ve cooked them in the Instant Pot, they may be older. In that case, throw them back in for another 5-10 minutes. The Instant Pot should quickly get back up to full pressure.

How much water do I need for 1 cup of dried beans? 

The tried-and-true ratio for most beans is 4:1 cups of water to cups of beans. Since a 16 oz bag of dried beans is about 2 cups, you’ll need 8 cups of water for 1 bag of dried beans.

How many cups (cooked) does 1 cup of dry beans make?

One cup of dried beans will almost triple in volume due to absorbing water as it cooks. Plan on 2.5-3 cups of cooked beans for every cup of dried beans, so 5-6 cups per 1 lb bag (which holds 2 cups of dried beans).

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