Pressure Cooking Beans – A Complete Guide

You have gone through all of the pressure cooker reviews and have bought the best cooker that you can and now you want to put it to the test. One of the best dishes for beginners that I have found are beans. They are easy to make, delicious and full of healthy nutrients. It is also pretty hard to mess up beans in a pressure cooker and therefore they are perfect to get started with.

There are about a dozen different ways to make beans. You can steam them, boil them and even bake them. But cooking them in the cooker is one of my favorite ways because they not only turn out perfectly but also cook a whole lot quicker than other methods.

As easy are beans are to make in a pressure cooker however, there are some steps that you are going to have to follow to have them turn out perfectly. Fortunately, I have outlined these steps and presented them to you in an easy to follow format. Follow these steps and you’ll have a pot of delicious beans in no time.

Presoak The Beans

The first thing you’ll need to do is to clean and presoak the beans. Make sure that you rinse them thoroughly and pick out any small stones that may be in them. Then place them in a large bowl with some cold water and place plastic wrap over the top. Allow to soak for about 8-10 hours.

Time To Cook

After presoaking you can now move on to cooking. For every cup of beans you put in the cooker you have to use three cups of water. Just be sure to not overfill it. When cooking beans, you should never fill the cooker more than half way full.

Also be sure that you don’t add anything to the beans that might prolong their cooking time. Ingredients that might add additional cooking time include tomatoes, any type of citrus, vinegar and even salt. If you like your beans salted, then be sure to salt them after they are done cooking.

How long you cook the beans in your best pressure cooker really depends on what types of beans you have. For instance—garbanzo, black and kidney beans all take at least twenty minutes to cook in a pressure cooker. The “white” beans such as northern and navy take approximately ten minutes to cook, as does pinto and anasazi. The only white bean that really takes a long time to cook is cannellini. This type of bean can take about eight minutes to cook.

You can tell when the beans are cooked to perfection when you can squish them with a spoon. If you want a thicker bean soup base, then use a potato masher on some of the beans after they are done and cook them for an additional minute. For a thinner base, then cook as prescribed. After that, you can season the beans to taste and make yourself a bowl. Congratulations! You just made beans in your pressure cooker.