Cooked Black Beans
We never buy canned beans anymore. We cook our own, from dry, in an Instant Pot electric pressure cooker.
It’s super easy – here’s how to do it.
1 lb Dry Black Beans
Start with a pound of dry black beans – about 2 cups.
Frozen Vegetable Broth
You’ll also need 5 cups of vegetable broth or water.
We make our own vegetable broth (also in an Instant Pot) and freeze it in pre-measured sizes.
Olive Oil, Bay Leaf and Garlic
You can also add a tablespoon of olive oil, a bay leaf and 2 or 3 cloves of garlic. These are optional but the oil helps to stop the beans from foaming and we just like the flavor the garlic and bay leaf add.
Note: You can also add a little cumin. We like to do that if we plan to use the black beans in Mexican recipes.
Add Everything to the Inner Liner
Put everything in the inner liner of your Instant Pot. Yes, you can put the broth in frozen if you want. It’ll just take the pot a little longer to come to pressure.
Put Liner into Base
Put the inner liner into the Instant Pot base.
Close and Lock Lid
Close and lock the lid, making sure the Pressure Valve is in the Sealing position.
22 Minutes Cooking Time
Select the Pressure Cook button (that’s the Manual button on some Instant Pots) and set the cooking time for 22 minutes.
Float Valve Sealed
Once the correct pressure has been reached, the Float Valve will seal.
Cooking Time Complete
When the cooking Tim is complete, the Instant Pot will go into Keep Warm mode and start counting up the time.
Float Valve Dropped
Allow a full Natural Pressure Release (or NPR).
All that means is to just let the pot sit until the Float Valve drops on its own.
37 Minutes for Pressure to Release
In our case, that took about 37 minutes for all the pressure to release and the Float Valve to drop.
Move to Heatproof Surface and Stir
Carefully open the Instant Pot and move the inner liner to a heatproof surface.
Remove the bay leaf and give the beans a good stir.
Then just let them cool down. You’ll notice that the beans will continue to absorb more of the liquid as they cool.
Package the Cooked Beans
You can now package up the beans and freeze them for later use.
Label and Date
We put about 2 cups of beans in each Ziploc bag.
Be sure to label the bags with the contents and the date.
We lay the bags flat and carefully squeeze out as much of the air as we can. This allows them to freeze and thaw much quicker.
That’s it!
You now have a supply of cooked black beans, ready to use, and never need to buy canned beans again!
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