Quick and easy Instant Pot Black Beans. Made with dried beans, no soaking, and ready in under 1 hour. So tasty and great to have on hand for simple dinners and meal prep.
💌 SAVE THIS RECIPE!
Enter your email and I'll send it straight to your inbox.
Watch out for more tasty treats coming your way! Unsubscribe at any time.
FEATURED COMMENT
"These are the BEST!!!!! SOOOO FLIPPIN GOOD!! My brother-in-law just returned from Mexico, and he says, "These are the BEST beans I have EVER HAD, even when I was in Mexico!" THATS AMAZING!!!!! " - Nadine ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ More reviews →
Learn how to make really tasty black beans in your Instant Pot! So quick and easy with no soaking required.
This set-and-forget Instant Pot Black Beans recipe is budget-friendly, super healthy, and perfect for batch cooking and freezing. Enjoy the beans as they are or repurpose them into lots of other meals or recipes. I give lots of serving suggestions below.
This recipe is an adapted version of my Slow Cooker Black Beans so if you don't have an Instant Pot, hop on over to that or my Quick Seasoned Black Beans instead.
Want more vegan Instant Pot recipes? Give my Instant Pot Spaghetti Bolognese and Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes a try!
Mel x
How To Cook Black Beans In An Instant Pot
It really is so simple to make perfect black beans in your Instant Pot, and there's no need to soak your beans before you start! This is no soak recipe. Here's how it's done:
Step 1 - Add all of the ingredients except the lime to the Instant Pot and give them a stir. Set the Instant Pot to 25 minutes on Manual/Pressure Cook and leave it to do its stuff.
Step 2 - Cut the lime in half and squeeze it over the beans just before serving.
Serving Suggestions
Try serving these delicious Instant Pot Black Beans simply with rice and Green Sauce. The combination is incredible. I like to top it all with some diced bell pepper, tomato, or green onions for added texture and colour.
They are also awesome in a bowl with guacamole and tortilla chips for scooping/dipping, or with:
- Vegan Meal Prep with Black Beans & Rice
- Tacos, burritos, wraps, or nachos
- Bowl meals and salads
- In tofu scramble or with vegan scrambled eggs
- On avocado toast
- You can even add more stock and blend them up into a soup!
I just love simple recipes like this that can be recycled into loads of other things!
Recipe FAQs
As per this recipe, for 450 grams / 1lb of black beans, you need 3 cups (720 ml) of liquid. I like to use stock rather than water for more flavour. This will produce perfectly cooked black beans, and most of the liquid will be absorbed, with a little leftover to keep them nice and moist. It means the flavours aren't diluted and you don't have to do any draining.
You don't have to soak the black beans before cooking them. This makes it super convenient! They cook fast straight from dried and have so much more flavour when they aren't soaked first.
Recipe
Instant Pot Black Beans
Author:WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
Ingredients
- 2½ cups (450 grams) dried black beans , no need to soak before using
- 1 medium onion , chopped finely
- 4 cloves garlic , chopped finely
- 1 teaspoon chili flakes , or 1 fresh chili, (you can omit the chili if you prefer)
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 large bay leaf
- 1 teaspoon dried mint , optional but recommended if you have it
- 3 cups (720 ml) vegetable stock
- 1 lime , juice only
- 1 teaspoon salt , plus more to taste if required
RECOMMENDED EQUIPMENT
INSTRUCTIONS
- Add all ingredients except the lime to the Instant Pot and stir.
- Put the lid on the Instant Pot and seal the vent.
- Cook on high pressure MANUAL or PRESSURE COOK in newer models, for 25 minutes for tender, soft beans, (or 30 minutes of you prefer really soft slightly mushy beans) and leave the pressure to release naturally before opening the lid. Please note that the beans continue to cook during the natural pressure release so if you skip this step and vent manually your beans will turn out much firmer.
- Add salt to taste then squeeze the juice of the lime into the beans and give them a quick stir before serving.
NOTES
💌 SAVE THIS RECIPE!
Enter your email and I'll send it straight to your inbox.
Watch out for more tasty treats coming your way! Unsubscribe at any time.
Tracie says
These are SO GOOD! I made a batch and have been happily eating beans and rice for dinner for weeks. I froze some and they reheat beautifully in the microwave. When I think about getting take out instead of cooking dinner, I remember the yummy black beans and rice in my freezer and eat that instead! I've been eating with some avocado and tomatoes on top or just a bit of hot sauce. I look forward to making this again and again.
Carmen says
I've always read that adding salt to the cooking water before cooking makes beans tough and prevents them from cooking properly...that you should add salt after they are cooked. Your thoughts? Thanks.
Melanie McDonald says
That is a very well perpetuated myth disproven by food scientists. Salt actually makes the skin on beans softer and more permeable (it breaks apart the calcium and magnesium ions in the skin which are responsible for making it tough), allowing water to penetrate more easily into the bean itself. This in turn speeds up cooking times and helps cook the beans evenly. Acid is what can make beans harder. Hope that helps!
Carmen says
Re: the nutritional chart, what is "one serving" (the serving size) please? I know the recipe makes 8 servings...but when measuring out just one, how much does one measure? Thanks.
Melanie McDonald says
Nutritional information is provided as an estimated courtesy and is for informational purposes only.
The number of servings is how many I roughly get when serving the recipe up to my family and the estimated one serving is one eighth of the entire recipe.
How much of the recipe you decide to eat is entirely up to you though. We all have different nutritional needs and they shouldn’t be dictated by a nutritional information box on a website.
If accurate nutritional information is something that is important to you though, I recommend calculating it yourself using the exact ingredients/brands you use when making any of my recipes, and adjusting your serving size as necessary for you.
Andrea W says
This recipe is absolutely delish - by far the best black beans recipe I've made. The cooking time, however, is way off - at least at my elevation. I've made this 3 times now, and 45 minutes in the instant pot seems to be the magic number.
Melanie McDonald says
Glad you enjoyed them Andrea! All of my recipes are tested at sea level, and I am literally as sea level as it gets. It's practically on my door step. Elevation does affect cooking time in pressure cookers (and also anything baked or boiled) so you will need to adjust recipes accordingly when you make them if you are at a higher altitude. Old or incorrectly stored beans can also affect cooking time and we never know how long they've been sitting in a warehouse or shop shelf before we get hold of them so that could possibly have also been a factor. Hope that helps!
Debbie says
Great recipe but it takes much longer than indicated. The pressure cooker has to get up to pressure, and the slow, natural release takes time. This is easily a one-hour recipe.
Carol-Ann K says
Hi Melanie!! Thanks for all of your wonderful tasty recipes. I want to make this black bean dish, but I have a question. Most recipes I've seen have a ratio of water to beans of 2:1. Can you please confirm tour liquid ratio on this one? Thanks again!!
Melanie McDonald says
It's an old, tried and true recipe and correct as written. I make it almost weekly with perfect beans every time. Hope you enjoy them!
Stephanie says
My go to black bean recipe, no need to look any further! These black beans are so simple to make and so flavorful.