Instant Pot Black Beans
Say goodbye to costly canned beans and hello to these easy, cost-effective, no-soak Instant Pot black beans! Just add broth, spices, and veggies for flavor, then you’ve got delicious beans for all your favorite black bean recipes.
The taste of these black beans is outstanding. The beans are cooked perfectly and the flavor of the herb and spiced broth makes them the ideal addition to a plate of enchiladas, burritos, or in a burrito bowl.
What do you always have in your refrigerator? And I don’t mean the usual items like eggs, mayonnaise, and mustard, but dishes.
I’ll go first. We always have prune spread, and some type of beans. Either this bean recipe or pinto refried beans.
Christopher eats rice, bean, and veggie mixture at least five days a week. We also eat a lot of homemade soft tacos, and beans are the main ingredient.
No, you don’t. Before I owned a pressure cooker, soaking the beans overnight was something I did every time I made beans. Now, all you have to do is rinse the dry beans and pick them over.
One of the things I love about making homemade beans is you can control the ingredients, including salt. I find canned beans way too salty and end up rinsing them to remove any residual salt. And these black beans are so tasty because you cook them with onions, carrots, celery, herbs, and spices.
No. BUT it can easily be converted to vegetarian. Just use vegetable broth or all water. I prefer to make instant pot black beans in chicken broth as I feel it gives it a fabulous flavor.
This post may contain affiliate links, which means I get a small commission, at no additional cost to you, if you click the link and buy something. You can read my disclosure here.
Helpful tips
- I used to sauté the vegetables in the instant pot before I cooked the beans. I have since stopped doing that. I just add the vegetables with the rest of the ingredients, then cook. You can save yourself some calories, doing it this way. And it tastes just as good as it would if you sautéed them.
- Wash and pick over the beans. I have found rocks before and you don’t want to be chomping on those.
- Here’s how to wash beans. Get a large bowl and a sieve that fits inside. Add the beans to the sieve and run cold water over them until they are slightly under water. Swish your fingers around the beans and keep your eyes out for bad beans or rocks. Empty water and repeat one or two more times.
- Any pressure cooker takes between 10 – 20 minutes to come to full pressure. It all depends on how full the cooker is, so factor that into your cooking time.
- Once the beans are done, you can either do a natural pressure release (between 15 – 25 minutes) or do a quick release (approximately 5 – 10 minutes, depending how patient you are.)
- To do a quick release, don an oven mitt to protect your hand from steam, nudge the venting knob to the venting position, and let the steam escape and the pressure indicator drop before opening the lid.
- If the instant pot is full to the maximum line (it won’t be for this recipe), I usually drape a kitchen towel over the venting knob to catch any food spray that comes out with the steam.
[convertkit form=1397230]
How to make instant pot black beans
Pre-step
Get out your instant pot or pressure cooker.
Step one
Gather your ingredients: dried black beans, onion, carrots, celery and chicken broth.
Step two
Chop the onion and carrot in small chunks, slice the celery, and add them all to the instant pot container. (A)
Step three
Add the herbs, spices, salt, and bay leaf. (B)
Step four
Add the washed black beans. (C)
Step five
Add the chicken broth and give everything a brisk stir. (D)
Step six
Place the lid on the instant pot and seal it. Make sure the venting knob is set to the sealed position, the mode is set to normal, and the pressure is set to high pressure before you press the “beans/chili” button (or the pressure cook button) and set the time to 55 minutes.
Step seven
Once the beans are done, either let the instant pot release the pressure naturally or do a quick pressure release like I do (see recipe card notes on how). Transfer the cooked beans to a serving dish and bring it to the table.
Don’t they look hearty and delicious? These are so tasty that once you try them, you’ll never go back to canned!
Time to serve these delicious beans.
I hope you enjoyed this instant pot black beans recipe! Wait till you try it, as it is so delicious!
Other popular bean recipes
And as always, may all your dishes be delish!
If you’ve tried this or any other recipe on the blog, I’d love the hear what you thought about it in the comments below. I love hearing from you! You can also FOLLOW ME on FACEBOOK, TWITTER, INSTAGRAM and PINTEREST to see more of my delicious food and delightful cocktails!
Instant Pot Black Beans
Ingredients
Make It!
- 1 medium onion (chopped)
- 3 large carrots (diced into small sized chunks)
- 1 stalk celery (sliced)
- 1 pound black beans, dried (washed and picked over)
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 1 1/2 teaspoons cumin
- 1 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 teaspoon oregano
- 1/4 teaspoon chipotle powder (or more)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 bay leaf
Instructions
- Plug in your instant pot. Add onion, carrots, and celery.1 medium onion, 3 large carrots, 1 stalk celery
- Add beans, broth, cumin, oregano, chipotle powder, garlic powder, bay leaf, and salt. Give it a stir.1 pound black beans, dried, 1 1/2 teaspoons cumin, 1 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, 2 teaspoon oregano, 1/4 teaspoon chipotle powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 bay leaf, 4 cups chicken broth
- Seal the instant pot and make sure the venting knob is in the sealed position. Press 'chili/beans' button and set timer to 55 minutes. It will take between 10 – 25 minutes to come to pressure before the timer starts to count down.
- Once the timer dings, either let the pressure release naturally (will take up to 25 minutes) or wait 5 – 10 minutes before doing a quick release.Don an oven mitt and carefully tap the knob to the venting position. Once the pressure is released, the pressure gauge will drop.
- Transfer the beans to a serving bowl. Ladle some beans to a small bowl and serve them with a meat and salad.
- Eat
- Enjoy
Equipment
Notes
- To save time and calories, you can skip adding olive oil and sautéing the vegetables. I do it both ways and they are both delicious. You chose.
- Wash and pick over the beans. I have found rocks in the beans and you don’t want to be chomping on that.
- Here’s how to wash beans. Get a large bowl and a sieve that fits in it. Add the beans to the sieve and run cold water over them until they are slightly under water. Swish your fingers around the beans and keep your eyes out for bad beans or rocks. Empty water and repeat one or two more times.
- Any pressure cooker takes between 10 – 20 minutes to come to full pressure. It all depends on how full the cooker is. So, add that to your cooking time.
- Once the beans are done, you can either let the instant pot (IP) release the pressure naturally (between 15 – 25 minutes) or do a quick release (approximately 5 – 10 minutes – depending how patient you are.)
- To do a quick release – don an oven mitt to protect your hand from steam and nudge the venting knob to the venting position and let the steam escape and the pressure indicator to drop before opening the lid.
- If the IP is full to the maximum line (it won’t be for this recipe) I usually drape a paper towel over the venting knob to catch any food spray that comes out with the steam.