Cooking black beans in a pressure cooker is so easy. You don’t even have to soak the beans ahead of time! These Instant Pot black beans take just five minutes of prep time, so you can set it and walk away while the pressure cooker does its job.
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Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Effortless: With no soaking required, these black beans are a breeze to prepare. On top of that, your Instant Pot reduces cooking time and work.
- Nutrient-dense: Black beans are a great source of plant-based protein, fiber, and essential vitamins and minerals.
- Versatile: Perfect as a side dish or as a base for countless recipes.
If you’re interested in more plant-based cooking basics, check out my tutorials for How To Cook Chickpeas, Easy Red Lentils, and the Best Basic Black Lentils.
Black Bean Nutrition
Black beans are an excellent source of fiber, folate, copper, thiamine, manganese, magnesium, and iron. They are also a good source of phosphorus and potassium.
As mentioned, black beans are rich in fiber. Increased fiber consumption is directly related to decreased risk of depression. An increase of 5g of fiber has been shown to result in a 5% decrease in the risk of depression.
Ingredients + Notes
Simple ingredients for delicious Instant Pot black beans.
- Black beans: The star of the show. Dried black beans are a great, affordable plant-based protein.
- Onion: Adds a subtle sweetness and depth of flavor to the black beans.
- Garlic: Garlic boosts the overall taste profile of these beans.
A full list of ingredients with exact amounts can be found in the recipe card below.
I’m all about nutrition and mental health here at Raepublic, but getting the right Pressure Cooker is a huge time saver! Talk about improving your mood!
Recipe Variations
This black beans Instant Pot recipe is perfect as is. However, you can definitely make it without the onion and garlic or add in some other aromatics.
- Spice: For spicy black beans, add some chili powder or cayenne pepper!
- Broth: Instead of cooking the black beans in water, you can cook them in vegetable broth for deeper flavor.
- Citrus: Freshly squeezed lime juice or lemon juice can add a bright, acidic balance to the earthy beans.
How To Cook Black Beans The Easy Way!
This easy recipe creates the perfect black beans!
- Pour beans into a colander and sort through them. Remove any stones or other objects that don’t belong, and rinse thoroughly.
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- Add beans, water, onion, garlic, salt, and pepper to your Instant Pot.
- Pressure cook on high for 30 minutes. Then, they will “keep warm” in the Instant Pot for about 15 minutes after cooking, resulting in natural pressure release.
- Release any remaining steam and remove the lid carefully. Beans should be perfectly tender. However, if they are not fully cooked, you can seal the lid again and cook for another 15 minutes.
- Strain the beans and discard the onion and garlic.
- Serve immediately. Alternatively, store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days or in the freezer for a month.
Servings Ideas
These pressure-cooker black beans are perfect to use as an ingredient in a variety of recipes.
- Tacos: Use these Instant Pot black beans in your favorite vegan tacos. (They’re so good!)
- Nachos: Need I say more? A cup of beans sprinkled on top of tortilla chips, lettuce, vegan cheese, Easy Guacamole, and Pico de Gallo.
- Soup: Use these flavorful beans in a Classic Black Bean Soup recipe or Vegan Homemade Chili.
- Burrito bowls: Mix a cup of black beans with rice, lettuce, guacamole, and pico de galo, and top with Cilantro Lime Dressing!
- Rice: For a simple meal, serve these black beans with white rice, brown rice, or Cilantro Lime Rice.
- Sweet potatoes: Stuffed baked sweet potatoes with black beans are a game changer!
Storage Tips
For optimal freshness, store your cooked beans in an airtight container.
- Fridge: They will keep in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
- Freeze: Alternatively, you can freeze them for up to 3 months. (This is perfect for meal prep. I often bulk-cook different types of beans and lentils and then strain them and freeze them. This way, when you are making soups, bowls, etc., you can just break off a chunk and add it to the recipe.)
FAQ
Generally, black beans are cooked in an instant pot for about 30 minutes at high pressure.
A very common ratio is 1 cup of dry beans to 3 cups of water. However, if you use a little extra water, you can just strain it out at the end.
The manual high-pressure setting is typically the best for cooking beans. If you have a newer Instant Pot, it may have a setting for beans which should work just fine.
This could be because you didn’t use enough water to fully cook them. Or, maybe they needed to cook a bit longer.
If you tried this Instant Pot Black Bean Recipe or any other recipe on my blog, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below. Thanks for visiting!
Recipe
Instant Pot Black Beans
Ingredients
- 2 cups dry black beans
- 1/2 yellow onion, halved
- 2 cloves of garlic , peeled
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 6 cups water
Instructions
- Pour beans into a colander and sort through them. Remove any stones or other objects that don’t belong, and rinse thoroughly.
- Add beans, water, onion, garlic, salt, and pepper to the instant pot.
- Pressure cook on high for 30 minutes. Then, they will "keep warm" in the Instant Pot for about 15 minutes after cooking, causing the steam to release naturally.
- Release any remaining steam and remove the lid carefully. Beans should be perfectly tender. However, if they are not fully cooked, you can seal the lid again and cook for another 15 minutes.
- Strain the beans and discard the onion and garlic.
- Serve immediately. Alternatively, store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days or in the freezer for a month.
Notes
- Fridge: They will keep in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
- Freeze: Alternatively, you can freeze them for up to 3 months. (This is perfect for meal prep. I often bulk-cook different types of beans and lentils and then strain them and freeze them. This way, when you are making soups, bowls, etc., you can just break off a chunk and add it to the recipe.)
Nutrition
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Reference
Saghafian F, Hajishafiee M, Rouhani P, Saneei P. Dietary fiber intake, depression, and anxiety: a systematic review and meta-analysis of epidemiologic studies. Nutr Neurosci. 2023 Feb;26(2):108-126. doi: 10.1080/1028415X.2021.2020403. Epub 2022 Jan 4. PMID: 36692989.
The onion and garlic add incredible depth of flavor!
Glad you like it!