Cooking Dry Beans (Instant Pot, Stovetop, or Oven)
Canned beans are pretty good. Dried beans cooked from scratch with a few simple aromatics can be truly great. Here's how to cook a pound of beans on the stovetop, in the Instant Pot, or in the oven. When beans are cooked to your liking, scoop them out as needed for your recipes, reserving the cooking liquid for storage. Beans keep well tightly sealed in the fridge for about a week. Store them right in their cooking liquid so they don't dry out.
Servings: 12
Calories: 109kcal
Equipment
Ingredients
For all beans
- 1 pound (454 grams) dried beans, any type
- 2 teaspoons fine sea salt
- 1 medium yellow onion peeled and quartered
- 2 garlic cloves peeled and smashed
- 2 bay leaves
For chickpeas and white beans
- 1 carrot cut into chunks
- 1 celery rib cut into segments
- Sprig of fresh rosemary
- A few sprigs of fresh thyme
For pinto beans bound for Latin-inspired dishes
- A few sprigs fresh oregano or 1 teaspoon dried
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
Instructions
Stovetop Instructions
- If cooking larger, thicker-skinned beans such as chickpeas, great northern, cannellini, soak them for four to eight hours in cool water filtered if possible, to cover by a couple of inches, with two teaspoons of salt. Then proceed as directed in step two, discarding soaking water.
- Rinse beans under running water and pick out any non-beanlike goodies such as small stones. Place beans in a medium pot and add fresh cool water, filtered if possible, to cover by about two inches.
- Add salt, bay leaves, garlic, and onion, along with additional ingredients listed above, if using.
- Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a gentle simmer. Partially cover the pot and simmer slowly until beans are done to your liking, stirring occasionally and topping up with additional water if necessary. This will take anywhere from an hour to three hours or more, depending on the type and age of the beans you’re using and how tender you'd like them.
Instant Pot Instructions
- Rinse beans under running water and pick out any non-beanlike matter such as small stones.
- Place beans in the Instant Pot and add six cups of cool water (filtered if possible, since extra minerals in hard water may increase cooking time).
- Add salt, bay leaves, garlic, and onion, along with additional ingredients listed above, if using.
- Close lid and set vent to sealing position.
- Set IP to manual, high pressure, for the time indicated below for your bean type. The Instant Pot will take 20 minutes or so to come up to pressure before starting the cooking time.
- After cooking, allow pressure to release naturally for best bean texture. This, too, will take about 20-25 minutes.
Oven Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 300°F with the racks in the lowest positions.
- Rinse beans under running water and pick out any non-beanlike goodies such as small stones. Place beans in a 5-quart Dutch oven and add fresh cool water, filtered if possible, to cover by about two inches.
- Add salt, bay leaves, garlic, and onion, along with additional ingredients listed above, if using.
- Cover pot, place into preheated oven, and cook until beans are tender to your liking, stirring occasionally and topping up with additional water if necessary. For smaller beans, start checking at the one hour mark. Larger beans may take three hours or more.
Video
Notes
Approximate Instant Pot cooking times by bean type (for unsoaked beans)
Please note that everything from bean variety to quality to age, to the mineral content of your water, to the altitude at which you live, can substantially affect bean cooking time, so these numbers are simply guidelines. You may need to experiment a bit to get optimal results. These cooking times are a bit longer than what you will see elsewhere on the internet. This is what has worked for us. If you'd like to see the standard charts provided by Instant Pot and Rancho Gordo, you can find them here (Instant Pot) and here (Rancho Gordo).BLACK-EYED PEAS 10
BLACK 30
CANNELLINI 40
CHICKPEAS 50
GREAT NORTHERN 40
LIMA 20
PINTO 40
Nutrition
Serving: 1/2 cup cooked beans | Calories: 109kcal | Carbohydrates: 19.9g | Protein: 7.2g | Fat: 0.3g | Fiber: 8.3g