(upbeat music) - Hi friends. Welcome back to my channel. If you're new here my name is Alyssa. Today we are talking
about how to cook beans in the Instant Pot. You might actually hear
something next to me that's kind of sizzling away, and I am actually physically cooking beans right beside me right
now in my Instant Pot. So what's great about cooking beans in your Instant Pot is
that it cooks way faster than if you were to
cook them on the stove. So basically what we're gonna do today is give you a full guide to cooking beans in your Instant Pot. And I'm excited to be
bringing you today's video in partnership with my
friends at Bob's Red Mill. I often talk about Bob's Red Mill in terms of flours and grains, but they actually have a
whole line of dried beans, which is amazing. And you can pretty much
get almost every single kind of bean that you could
ever imagine from them, including chickpeas,
black beans, pinto beans, cannelloni beans, red
kidney beans, lentils, you name it, they carry it all. And in today's video we are
going to be talking about some of the methods you can use for cooking beans in your Instant Pot. And I also have a full blog post that actually details this entire process and includes a free printable guide. So we aren't gonna be talking about how to cook each bean individually because that would end
up causing this video to be like 100 hours long. But we're just gonna kind of give you some overall tips for cooking
beans in your Instant Pot. We'll talk about the different methods. We'll talk about the water ratios. And we'll talk about
soaking versus not soaking versus releasing your pressure, all that stuff that you need to know. And then if you wanna get the guide for cooking individual beans and the actual cooking times, make sure to head over to the blog and download that free
printable resources. So, first thing is, do we
need to soak our beans? And the answer is, it depends. So a lot of people say that soaking beans is going to make them
a lot easier to digest. That can be true for some people. But other people don't
have issues with it. So I would say if you are somebody that has a really
sensitive digestive system or you already find that beans
can give you gas or bloat, then you are gonna
probably wanna soak them. The other benefit of
soaking them ahead of time is that they actually cook
in like under 10 minutes, which is crazy. But you can cook your
beans from dry if you want. And I'm gonna give you both methods. So if you do decide to soak them, the cooking time will drastically change. It will drop from like around 40 minutes, to in between five to 10 minutes, depending on the bean size. So each type of bean does
have a different cooking time. So you are gonna wanna
check out that guide like I mentioned to get
individual cooking times for each individual bean. But, if you are wanting to soak, what I recommend is
either soaking overnight or soaking in the morning
and then cooking your beans when you get home at night. So it's around eight to 12 hours. So like I said, soaking
reduces the cooking time, and soaking also can make
your beans easier to digest. That being said, you can
absolutely cook your beans from dry if you want. So once you've decided if
you wanna soak or not soak your beans let's talk
about how you actually cook them in your Instant Pot. It is literally so easy. All you have to do is first, I would recommend rinsing your beans. So whether you're soaking them or you're just cooking them from dry, add them into a fine mesh
strainer and rinse them. And then if you are soaking them, you can go ahead and just soak them. Put them in a jar, put
them in a glass container, put them in a bowl, and just cover them with at least two to three
inches of water and soak them. If you aren't soaking them, just add them right into
your Instant Pot dry. So, rinse them off in
your fine mesh strainer and dump them right into your Instant Pot. From there you're just
gonna add some water. So the ratio for water is pretty much the same for every bean. I've found I use the one to two ratio. So even if you soak them or if
you're cooking them from dry, one cup of beans to two cups of water. And the cooking times that I've outlined in the guide are gonna give you a more, kind of, not crunchy bean, but like the type of texture that you're getting from canned beans. So you can use them in salads, you can use them in soups, and you could also add them like to hummus or anything like that. So they aren't gonna be mushy. And then once you've got
them in your Instant Pot and you've added your water, you're just going to close your lid. Make sure that the seal
is pushed to sealed and not to venting. You wanna make sure that
it's completely closed. And then you're gonna be cooking your beans on high pressure. And I have found that high pressure and then whatever the time
is for each individual bean and taking it off of the keep warm setting is actually the best for cooking times. I find that when you use
the keep warm setting it actually continues to cook. And it can end up yielding
a mushier texture. Press the amount of time that you want for whatever bean you're cooking. And let your Instant Pot turn on. So if you're brand new to
cooking with an Instant Pot, there are some things that you
just need to be mindful of. The first is that your Instant Pot, even though the cooking
time might say half an hour, there is gonna be some
buffer time on each end where the Instant Pot
needs to build pressure. And then on the flip side, it's gonna need to release pressure. So the cooking times actually, it ends up taking longer
than what a recipe might call for because
it isn't necessarily accounting for those
two times on either end where you have to build up the
pressure in your Instant Pot and then let it naturally release. So once you're ready to get started, you're gonna let your
Instant Pot come to pressure. That takes anywhere from five to 10, maybe even 15 minutes
depending on the amount of things you have inside
of your pressure cooker. And let it come to pressure. Then it will automatically turn on and it will cook for whatever time you allocated in your timer. Once that timer goes off
and your Instant Pot is done you're gonna let it, when
you're cooking beans, release pressure naturally
like I just said. So leave the seal to closed. And just let the pressure
naturally release for about 20 to 25 minutes. From there you can just remove the lid, pull it off, and your
beans are gonna be done. I recommend just tasting them, making sure that they're to
the tenderness that you like. If they aren't quite cooked enough, you can set your Instant Pot for another five, 10 minutes or so. In terms of the types of
beans that you can cook in your Instant Pot, you really
can cook any kind of bean. Like I'm not joking. Any kind of bean works in the Instant Pot. In the guide, we've included lentils, chickpeas, navy beans,
we've included kidney beans, we've included pinto beans, we have mung beans, we have split peas. Basically anything that you can think of, and all of the beans that
Bob's Red Mill carries on their website, we've
included in the guide. So you can purchase any
bag of beans from them and you can learn how to
use it in your Instant Pot. If you don't yet have an Instant Pot, I know that it feels
like another appliance that you have to invest
in and you're maybe unsure if it's like the right thing for you. I was unsure too and I have to say, I absolutely love it. I think it is a fabulous
kitchen appliance. It takes the place of a slow cooker because you can still use
it to slow cook if you want. You can slow cook in it, you can saute in it, you
can pressure cook in it. It is amazing. I find that it's actually smaller, like it takes up less
room than my slow cooker. And I absolutely love it. So I will be sharing
additional information about how to cook vegan
recipes in your Instant Pot. But for now I think a great starting place for you guys is beans. And what's really beneficial about cooking beans from scratch is that they are way more flavorful, and they're actually
gonna be better for you. And now that I've discovered how easy it is to cook beans in the Instant Pot, I am a complete convert and I basically have fresh
beans in rotation all the time. The last thing that I wanna mention before I let you go and
I let you start exploring with cooking beans in your own Instant Pot is storage methods. So beans, like most
other plant based foods, are going to keep in your fridge for at least a week at a time. But beans can also be frozen. So if you make a big huge batch and you aren't quite sure
if you're gonna be able to use them all right away, you can freeze the leftovers. Last but not least, even
though you pretty much have all of the information that you need for getting started with cooking
beans in your Instant Pot, is that I also gave you
some recipe inspiration in that blog post. So if you're interested
in trying certain recipes or you're kind of confused
about ways to use your beans, check out the blog post
because I've put a bunch of different recipe ideas with
each individual bean for you so that you can get a
little bit of inspiration. And that's pretty much it you guys. If you have any questions for me in terms of how to cook
beans in your Instant Pot, or just cooking beans
from scratch in general, please don't hesitate to leave
them down in the comments. I'll definitely get back to you. I wanna remind you again, there is a free printable
guide that you can download which talks all about
the best cooking methods and cooking times for the different beans. So if you want to print that out you can just go over to the blog post, fill out your information, and get that free printable guide. Otherwise I wanna also
thank Bob's Red Mill for joining us in today's video. Like I said, they carry
pretty much every bean that you could ever imagine. So if you need some dried beans, head on over to their website. I've linked it down for you below. And you can browse their
entire bean section. They have really high
quality heritage beans. Everything from cannelloni beans, and I love their chickpeas, I love their lentils. There is so much to choose from. So I highly recommend checking it out. And again I just wanna thank
you guys for being here. I really appreciate you taking the time out of your day to watch
our videos and tune in. I hope you found this
helpful and valuable. If you did, I would love
for you to subscribe by clicking the button that
is right below this video. Also give it a thumbs
up if you enjoyed it. And if you have any other
Instant Pot related questions, any recipes that you wanna
see with the Instant Pot, anymore tutorials that
you want me to create using the Instant Pot,
definitely leave those in the comments because
I love playing with it and it's so fun to
experiment with new recipes. So I'll see you guys in the next video. Thanks so much for being here. Have a great rest of your day. Bye. (upbeat music)
