Instant pot black beans (Soaked and dried)

Learn how to make Instant pot black beans with this detailed recipe. With this recipe, you can cook dried and soaked black beans and use them to make healthy and quick meals.

About Black beans

Black beans, also called black turtle beans, are a small variety of beans common in Latin American cuisine.

These black beans are high in fiber, protein, minerals, and vitamins (1).

Ingredients

Black beans: Unlike kidney beans and chickpeas, as these are small in size, black beans can be cooked quickly. If you buy your black beans in bulk and store them for a long time at home, it's better to soak them. Though soaking is optional, I always soak the beans. 

Water: I used plain water, but you can cook them in vegetable broth or chicken broth to flavor the black beans. Or you can use any flavoring agent.

Salt: Salt is optional. Usually, salt will hinder the cooking process for beans and legumes, and we should add salt at almost the end of cooking time. But I always use salt while cooking beans in the Instant pot as salt will flavor the beans.

Flavoring agents: Onion, garlic, bay leaf, and kombu can be used to flavor the black beans. And you can also flavor the cooked beans using Mexican spice mix, cajun spice mix, or dried herbs.

Do we need to soak black beans?

I like to buy beans in bulk from the local supermarket and store them. And if you know that your black beans are old and have been sitting in the cupboard for a long time, soak them.

Soaking any beans is optional. But soaking beans will

• Improve the digestion and assimilation of nutrients
• Decrease the cooking time drastically
• Help in uniform cooking of the beans

How to cook black beans using an Instant pot

Though soaking is optional, I always soak my beans. And if you feel bloated after eating beans, I recommend soaking them. Try soaking them once, and you will see the difference.

Clean the dried beans and remove debris from them. Then, rinse them in plain water and drain them.

Add drinking water to the rinsed beans and let them soak overnight or for at least 8 hours. Then, drain the water from the soaked beans and rinse them in fresh water a couple of times.

Cook

Add these rinsed black beans to the Instant pot inner pot. If you are not soaking the beans, rinse them in water and add them to the inner pot.

Add water, salt, and any flavoring agent(if using) to the inner pot.

Close the Instant pot with its lid and seal the vent. Next, start the Instant pot in manual or pressure cook mode and cook for 9 minutes on high pressure for soaked black beans. And pressure cook for 30 minutes on high pressure for unsoaked black beans.

Store

Once the Instant pot finishes cooking, let the pressure release naturally or manually release the pressure after 10 to 15 minutes.

Once you can handle the beans, strain them and store the beans and water separately. Instant pot black beans are ready to serve or store!

Cooking times & water ratio

Recipe Notes

• For soaking beans, use 3 cups of water for every 1 cup of dried black beans.
• If you are soaking for more than 12 hours, change the water after 12 hours. But stay within 18 hours as beans will start fermenting.
• If you cannot cook the soaked beans immediately, drain the water from them and refrigerate them. Soaked beans will stay in the refrigerator for about a day or two.
• If cooking the black beans using a stovetop pressure cooker, cook them for four whistles. It will take around 15 minutes.
• This recipe is naturally vegan and gluten-free.
• When we soak black beans, black beans will lose some color, but I still prefer soaking them as they make digestion easy.

Storage 

Cooked black beans keep well for 2 to 3 days in the refrigerator. If you intend to use it for more days, freeze them.

I usually freeze them in individual portions to thaw only the required quantity. And do not freeze the thawed beans again. You have to use them immediately.

If the refrigerated beans smell or taste bad, discard them.

You can store the remaining water from the cooked beans for one to 2 days in the refrigerator. Or freeze them for three months. I add this water while making black bean curry or soup.

How to use black beans

Replace canned black beans with these Instant pot black beans, and these taste much better. Here are some delicious ways to use these Instant pot black beans.

• Add them to salads. Check my black beans and chickpeas salad recipe to know all the salad variations you can make with these beans.
• Make black bean curry with seasonal veggies and serve it for lunch or dinner.
• Toss some olive oil, ground black pepper, salt, and cooked beans, and serve it as a snack.
• Mash the cooked black beans, season them, and use them as a sandwich filling.
• You can use them as a taco filling or tortilla fillings.
• Make hummus with black beans instead of chickpeas, which will taste delicious.
• You can make black bean burgers, black bean brownies, refried black beans, and Mexican black beans.
• You can use them to make rice pilaf. Replace chickpeas with these black beans in my Chickpeas rice recipe or Kidney beans and rice pilaf recipe.

FAQ

As you are here, you will like my other Instant pot basic recipes

Instant pot kidney beans

Instant pot millet

Instant pot basmati rice

Instant pot chickpeas

Instant pot black-eyed peas

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