How To Freeze Beans
To freeze pinto beans, drain the cooking liquid and spread the cooked beans out on a lined baking sheet. You want the beans to be in a single layer, without them touching too much.
Freeze until the beans are solid, about 3 to 4 hours. Transfer them to an airtight container that you can store in the freezer. The beans will be easy to measure and thaw this way, rather than freezing together in a large clump. They should keep well for at least 6 months in the freezer.
- 1/2teaspoongarlic powder
How To Cook Pinto Beans In An Instant Pot
Heres a quick overview of how to make Instant Pot pinto beans. See the recipe box at the end of this post for the full list of ingredients and instructions.
How Do I Store Leftover Cooked Beans
You can cook extra beans in your pressure cooker to have on hand for recipes.
- Store leftover cooked beans in the refrigerator for 5 days. I keep the beans with a bit of the cooking liquid Just drain before serving.
- Or freeze prepared beans in 1 to 2 cup portions in freezer safe bags/containers in the freezer for up to 3 months. You can add a bit of cooking liquid to the beans you plan to freeze as well.
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Instant Pot Pinto Beans Additions & Variations
Substitute all or part vegetable broth for the water. )
Begin by sauteeing 2 – 3 slices of chopped bacon for several minutes before proceeding with the recipe.
Add additional seasonings to suit your tastes. Such as:
- Chopped onion
Kitchen Items Used To Make This Recipe:
Brenda is a licensed esthetician and former small business owner after completing over 15 years of service with the United States military.
She is an essential oil enthusiast and avid home cooking for her husband and their two dogs.
Brenda and her family spend most of their time in the American Southwest, but they also love hitting the road for adventure.
One of her new passions is creating easy, healthy family-friendly freezer meals which can be prepared at home and frozen, and then cooked while traveling the country in their travel trailer.
She looks forward to sharing everything she learns with you here on Simple Nourished Living.
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How To Make Drunken Beans
To start the party, sautébacon, chopped onions, jalapeño peppers, and garlic in a Dutch oven until the bacon is cooked and the veggies are softened. Deglaze the pan with a bottle of dark Mexican beer. I like to use Modela Negra.
Now its time for your beans to party. Dump the pinto beans in the pan, along with broth, molasses, brown sugar, and seasonings. The beans will absorb the beer and the broth, and get soft. Let them simmer for at least a couple of hours, stirring occasionally to make sure they arent sticking.
Check the beans to make sure theyre not drying out. If you need to, add more broth. Remember, its all about the juice.
When the beans are tender and youre ready to serve them, stir in some fresh lime juice and chopped cilantro. DO NOT skip the lime juice. It adds just the right note of tanginess. You may even want to add more! I like to serve them with tortilla chips and homemade pico de gallo.
Serve drunken beans in a bowl with a spoon so everyone can scoop up all that yummy juiciness.
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The Fine Print: Why You Might Still Want To Soak Your Beans
This said, you do make a few concessions when you skip the soak. The biggest one is the beans’ appearance: You tend to get more split skins and “blow-out” beans when they’re not pre-soaked.
For my everyday cooking, I’m fine with beans that are a bit rough around the edges. If you’re preparing a bean dish for your in-laws or the Pope, however, you might want to plan ahead and set aside the time for a long, careful soak.
Secondly, some people feel that soaking their beans helps makes them easier to digest . Personally, I haven’t noticed a huge difference with my own digestion between soaked or un-soaked beans, but if you find soaking helpful in this regard, then by all means carry on.
If you’d like to soak your beans , then go for it! The pressure cooking time is generally about half the time as unsoaked.
Does Cooking With Salt Affect Beans
In my experience, beans tend to be affected by salt more when you pressure cook them, as opposed to cooking them on the stove top.
However, when testing pinto beans in the Instant Pot, theres not a huge difference in adding salt or not. The beans turned out to be about the same tenderness either way, using the same cooking time.
Thats why the recipe below does call for salt, because the resulting beans turn out much more flavorful that way. My 4-year-old daughter told me they taste better than the pinto beans at Chipotle!
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What Kind Of Instant Pot Do You Use
Alex and I use this Instant Pot 6 Qt Programmable Pressure Cooker. Wed only recommend using a 6 quart pressure cooker for this recipe. We also cant speak to other brands and types of pressure cookers. For example, the Instant Pot Mini can work a bit differently than the standard size: dont use a Mini here since the quantity is much too large.
Do Pinto Beans Have To Be Soaked Before Cooking
No, you do not have to soak the beans before making them in the Instant Pot. Just make sure to rinse the pinto beans and pick out any pebbles or dirt before starting. You can place the dried beans in a colander to easily rinse them.
These Instant Pot pinto beans with bacon are a delicious side dish that will turn any main course into a homestyle meal. If youre looking for serving ideas, may we suggest our Pork and Beef Meatloaf, our Sage Brown Butter Skillet Cornbread, or this Sausage and Rice Skillet Dinner?
Pop leftovers into the fridge to enjoy the next day, or divide these up for meal planning throughout the week. This Instant Pot pinto beans recipe makes a dish that is truly versatile, which means a pot of flavorful beans will go with almost any meal!
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How To Cook Dry Pinto Beans In The Instant Pot
WW Recipe of the Day: Instant Pot Pinto Beans
Cooking dried beans used to take lots of planning and time. You would have to soak the beans overnight and then cook them most of the following day.
I remember jumping out of bed to go soak the beans on many occasions. This is why canned beans were a staple in my pantry.
The Instant Pot has changed all that. Now you can cook dried beans in minutes not hours. And best of all NO SOAKING required.
Tender, flavorful and absolutely delicious, these no soak Instant Pot pinto beans are so versatile. These days I just store a can for emergencies.
Fresh cooked InstantPot pinto beans
Perfect Instant Pot Pinto Beans
Posted by chelsea | Mar 14, 2018 | Featured, Instant Pot, Recipes, Sides | 8 |
Perfect Instant Pot pinto beans are a snap to make with the Instant Pot! These beans are excellent in tacos, on nachos, in a taco bowl, or anywhere else you would use beans with a Mexican flavor. I love beans, but they used to require quite a bit of time. I would make a big batch and freeze them so that I could have them on hand when wanted, but now I make smaller batches in my Instant Pot because they are so quick and easy to make. A bonus is I have more space in my freezer!
The Instant Pot can make beans from dry to done in about an hour! I still like to soak my beans, however. We in the traditional foods camp, believe in soaking, souring, or sprouting our grains, nuts, seeds, and legumes whenever possible to release their phytates. Phytates are what keep these foods from sprouting too soon, before conditions are just right. These phytates bind up some of the minerals in these nutritious foods, saving them for when the seed needs them. So, to get the most nutrition out of your grains, legumes, seeds, and nuts, you should soak, sprout, or sour them. A very important side benefit of this is that these items are much easier on the digestion. With so many people having digestion issues these days, this is a benefit that shouldnt be ignored.
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My Instant Pot Quick Soak Method
Here is how to do an Instant Pot quick soak method for dry beans in just 3 easy steps:
- Add dry beans and 6 cups of water to the Instant Pot.
- Press the sauté button until the screen shows more. There are three settings to the sauté mode: less, normal, and more.
- Bring the beans and water to a boil . Then press cancel and rest the lid or a plate on the top of the pot for an hour.
New to Instant Pot Cooking?
If you are new to Instant Pot cooking, read my Instant Pot Basics here. It covers how to safely use the Instant Pot and things you should know about pressure cooking. Then read this post on tips and hacks for the Instant Pot.
Why This Recipe Is Amazing:
- No soaking required – Homemade beans cooked on the stove typically require a long soak in salted water prior to cooking. No soak required when using your Instant Pot!
- The flavor is unreal – There is nothing worse than bland beans. These beans have the most amazing flavor. The combination of ingredients is perfect.
- Charro beans are versatile – Enjoy them for breakfast, lunch, or dinner! They taste amazing with fried eggs on top, in a burrito, or on the side of something like Shrimp Tacos or Instant Pot Shredded Beef.
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Additional Time: Total Time:
The Instant Pot makes it fast and easy to make homemade pinto beans. This side dish is extremely versatile and goes well with just about anything.
- 5 to 6 slices of bacon, chopped
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 pound dry pinto beans
- 1 bay leaf
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What To Serve With These Beans:
These Mexican charro beans are so incredibly delicious on their own, but they are also great when served alongside other recipes. Here are some recommendations.
If youve made this or any other recipe on my site, let me know in the comment section how it turned out. I love hearing from my readers!
You can also follow along on , and to see more amazing recipes to satisfy any foodie craving!
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About These Frijoles Borrachos
Because you start with dried beans, this recipe takes a little time. Its pretty much all hands-off time and plus, you get to enjoy the delicious aroma while they cook. Just let your pot of beans simmer gently on the stove, and enjoy the fragrance. Anticipation can be one of the best parts of cooking!
Ill run through the recipe here to get you started, with lots of helpful tips. Keep reading to the end of the post for the printable recipe card with complete directions and nutrition information.
Do You Soak Beans For The Instant Pot
Someone is going to ask this question: Do I need to soak dried beans before cooking? No. Especially not for Instant Pots or pressure cookers. Soaking beans speeds up cooking. On the stovetop, that means soaked beans cook for hours less than un-soaked beans. But in a pressure cooker, the difference isnt that big of a deal. It takes 40 minutes at high pressure for un-soaked beans, vs. 20 minutes for soaked. Thats why Im a fan of Instant Pot beans Im not organized enough to soak beans overnight, but I can still make a weeknight pot of beans.
At its most basic, this recipe can be pinto beans and water, but there are a couple of small finesse items I add to my Instant Pot Pinto Beans recipe. The first is quick-releasing the pressure. Quick releasing brings the pot to a sudden boil, which roughs up the beans and stirs some of their starch into the pot liquid. The second thing is adding salt to the cooking water. Yes, its OK. It wont harden the beans, and it seasons them more thoroughly. The last one is adding an onion and bay leaves. Theyre not necessary, but they add a hint of sweet and herbs to the beans.
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Cooking Tips For Instant Pot Pinto Beans
- Salt beans after cooking, not before. If you add salt to the beans before cooking they may not become as tender. Its also easier to salt to your tastes after cooking.
- If you are in a hurry, or if you dont have fresh onion, garlic and jalapeño on hand, you can omit the chopped onion, minced garlic, and/or jalapeño. If you do this, I recommend adding 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder, along with the chili powder, cumin and pepper. Ive done this when Im short on prep time and the pinto beans are still very tasty.
- If you decide to cook more than 1 pound of dry beans at a time, be careful to not overfill your Instant Pot. Never fill the pot above the line marked 1/2 in your Instant Pot when cooking foods such as dry beans that will expand while cooking.
- You can halve this recipe to make less beans. The cook time will stay the same.
- You can store cooked beans for up to 4 days in the refrigerator and up to 3 months in the freezer. Let the beans cool and then store in an airtight container.
How Long To Cook Pinto Beans In An Instant Pot
If you soak your beans, the cook time will be shorter. You can add a few minutes to the cook time for softer beans, or subtract a few minutes for firmer beans. The pressure cooking time can vary with the age of the beans and between different brands. The cook times below are what works for me in my Instant Pot.
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Instant Pot Beans Faqs
How much quantity of beans can I cook in my Instant Pot?
It depends on the size of your Instant Pot, but for 2 cups of dried beans, you will make 6 cups of cooked beans. A 6-quart Instant Pot will hold up to 24 cups of cooked beans at maximum.
Why are my beans taking so long to cook?
Dried unsoaked beans take much longer to cook versus soaked beans. Sometimes, if the beans are too old, they take longer to become tender. In that case, it is better to toss those beans.
Do tomatoes slow the cooking of beans?
The acidic properties of certain foods, such as tomatoes, can keep beans from softening. Avoid adding foods such as tomatoes, wine, or lemon juice to your beans until they have already become tender.
Why do you discard bean soaking water?
Soaking gets rid of a flatulence causing sugars and phytic acid in the beans. It is best to discard that water and use fresh water for cooking. And trust me, you don’t lose any of that flavor.
Can baking soda make beans cook faster?
Yes. Creating an alkaline environment by adding a pinch of baking soda causes beans to soften more quickly, allowing them to cook faster.
Check out more Instant Pot Bean Recipes& a similar detailed post on how to cook Instant Pot Chickpeas!
The Best Instant Pot Pinto Beans
Warning: once you start making these Instant Pot pinto beans, you might never go back to canned. I must admit that for years I convinced myself that making beans from scratch was a waste of time. Why go to the trouble when you can open a can in seconds? Well let me tell you, these pinto beans have a flavor and texture thats miles away from canned. Plus, they take only minutes to prepare. These beans turned Ella from a staunch bean hater into a bean lover. And people, THATS A MIRACLE!
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