One of the easiest and best foods you can cook in the Instant Pot is beans: tender and perfect every time! Here’s how to make easy, no-soaking required Instant Pot dry beans. Use whatever beans you have on hand: black beans, pinto beans, white beans, chickpeas (garbanzo beans), lima beans. This step-by-step recipe will give you the very best results with minimal effort.
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Cooking your own beans, from scratch, is a great way to save money, eat healthier, and enjoy tender and flavorful beans.
- Dry beans are cheap, costing just $2-3 per 1 pound bag.
- They’re easy to find in any grocery store; no speciality store needed to find this nutritious food.
- A fantastic plant-based protein option with complex carbs and fiber (keeping you full for longer).
- A fantastic meal prep food. Make a batch of beans on the weekend and use them to make a variety of nourishing, inexpensive meals throughout the week.
- Beans are super easy to make, particularly in the Instant Pot or slow cooker (how to make crock-pot dry beans).
- Home-cooked beans taste so much better than most store-bought beans. Trust me, there’s a huge difference!
Ingredients Needed to Make Instant Pot Beans
For basic Instant Pot beans, you’ll only need a few things. You can easily customize the beans with various flavorings and veggies to enhance the flavor profile.
What kind of dry beans can you cook and for how long?
With this recipe, you can make a variety of different dry beans in your Instant Pot electric pressure cooker. The type of bean will determine the cooking time. Here are the best varieties to cook and the appropriate cooking times for each bean type.
BEAN COOKING TIMES
- Black Beans: Cook for 30 minutes
- Pinto Beans: Cook for 30 minutes
- Garbanzo Beans (Chickpeas): Cook for 40 minutes
- Kidney Beans: Cook for 35 minutes
- Navy Beans: Cook for 25 minutes
- Great Northern Beans: Cook for 25 minutes
- Lima Beans: Cook for 25 minutes
- Black Eyed Peas: Cook for 15 minutes, with a 15 minute natural release (then manually release remaining pressure)
For beans, I recommend always using a natural release, unless stated (like with the black eyed peas) to keep the beans soft and intact.
How Many Pounds of Beans Should You Cook?
I recommend cooking 1 lb of dried beans in the Instant Pot, particularly if you have a 6 or 8 quart Instant Pot. The problem with cooking more beans is that you’ll likely go over the fill line within the pot liner, which can cause the pressure cooker to overflow and fail.
DRY TO COOKED BEAN RATIOS
- 1 pound of dried beans = 2-3 cups of dried beans
- 2 cups dried beans = 6-7 cups cooked beans
- 1 1/2 cups cooked beans = 1 -15 ounce can of beans
Step by Step Instructions & Video
Step 1: Rinse Beans
Rinse the beans of choice under fresh water (such as: black beans, garbanzo beans, pinto beans, kidney beans, white beans, lima beans, etc.) and pick out any undesirables (stones, etc.). To do this easily, place the dry beans in a colander and rinse with cold water, running your hands through the beans to find any stones, etc.
Step 2: Add Beans to the Instant Pot
Add the dry beans to the Instant Pot. I use a 6 quart Instant Pot (like this). An 8 quart Instant Pot also works well for cooking dried beans as you’ll need room for both the water and beans and don’t want to go over the fill line.
Step 3: Add Water and Seasonings
Add the white or yellow onion (keep the halved onion intact, no need to chop), bay leaves, garlic cloves, olive oil (prevents foam from forming at the top), salt (I use 1 tablespoon for 8 cups water and 1 lb of beans, but this will be based on your taste).
Step 4: Cook for 15-40 Minutes Depending on Type of Bean
Lock the lid on the Instant Pot and set the Instant Pot to Manual, High Pressure for the designated time according the bean used (see below for specific cooking times, anywhere from 15-40 minutes depending on the type of bean). The valve on top should be set to Sealed.
Cooking Time Note:
The Instant Pot does take some time to come to pressure and begin pressure cooking. Once the warm up is complete, the timer on the pot will begin counting down based on the set cooking time. Warm up can take anywhere from 5-15 minutes.
If the water added is super cold, it may take longer for pressure to build so adding warm water can speed this up, allowing the Instant Pot to reach pressure faster.
Step 5: Let Pressure Release Naturally
Once the beans are done cooking, let the pressure release naturally for 30 minutes before releasing the remaining pressure (use a hot pad holder or towel) and opening the lid. If you’re short on time, you can do a 15 minute natural pressure release, then a quick release. But the best results are always with a longer natural release.
How to Use a Natural Pressure Release
With a quick release, you’ll release pressure from the Instant Pot valve, moving the valve on top of the Instant Pot from sealed to open, after the cooking time is complete. With a natural release, you’ll allow the pressure to naturally release from the Instant Pot. For beans, I recommend always using a natural release, unless stated (like with the black eyed peas) to keep the beans soft and intact. If you’re new to using an Instant Pot, see my 16 must-know Instant Pot tips here.
Step 6: Remove Aromatics and Enjoy
Remove the aromatics (bay leaves, onions, garlic). Drain and rinse the beans, if desired. Or, you can store or serve the beans with some of the liquid. This all depends on how you plan to use the beans.
How to Store
Cooked beans are a great food to meal prep in advance and use throughout the week to make easy meals: on salads, to make tacos or burrito bowls, or add to soup.
Store a batch of beans in the fridge or freezer, in an airtight container. Store the cooked beans in some of the cooking liquid. This will keep the beans moist and fresh for longer.
Seasoning and Flavor Ideas
The best part about making beans at home, from-scratch, is that you can flavor them to your liking! I usually stick with just the basics: onion, bay leaf, garlic, and salt. If you’re in a pinch, you could even just do salt and beans (and water). Avoid acidic ingredients as they prolong the cooking time: lemon, vinegar, etc. Here are a few ideas for flavoring a pot of beans…
- Use Broth: Instead of water, use broth! Like chicken or vegetable broth.
- Add Salt: This is a given, but please add salt! I know some folks suggest that adding salt to the beans while they cook will prevent them from breaking down, but with the Instant Pot I haven’t found this to be true. Salt adds so much flavor.
- Add Veggies: For black beans or pinto beans, adding some chopped carrots, celery, peppers, onion, and garlic will give you delicious beans that you can eat straight from the Instant Pot. I add veggies and spices to make Instant Pot black soup with dried black beans.
- Add Spices: For black or pinto beans, I love to add cumin, chili powder, and (after cooking) fresh cilantro (lots of fresh cilantro). This is great for beans you’ll enjoy in tacos, burritos, etc.
Avoid Hard Beans With These Tips
- Use a Natural Pressure Release: By using the cook times recommended in this recipe and a natural pressure release after the cooking time is done, you should easily avoid dreaded hard beans.
- Use Fresh Beans: Another reason people end up with hard cooked beans is because their dry beans are too old. Buy the freshest dry beans possible, and don’t store them for years upon years in your pantry. Doing so will help you achieve perfectly tender beans every time.
7 Can’t-Miss Tips For Making Perfect Beans Every Time
- No Soaking Needed: You don’t need to pre-soak beans when cooking beans in the Instant Pot.
- Reduce Cooking Time if Soaking First: If you want to pre-soak your beans (for 8-12 hours) before cooking, decrease the cooking time by 5-10 minutes.
- Never overfill your Instant Pot: Check the fill line inside your Instant Pot to make sure you don’t go over this line.
- Store beans in the cooking liquid: Drain the liquid from the beans, using a colander, before cooking with or serving.
- 1 pound of dried beans = 2-3 cups of dried beans, 2 cups dried beans = 6-7 cups cooked beans, 1 1/2 cups cooked beans = 1 -15 ounce can of beans
- Natural Pressure Release, Always: It’s best to let the Instant Pot naturally release in pressure before opening the lid. If you must perform a quick release, wait for 15 minutes, allowing some pressure to naturally release. Then perform a quick release with the remaining pressure.
- Make-Ahead Tip: Use Instant Pot beans in your favorite recipes, store in the fridge, or freeze for later.
Easy Instant Pot Dry Beans (No Soak, Any Variety)
Equipment
- 1 Instant Pot 6 or 8 quart size
Ingredients
- 1 pound dried beans any variety: black beans, pinto beans, chickpeas, etc.
- 1/2 white onion or yellow onion, peeled and left intact
- 1 TB extra virgin olive oil or avocado oil
- 2 medium garlic cloves peeled and left whole
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tsp salt *
- 8 cups water
Special Equipment:
- Instant Pot
- sieve or strainer to rinse the beans
Instructions
- Rinse the beans in a colander under fresh water, and pick out any undesirables (stones, etc.)
- Add the beans to the Instant Pot.
- Add all the remaining ingredients: onion, oil, garlic cloves, bay leaves, salt, and water. If you want to add any other seasonings (spices) or chopped veggies (carrots, celery) now is the time to do this.
- Lock the lid on and set the Instant Pot to Manual, High Pressure for 30 minutes (for black beans and pinto beans) or 40 minutes (for chickpeas). See cooking times in the notes below for other types. The valve on top should be set to Sealed.
- Once the beans are done cooking, let the pressure release naturally for 30 minutes before releasing the remaining pressure (use a hot pad holder or towel) and opening the lid.
- Remove the aromatics (bay leaves, onions, garlic). Drain and rinse the beans, if desired. Or, store or serve the beans with some of the liquid. If you're storing the beans in the fridge (or freezer), I recommend storing the beans in some of the liquid to keep them fresh.
Video
Notes
- Black Beans: Cook for 30 minutes
- Pinto Beans: Cook for 30 minutes
- Garbanzo Beans (Chickpeas): Cook for 40 minutes
- Kidney Beans: Cook for 35 minutes
- Navy Beans: Cook for 25 minutes
- Great Northern Beans: Cook for 25 minutes
- Lima Beans: Cook for 25 minutes
- Black Eyed Peas: Cook for 15 minutes, with a 15 minute natural release (then manually release remaining pressure)
- Use 8 cups of water per 1 lb of beans if you plan to use the beans in recipes like soups, casseroles, or stuffed peppers; not on their own and plan to store them in the fridge or freezer.
- Use 6 cups of water per 1 lb of beans if you plan to use the beans on their own (like burrito bowls or refried beans) and want the beans to take on more of the seasonings you add. Less water means the juice will be thicker, starchier, and more flavorful and the beans will be as well.
Nutrition
My Favorite
10 Ways to Use Home-Cooked Beans
- Tex Mex Stuffed Peppers (with black beans)
- Easy Vegetarian Quesadillas (with mashed pinto beans)
- Hummus (with chickpeas)
- Marinated Chickpea Salad
- Beet Hummus (with chickpeas)
- Instant Pot Chili (with kidney beans)
- Stove-Top Chili (with kidney or black beans)
- 30-Minute Chicken and Bean Nachos (with black beans)
- Vegetarian Tuscan White Bean Soup (with Great Northern beans)
- Freezer Bean Burritos (with mashed pinto beans)
- Ground Beef Taco Meat: Add 1/2lb ground beef and 1/2 lb of cooked pinto or black beans, then cook according to the recipe.
- Refried Beans: Mash pinto beans with a bit of the liquid, add cumin, salt, or chili powder.
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Nice recipe to try. My kids and friends will love this. I will try this at weekend and be back with reviews.
I just tried the black eyed peas in my pot I added a beef bouillon cube and they turned out good ?
That’s great, Amine!
Found there was way too much liquid, next time I will cut the fluid in half. I cooked beans with a ham hock, used spicy chicken Thai broth (Campbell’s) for my “water” added pink salt, liquid smoke, curry and chilli powder once the beans were cooked left the onions in, froze in portions and placed in the freezer for lunches. Yummy!
Hey Kelly, Yum! That sounds amazing. I would be interested in hearing how it goes with less water. Let me know.
Great recipie…I chopped the onions as I wanted to leave them in with the beans and I added a heaping spoon of salsa to give it some pizzazz .
Turned out great
Thanks
So if you wanted to double the beans would you double the whole recipe including the water?
Hey Jessica, Yes, I believe so. You would need a very large pressure cooker to do this.
I doubled the beans and everything else, but put in only 12cups of water, as that’s where I hit the halfway mark on my 8qt IP. I also increased the cook time to 40 minutes (I like a softer, creamier type pinto bean). The beans came out perfect and there was PLENTY of liquid still in the pot.
Yay! Glad it worked for you! 🙂
Wow, that’s great! Thank you for sharing, Audra.
Hi Kristin. Do you let the IP go into the keep warm setting once the cooking time is up or turn it off? Rice sticks to the bottom if the keep warm setting isn’t turned off. I suspect the same happens with beans? Thanks!
Hey Courtney, Do you mean after the natural release? Then, yes that’s what I do.
I just made your Insta pot fried rice recipe with brown rice. Turned out fantastic. I used toasted sesame oil and 2_3 tab olive oil. Let rice cool in pot naturally for 35 min and turned out fluffy and none stuck at bottom at all. Happy!
That’s great to hear, Mae! I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Question, if I’m cooking 16 oz pinto beans, soaking around 8 hours, do I still use 8 cups of water? Or is water reduced if presoaked?
My understanding for presoaked, cook pinto beans 30 minutes on high pressure, then natural release 15-20 minutes?
Hey Tina, Good question. Yes, same amount of water. And then 30 minutes on High Pressure, and about 15-20 minutes on natural release.
Thank you for the quick reply!
This is indeed a bit time consuming recipe because of the dry beans but very delicious. I’m glad I tried it. And, yep the images are fantastic. I love the way how you explained the whole recipe using the HD images. Thanks for sharing.
Hey Paul, Glad you’re enjoying the beans and the photos.
Just fyi, my beans were what I would call overcooked at 30 minutes in the Instapot. My beans were fairly new, and all I had were pinto beans. They are slightly smaller than red kidney beans. Now that I think about it, that was probably it. But they were delicious! Husband away, and I had it over basmati rice with chopped peanuts. Loved it. Making a scrambled egg wrap with miscellaneous veggies and this recipe. Perfect perfect! Thank you!
My beans were not as soft as I would like. Do I just increase the time a little to soften them up?
Hey Rebekah, Yes, that’s what I would recommend. The long natural release usually does the trick, but if they are still too hard, I would set the pressure again for about 10 minutes. Also, that’s usually a sign that the beans are old (maybe the store doesn’t have a high turn around on those beans, or beans in general, etc.), which isn’t a problem they just always take longer to cook and soften.
Hi Kristin
I’m a chef-educator and live in an area with hard well water. I add a tablespoon pink salt to each pound dry beans when I cook or soak them. This softens them wonderfully. If I use the salt for soaking it decreases the cooking time. Check it out.
Awesome, N Allen. Thank you for sharing. Sorry I missed your comment–it was in the spam folder.
Hi! Do you turn off the instant pot once the 30 minutes of cook time is up? Or do you just leave the pot on?
Hey Susana, You’ll want to leave the Instant Pot on so the pressure naturally releases.
I just tried the black eyed peas in my pot I added a beef bouillon cube and they turned out good ?
Yay, Joan! That’s great! Thank you for sharing.
Can I make black eyed peas in my pot
Hey Joan, I haven’t tried, but I bet so.
For those who prefer a soak, first run the beans through 2-4 minutes of a full pressure cook. Manually release pressure, strain, add new water and then follow the above directions. Works almost as good as an overnight soak, but you do get some bean breakage.
If you want to do rice with beans, run the “soak” (first cook) about 20 minutes, then release pressure, add new water and rice, then follow above directions but manually release pressure. It gives the soaking effect to beans and stops the rice from becoming discolored from bean residue.
Thanks for sharing, Jake!
Hi Jake,
Do you get less bean breakage with a short soak and then the cook? My understanding about the soaking (other than digestion ) was to create less breakage. Does your method of the short cook result in less bean breakage than just cooking the dry beans in the instant pot?
Thank you!
Hey Pamela, Hmmm, I’m honestly not sure. I don’t think there is much breakage from the Instant Pot method, but I don’t want to say that as a guaranteed statement.
What do you mean by discolored in “stops the rice from becoming discolored from bean residue”?
I do the same. I pressure cook the peas/beans for 5 min., QR and drain and rinse the peas/beans and then pressure cook for the 25 minutes. This method gets the gas bubbles out like rinsing canned peas/beans.
To speed up the heating up process in the instant pot you might try the following. While preparing your ingredients set the Instant pot, to saute, with the lid off. You might want some fluid because it will heat quite quickly. Then when the ingredients are all In, turn the instant pot off and back on to your regular cooking settings.
Thanks for sharing.
Awesome, Toni. Thanks for sharing.
This looks wonderful and so easy! I used my pressure cooker for the first time yesterday to cook a whole chicken…..it was great can’t wait to try this recipe for dry beans! Would it work the same if I use mayocoba beans and with a ham hock?
Can i replace the oil with bacon grease
Hey Cathy, I think so. I bet that would be so delicious with black or pinto beans.
I used pepper bacon grease in my first pot of beans. Helped to season the beans. Two thumbs up.
Hey Terri, That’s great! I’m so glad the bacon grease worked well.
Just used this recipe for my maiden voyage of my brand new instant pot. Can’t wait to try the results. Seemed like a perfect recipe for a first time user. Thanks!
I can’t wait! My beans are cooking !!
I love the prep time! This is how I do did it….. I set my Insta pot to 30 minutes and added 2 cups of water to the cooking pot to start it heating while I clean the beans. I put my steamer /strainer into the sink. As I checked the beans I threw them into the strainer in the sink with the water spraying on them . So the beans in the steamer were cleaned. I just set it into my pot and added the remaining ingredients, put the lid on, close the valve for pressure, turned the Insta pot off and then back on again and I was back to 30 minutes for cooking the full time. Yeah it was so easy!
Awesome, Jerry! So glad the recipe is helpful.
Smart idea! Too bad I read this after I started. But from now on…?
Hallo Kristin, thank you só much for yet another awesome recipe. I just want to know if it is possible to make this recipe in a Crockpot as well? Thank you xxx
Hey Heloise, Your welcome! Yes, it is. Here’s the tutorial on the blog: https://livesimply.me/2015/08/29/prep-day-how-to-cook-beans-in-the-crock-pot-and-freezer-for-later/
I just got an Instant Pot for Christmas and I’m anxious to try it for ham & beans, so I’m thrilled to see this recipe! My grandma and great-aunt would cook a raw potato with the beans to reduce the digestive issues and throw it away once the beans were cooked–do you think I could include one in this recipe? I usually forget to soak too. Thanks for posting!
Awesome, Karin! I think you’re going to love it. That’s so interesting. I’ve never heard of adding a potato. I bet you could do that with this recipe. The only thing is the potato may get really soft under the pressure, so you may have some potato “meat” to pick out of the beans.
Can kidney beans be cooked in the same manner?
Hi Richard,
I recommend soaking the kidney beans overnight.
LS Team
I sautéd a small pack of cured bacon in the pot before pressure cooking the pinto beans. They are cooking now and smell delicious. I can’t wait.
What a fabulous idea, Debra!! Enjoy!
Would the cooking time be the same for dried baby Lima beans?we like them on the softer side.
I would try 25 minutes pressure and a natural release.
How about Black eyed peas? Many probably asking this today.
Hey Mary, I would use this tutorial for Instant Pot black eyed peas: https://minimalistbaker.com/instant-pot-black-eyed-peas-fast-perfect-no-soaking/ So about 15 minutes high pressure and then 15 minutes natural release.