The Quicker Soak: Cooking Beans from Dry

This method does not appear in any of my cookbooks because I invented it after my last cookbook Vegan Under Pressure was published, or had gone to press and it was too late to add it.

The biggest question is Why do I soak beans? Does it matter? I am a soaker. I prefer my beans to be soaked before I cook them as it rehydrates them and I feel as if it gives them a head start in the cooking process. Of course, you might feel different and choose to cook only cook beans from dry, without a soak. That is your choice, and I suggest that you stop reading right now as the rest of this will not likely be of interest to you.

Just today someone asked me how long I soak? I generally recommend a soak of at least 8 hours or overnight, or all day. However, my favorite soak is a quicker soak, as opposed to the quick soak which is putting 3 inches of water above the beans (and a piece of kombu seaweed, if you use it). Bring to a boil, turn off the heat and let sit for one hour. You can do this on the stove top, or in your Instant Pot on high saute, or other pressure cooker on the stove top. After the hour is up, drain the liquid, keep the kombu and move on to cooking. 

Now, on to the quicker soak. You still put a few inches of water above the beans but set your Instant Pot to low pressure and zero setting. If you don’t have zero (and one of my pots does not), when the pot reaches pressure, turn it off. If you do have a zero setting, then just wait until the pressure button comes down. Usually, this process takes about 25 minutes. The beans will usually have doubled in size.

NOW FOR THE IMPORTANT PART

To make the whole process scientific and to have the beans turn out “just right” in my opinion, and maybe not yours, measure the amount of dry beans using a measuring cup, the dry kind, which means that your vessel is not glass. They are cups that come in various sizes. Once you know the amount of dry beans that you used, you can determine the amount of liquid necessary to cook them. You can, of course, choose to use more but it might affect the cooking time. Don’t forget, though, that these are your beans so you can do what you want.
My simple formula is to use at least 1/2 cup minimum liquid for each dry cup of beans that you soaked. If you soaked 1 1/2 cups of beans, you would use at least 3/4 cup of liquid. However, I like to use a bit more so I might use 1 cup of liquid for this batch of beans. I have seen all kinds of suggestions online for using up to 3 cups of liquid for each dry cup of beans that are soaked. To what I say, WHAT???? I guess that if you love bean liquid, go right ahead.

Back to bean cooking. For most beans, the usual Instant Pot pressure cooking time is 4 to 6 minutes at pressure with a natural (just wait) release. For large beans, like my sister’s favorite Ayocote Morado from Rancho Gordo, I cook them for 6 to 8 minutes at high pressure, with natural release. 

When the pressure comes down, carefully open the pot, tilting the lid away from you. Stir the beans. Choose 3 of them and taste them to see if they are cooked through. I have pressure cooked enough pots of beans in the past 30 years to know that each batch might be a little different so tasting matters. If the beans are cooked to your liking, you can either stop here, or you can put the IP on saute and continue to cook for a few minutes to evaporate some of the liquid, of which there will not be a lot. 
If the beans don’t seem cooked enough, and you have adequate liquid remaining, put the pot back on pressure for a minute or two and let the pressure come down again. No sense in rushing this process because undercooked beans are not the goal.

When cooking the beans, I like to add some aromatics which are organic minced dehydrated onion and garlic, a piece of a hot chili (remember that the IP makes spicy foods hotter), cumin seeds and some epazote and an avocado leaf, if I have the latter two. What I add often depends upon how those beans will be used but most often the onion and garlic go in because I love the flavor and nutrition of alliums, which they are. 

I would love to hear what you think about this process. I cook one or two pots of beans each week and often store an extra cup or two in the freezer so I feed myself later without any “extra” cooking. 

Enjoy your beans.