While reading Kitchen Stewardship’s Everything Beans Book, I saw instructions for cooking beans in a pressure cooker–without soaking first! I decided to give it a try.
Ingredients:
- 1 lb (about 2 1/2 C) dried beans
- 9 C water
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1 Tbsp oil
Directions:
- Rinse beans and place in pressure cooker with the rest of the ingredients.
- Bring pressure cooker up to pressure on high; start timer. In the case of white beans, let cook for 32 minutes. (Consult The Everything Beans book or Google for other bean type times)
- Let pressure release naturally (this can take another 15 minutes or so).
This resulted in a firmly cooked bean–just perfect for the stew I made with it (come back tomorrow for the recipe!). I am falling in love with my pressure cooker again. And, I had forgotten how good beans are when they are made from dried beans (as opposed to all mushy from a can).
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I love my dried beans too!! Can you do kidney beans in a pressure cooker? They have different cooking requirements – I know you can’t do them in a crock pot, something about toxins… (maybe I should just buy the eBook, huh??)
hmm we’ll have to ask KitchenStew!
Aah, I just looked up WHY it was a problem in crock pots – the toxins only die when they don’t get hot enough, fast enough. Probably not a problem in the pressure cooker!
http://www.foodreference.com/html/artredkidneybeanpoisoning.html
I cook beans in my pressure cooker all the time. You can cook any kind of beans in there. I wonder about the gas content though w/o the soaking. Did you find this was affected, Wendy? I always do a pressure soak if I forget to leave my beans soaking overnight.
Put the beans in the pot….cover with water and then keep filling until beans are covered so that when you touch the beans w/ your index finger the water level is well over your second knuckle. Then cook on high 2 minutes, drain, rinse and then cook the regular amount you would in the pressure cooker.
I didn’t notice any gas difference, but then I’m pretty new to cooking beans in general.
Here’s the link to what Katie put in the Beans book on beans and gas – http://www.karenhurd.com/concern_why_beans.html Fascinating stuff, and since then, I’ve tried to eat a serving of beans pretty much every day! (and I’ll note that I seem to be more (ahem) rumbly in the tumbly when I DON’T eat beans for a few days!)
Very interesting. I am going to run this by someone who knows a lot more about nutrition than I do. I was thinking while reading it that if it is the soluble fiber that is the problem then other soluble fibers would help as well….and then that was addressed at the end of the article.
One thing I will say, however, is that we were eating a LOT of beans and still had issues with them, sometimes with more kinds than other (black beans and navy seemed to be the main offenders. One we added ajwain and epazote to beans when cooking, the problem was almost completely eliminated.
That was a very interesting link! I’ve noticed when we eat beans everyday that they don’t give us trouble, but if we skip a day or two…we have rumbly tummies!
My pressure cooker/canner says not to cook beans in it. It warns that they will boil over and/or lodge debris in the pressure regulator. Maybe someday I will get a small one that’s made for cooking things like this. For now I’ve been using it to can my own beans.
Lately I’ve also discovered that beans can soak for a few days if you change the water and rinse them daily. This means I can soak them and later if my dinner plans change the beans can sit until it’s more convenient to cook them.
yeah mine says that too but then later in the book it says if you add the Tbsp of oil you can use it for beans. No issues with mine so far!
I bought my mom a pressure cooker for Christmas. Is it something I should have, too? Something with multiple uses? or should I be able to get away with my slow cooker?
I’m reviewing Katie’s Everything Bean’s book right now. Will have a 20% off code up very soon. 🙂
I am sure that Wendy would agree that the pressure cooker is just amazing. She had a wonderful recipe up a few months ago for a pot roast, right? I have made all kinds of beans and bean dishes (see above comment :-)) and chicken, grains, vegetables, even desserts. And talk about fast…quinoa is done in 1 minute!!
A pressure cooker is nice to have but definitely not a NEED. I bought it at Bed Bath & Beyond with a 20% off coupon for Christmas with Christmas money I received from my mother in law. Crap, just realized I forgot to turn in a rebate that was also offered. Oops! I’m sure you can find a good deal on one.
thanks for linking up to our frugal tuesday tip! http://juliecache.com/2011/04/18/frugal-tuesday-tip-13/.html
I did this a while back with my new pressure cooker. I think I need more practice!