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Blue bowl full of cooked Great Northern Beans
Anne Murphy

Pressure Cooker Beans

Use an electric pressure cooker, an Instant Pot or any other, to cook beans easily and quickly!
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Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes
Course: Basic technique
Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • One pound dried Great Northern beans
  • Water as needed
  • Salt opt.

Method
 

  1. Pick over beans, Rinse well
Optional Soak
  1. Put in a bowl and cover by at least an inch with water. Let soak 6 or more hours. Drain
Cooking
  1. Put beans in a pot you can use in your electric pressure cooker. Place that, on a rack if needed, in the insert pot in your cooker. Add enough water to cover - with about half an inch more if soaked, an inch and a half if not.
  2. Add half a cup of water in the insert pot of the cooker.
  3. Cover and set the valve. Set the pressure to High. Set the timer to 50 minutes for soaked beans, 60 for dry. Start.
  4. When cooked, allow pressure to release naturally.

Notes

This is the timing that works for me for Great Northern Beans. You will want to vary by the type of bean - less for smaller ones (such as black beans,) longer for larger or harder ones (such as kidney beans or chickpeas.) The technique, however, remains the same.
Note the optional step of pre-soaking, which will add time to the prep (though you don't have to be there) and subtract time from the cooking time.