After pounds and pounds of bean pressure cooking I got it right. Here is your fail-proof guide for Instant Pot Beans. Instant Pot black beans, Instant Pot pinto beans, instant pot kidney beans, and many more, basically an encyclopedia about cooking beans in the instant pot.
After seeing the same question popping up over and over again in several Facebook groups: “how to cook beans in the instant pot”, and after reading answers that couldn’t differ any more, I felt the urge to find out timings for myself. Just like back when I saw the same happening for Instant Pot Rice.
I’ve read people recommending cook times anywhere from 10 minutes all the way up to 60 minutes. How can that be? Why do the recommended times differ SO MUCH?!? I had to get to the bottom of it.
Well, first of all, many times it isn’t even specified what kind of beans. There are soooooo many kinds and they all cook in different times. Asking “how to cook beans in the instant pot” is basically an incomplete question and often results in incomplete answers.
Second of all, it is never specified what the beans are meant for. Depending on if you want them for a salad or a soup makes a huge difference. For a salad you want them barely cooked so they hold their shape, stay dry and don’t become mushy. For a soup you want them super cooked and falling apart by themselves so you can blend them and create a creamy soup.
And lastly,it is rarely specified if the cooking time is requested or suggested for soaked or dry beans. This also plays a huge role in timing.
Which brings us to the first question and answer in our Instant Pot Beans Encyclopedia.
Soaking or No Soaking for Instant Pot Beans
Let me answer one important thing first: yes, you CAN cook both, soaked and unsoaked beans in the pressure cooker. So if you desperately want to skip the soaking process you absolutely CAN.
The question, however, should not be if you CAN cook no soak beans. The question is: do you really want to skip the step?
I never (literally never!) skip soaking. Why? Because it eases digestion A LOT. I, for one, don’t love feeling bloated and passing wind. If you enjoy that, by all means, go ahead and skip the step ;)
If you’re more like me and like eating healthy and yummy food without bloating and farting (high five my friend) then soak your beans for 8-12 hours before pressure cooking.
Generations and generations before us already knew about this trick and I rely a lot on their experience. A pressure cooker doesn’t break down the beans to a point where soaking isn’t necessary anymore to ease digestion. Maybe one day someone will invent a magical machine that can but for now, there isn’t one on the market that I know.
What the instant pot does it cook beans faster to reach the same consistency a regular pot with water does. That’s the advantage of pressure cooking. The soaking is still necessary.
There are other tricks to ease digestion such as adding “epazote” during the cooking process and/or removing the foam that forms on top. The most important and most effective is soaking though. Don’t skip the soaking even if you add epazote and remove the foam.
Sooooo, all experiments run for this post are for beans soaked for 12 hours at room temperature using filtered water. Then drained and rinsed and cooked in just plain, fresh, unsalted water.
Ok, now that we’ve had have that discussion let’s get to the next point.
Instant Pot Black Beans
My fist tests were run with Black Beans and that’s how I found out that the discrepancies of timing are often times likely due to what the beans are meant for.
After cooking for 30 minutes + complete natural pressure release the beans were nice and soft and perfect to use for a soup. They were cooked to the necessary consistency to blend into a smooth black bean soup.
However, they were way too soft to drain and use for a salad. They were much much softer than the black beans you’d find in a can for example.
The canned black beans are pretty firm and after draining ideal for a salad for example.
So the next goal was to find the best pressure cook timing to achieve firm beans for salad AND a consistency somewhere in between for Instant Pot Beans and Rice. Not too firm and not too soft.
After 20 minutes of high pressure cooking and full natural pressure release the Instant Pot Black Beans were thoroghly cooked through but still firm. I was able to drain them and use them in a salad.
After 25 minutes they had that perfect consistency for Instant Pot Beans and Rice.
Instant Pot Pinto Beans
I thought all beans the same size would cook in the same time but no. It seems different beans have a different composition and cook differently.
Pinto Beans cooked faster in my experiment compared to black beans. I was very surprised actually. So much so, that I will have to rerun this experiment. Pinto Beans were the last beans I experimented with and I’m wondering if my Instant Pots (<– yes, plural, I have several because I’m obsessed, haha) were maybe overheating and cooking stuff faster?
Anyway, the Adzuki Beans definitely confirmed the fact that different beans cook at different times regardless of size.
The Instant Pot Pinto Beans were perfect for draining and using in salads after just 15 minutes high pressure and full natural pressure release.
Perfect for rice and beans after 20 minutes high pressure cooking + NPR. And suitable for soups after 25 minutes HP + NPR.
Flavoring Instant Pot Beans (salt while or after cooking)
Depending on what you want your Instant Pot Beans for you may or may not want to flavor them.
If you want your beans for a salad which will have a salad dressing it’s probably best to simply cook them in filtered water and nothing else. Drain the water and use the unflavored beans for your salad.
For Instant Pot Beans and Rice or for soup you’ll probably want to flavor while cooking. There is a couple simple rules to follow. Add onion, garlic, spices (except salt) before or during cooking but salt after cooking. Salt can keep beans from softening up so you want to avoid adding while they are cooking but rather once they’re already soft.
What I love to do is to prepare a “sofrita” first. You hit the sautée button first and while the pot heats you peel and finely chop onion and garlic. Once hot, add a splash of oil, the chopped onion and garlic and sauté until nice and brown. Then add beans and water and cook as instructed in the recipe card below.
And here the printable fool-proof timing guide for Instant Pot Beans:
Instant Pot Beans
Ingredients
- 1-3 cups beans (black beans, pinto beans, adzuki beans, kidney beans, navy beans, or mung beans)
- water
Instructions
- Add beans to a large bowl and cover with abundant filtered water. At least 4 times as much water as beans. Cover with a clean dish towel. Soak for 8-12 hours on the kitchen counter. (If you soak them longer timings will differ!)
- Drain beans and rinse really really well.
- Add beans to instant pot and cover with fresh water to about 2 inches above the beans (two thumbs thick).
- Put on the lid and turn the knob to the sealing position.
- Press manual (or pressure cook on newer models) set to high pressure and adjust timing follows depending on if you need the beans for salad/rice and beans/soup:Black Beans: 20/25/30 minutes + 20 mins NPRPinto Beans: 15/20/25 + 20 mins NPRNavy Beans: 25/30/35 + 20 mins NPRKidney Beans: 25/30/35 + 20 mins NPRAdzuki Beans: 5/10/15 + 20 mins NPRMung Beans: 0 + 10 min NPR / 0 + 15 min NPR / 1 + 20 mins NPR
- Let pressure release naturally for specified time above, then, if safety pin hasn't dropped on its own yet, release remaining pressure manually.
Notes
Nutrition
PRINTABLE MEAL PLAN
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Tiffany says
It’s actually pretty hard to find electric pressure cooking times for beans that have been traditionally soaked as opposed to a quick pressure cooker soak so this was exactly what I needed! I’m cooking a 15 mixed bean soup so I’ll start at a median time of 20 min and keep checking on them to see where we are at. I appreciate all the info so much!
Barbara says
Thanks for taking the mystery out of beans in the instant pot. Following your recipe, I have successfully done black beans, chickpeas ( I saw your comment in the notes) and navy beans. Thanks so much!
Eva says
So I’m back to give my review and I’m glad to say, the black beans can’t out perfectly. Just like I wanted then to. Thanks again for this tutorial. My first use on my instant pot was success.
Thank you again 😊
Eva says
Thank you for breaking all this down. Makes it easy for us for time instant pot users. I’ve always soaked my beans even while using my old fashioned stove top pressure cooker. I just got an instant pot and will implement your time settings. I’ll be back to fill you in. I’m so excited!
Nuria Astals says
Hi! Great tutorial, thanks! Have you tried with chickpeas and lentils? I am curious as to the times to cook those…
Lorena Grater says
I cook my chickpeas 22 minutes on high pressure + NPR and my green lentils 5 mins high pressure + NPR :)
Nuria Astals says
Thanks a lot!
Stew says
I think a very large cause of differences in bean consistency could be your instruction to add water until it is “2 inches above the beans,” no matter how deep the beans are (your recipe calls for a wide range of “1 to 3 cups” of beans). As I understand it, the secret of cooking beans is the proportion of water to beans. I was always instructed to use 3 times as much water as beans (stovetop, not pressure cooker). 2 inches of water above one cup of beans is probably a higher proportion than 3 to 1; while 2 inches of water above 3 cups of beans is a much lower proportion. That variation has to impact the results.
I just started some “2 inch” beans. If they don’t turn out the way I like them, I will try the “3 to 1” proportion next time.
Lorena Grater says
The reason you need that much water on the stove is because you have to account for all the water evaporation during the extended cooking time. In the instant pot there is NO water evaporation at all, hence no need to account for that.
Oliver Quinn says
Since you’re such an advocate for soaking the beans, why don’t you put that in the title or site description? I’m using the Instant Pot because it’s quicker and more convenient, so I don’t want to soak beans overnight, and moreover, I don’t want to read a whole blog post before discovering that the recipe I’m trying to use requires SOAKING.
Lorena Grater says
I’m sorry I made you waste time. Please note that each post on my blog has a “jump to recipe button” and point #1 in the instructions of this specific recipe goes into soaking. That makes it a 1 sentence read. No need to read any more.
Michelle says
I don’t understand the calculations for Mung beans? What does 0+10 mean? Thank you!!
Lorena Grater says
0+10 means 0 minutes high pressure cooking time (you set the timer to 0 minutes, the pot gets to pressure and then immediately shuts off and starts natural pressure release which you wait out 10 minutes, then you switch the valve from sealing to venting to release the remaining pressure).
Donna says
What about Lima beans. Small and large white?
Lorena Grater says
I’m sorry, I haven’t tested those. I don’t know.
Lorra says
I soaked my black beans for 24 hours. This was likely a problem. I cooked them on high pressure for 20 minutes with a 20 minute NPR. They practically disintegrated.
Lorena Grater says
Rather than the extended soaking I believe your beans were fairly fresh so they cook faster. After many many comments, I’ve learned that that is the main reason for needing less cooking time. If you always buy at the same store and the same brand, try 10 minutes next time.
Jeff says
Your website provides very reliable information. It’s also very easy to use. Thank you for all the work that you done to put this together!
I live at about 4500 ft above sea level. I cooked pinto beans and navy beans. My navy beans were several years old. I used your recommended cooking times without any adjustment and they turned out perfect!
Also, thank you for including instructions as to which button to press for the newer Instapots.
Lorena Grater says
Jeff, I’m so happy you found this post useful. It fills my heart with joy when I read the times worked perfectly.
Rena says
Apparently, for every 1,000 ft above 2,000 ft above sea level, you need to add 5% to the cook time. I have been wondering why I have to cook beans longer in my pressure cooker. Maybe that is why.
Lorena Grater says
Yes, exactly. For every 1000 ft above 2000 ft. However, after hundreds of comments on this post and on social media I found out that height plays much less of a role than “bean age”. It seems like in Montreal I get much “older” beans than many others elsewhere in North America. Hence the time discrepancies. The height is usually a 1-3 minute cooking difference but people with very fresh beans report up to 15 minutes cooking time difference. I was shocked to read that. I wish I could test that but I can’t seem to get any fresh fresh beans :(
Penny says
Hi Lorena- I haven’t tried any of your times yet, but there are several other factors, besides bean age, that could be affecting outcomes. Different brands of pots cook differently. Also, outcome could vary depending on how many cups of beans are being cooked- not necessarily the cooking time per se, but the results could be inconsistent with a larger quantity of beans and therefore some beans might be mushy while others too firm. Also, perhaps some are leaving the warm function on during natural release and others have it off. Lastly, beans, especially black beans and chickpeas, can vary greatly in size, which could affect cooking times. Oh, and people just have differing opinions about what the perfect bean texture could be. Great blog. I look forward to trying your recipes
Lorena Grater says
Thank you so much for this wonderful comment and yes, I agree 100%. There are way too many factors to take into account, I know that now. I didn’t know back when I made my tests and wrote up this article. Since I consistently had great results with these times I wrongly assumed everybody would, too. Now I just hope it serves as a guide to others :)
Linda says
Perfect time for my pinto beans….Making refried beans and they are super. THANK YOU. I can always trust your recipes.
Daisy says
This is a wonderfully comprehensive guide. Thanks for the research! I think that cooking times can vary depending on the brand of instant pot.
I’ve made kidney beans and black beans using your recommended times, they turned out great!
Lorena Grater says
I’m so happy to read the times worked for you. It seems like bean age is what has the biggest impact on times but that’s simply impossible for me to take into consideration because most brands don’t disclose in an easy way on the packaging when the beans were harvested and packaged. I wish they did.