Perfectly Cooked Dry Beans in Under an Hour


I love eating beans. They are an easy and low calorie way to add good protein and fiber to your diet. Each 1/2 cup of beans has about 112 calories and 8 grams of protein. You can add them to your stews, salads, pastas, etc. You can also make some yummy snacks out of them like hummus or roasted chickpeas.

I used to use canned beans all of the time until I compared the sodium content to the dry beans. Canned beans have about 231 milligrams of sodium per serving, dry beans have about 2 milligrams. Dry beans also have no preservatives and are a lot cheaper than the canned version.

This is how I soften dry beans in about 45 minutes with no required soaking:
  • 16 oz bag of dried beans
  • 8 cups water
  • 2 tblsp olive oil
  • Pressure Cooker*
  1. Wash and pick through your beans for any broken beans or stones.
  2. Place beans, water and oil into the pressure cooker.
  3. Look at the chart below and find the number of minutes that correspond to the type of beans you are cooking. Set the pressure cooker to high and cook it for that number of minutes.

     
  4. When the set amount of minutes are done, turn off your pressure cooker and let the pressure escape naturally for 20 minutes.
  5. Use some in your favorite recipes and store the rest. You can store left over beans in a container with a tight fitting lid in the refrigerator for up to 5 days and in the freezer for up to 3 months. 
*I use the Nesco Digital Pressure Cooker. I used the instructions from the manual for the recipe above. If you have a different pressure cooker please read the manual first. Your pressure cooker instructions may be different than mine. 

34 comments

  1. Because of food sensitivities, we don't eat beans anymore but I really miss being able to use them as an inexpensive yet healthy addition to our menu. Can you use pressure cookers for other things?

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  2. I love beans and would like to use them more often. Can you believe we received a pressure cooker as a wedding gift 14 years ago and have never used it? I really need to break it in.

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  3. Sounds like a pretty healthy dish! :)

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  4. I love beans too and this is a great tip, it is so nice that you are keen observer when it comes to your food consuming and sharing the knowledge is a great job indeed.

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  5. Thanks for the time table for the different beans. I would have not even guessed that they'd need different time. Now, I'm hungry.

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  6. This is great! Thank you for sharing. I'm horrible when cooking dry beans but this makes it so easy!

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  7. I have never cooked beans in a crockpot. I should try it because my kids love beans!

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  8. I tried to soak beans one time (very bad experience)....they got foamy and smelled...I guess I did it too long, but now I want to get a pressure cooker so I can use your handy chart. I Pinned the chart for later. Very helpful.

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  9. I'm not a big fan of beans as they take so much time to cook. But thanks to your tips, I might start using them again :D

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  10. this is great, because I almost NEVER remember to soak my beans!!! thanks!!

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  11. I just made beans the other night and forgot to soak them. It didn't turn out well.

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  12. Oh this would be perfect for my hubby! I don't like beans but I cook them for him. Thanks for sharing!

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  13. I'm not so glad in beans, but chickpeas I love. And also, it can be made into hummus. SO good.

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  14. a-ha, it's the pressure cooker!! :D

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  15. We have a pressure cooker. I want to try making beans in it!

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  16. I did not know there was a difference.. Thanks for the lesson!

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  17. Love using my crockpot to cook beans, it's so easy!

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  18. When we buy canned beans we always try to buy the ones marked low sodium and STILL rinse them off to try to get some of the salt off. If we had a pressure cooker I would totally buy the dry ones!

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  19. Wow, under an hour? Thanks great! Thanks for sharing!

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  20. No soaking? Count me in!
    ~ Kimberly
    Our Family World

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  21. I didn't know you could do that in under an hour. I've always heard it takes a bit longer. Might need to get myself a pressure cooker.

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  22. I love beans, what a great tip. I did not know I could do it this quick.

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  23. under and hour you say? This is great. I need to get me a pressure cooker asap

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  24. I've never used a pressure cooker. This makes me really want to get one!

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  25. My beans always come out really bad. Thanks for this recipe.

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  26. This is GREAT! We've been adding more and more beans to our diet as a good healthy source of protein. The thing we dislike about them is the long process or soaking and cooking. I will be investing in this to speed the process along. Thanks!!

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  27. I'll give this a try, it sounds thousand times healthier than what we usually have.

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  28. I'm thinking that maybe I should get a pressure cooker. I wonder if maybe it would work in a rice cooker though? Maybe??

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  29. That's the second time I've heard about stones being mixed in with beans. it makes sense, but it makes my laugh. Thank you for sharing the faster way to make beans!!

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  30. I'm Dominican and Vegan, and loooove beans! This is fabulous. I have never owned a pressure cooker, but my time is now. Thank you for this amazing post. I will be saving time, energy, and money. Big hugs... Be Positive and You'll Be Powerful!

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  31. This is such a good tip. I honestly wish I had known about this sooner in order to same some time because we use a lot of beans in our recipes!

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  32. Thank you for this! I've never been able to get dry beans soft enough - I think this will help!

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  33. What A Great Recipe Looks So Yummy & It So Easy Set It And Forget I Like That!!

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