Easy Pinto Beans Recipe (Instant Pot) (2024)

FAQs

What is the ratio of beans to water in Instant Pot? ›

When cooking beans in the Instant Pot, you'll use 2 1/2 cups of water for every 1 cup of dry beans. I've tried using less than that, but since beans expand as they cook, the ones that aren't fully submerged in liquid will cook unevenly.

Navy beans: 25 to 30 minutes. Pinto beans: 25 to 30 minutes. Cannellini beans: 35 to 40 minutes. Chickpeas (garbanzo beans) : 35 to 40 minutes.

Place 1 pound of dried beans with 8 cups water in your Instant Pot. Cook on high pressure for the directed time. Once cook time has released, let the pressure release naturally for at least 20 minutes before trying to do a quick release of pressure.

How many cups of pinto beans are in a pound? There are approximately 2 cups of dry beans in a pound, but it's okay to not be exact! As long as you have enough water to cover the beans by ~1 inch, you don't have to be precise with the amount of beans you use.

In a large pot, add 6 cups of water for each pound (2 cups) of dry beans. Heat to boiling; boil for 2–3 minutes. Remove from heat, cover, and soak for at least 1 hour.

Cover with 3 cups of water per 1 cup of beans. Use 10 cups for a 1 pound bag. Do either a short soak or a long soak. Short Soak – Bring beans to a boil, boil for 2-3 minutes, remove from heat, and let stand covered for 1-4 hours.

Soaking beans can give very old beans a jump-start to softening, but unless you're cooking a dusty bag of pintos from the back of the pantry, this shouldn't be an issue. Plan for one to four hours to cook the beans depending on their age (most are done around the two-hour mark).

Beans that are old may have difficulty softening and require longer to cook. Also, the longer your beans have had to soak, the more quickly they will cook. Once soaked for 6-8 hours, we find that pinto beans require about 40-50 minutes at a simmer to fully cook.

Cook low and slow—patience is key. To cook on the stove, bring the pot of beans (soaked or unsoaked, with olive oil, salt, and any seasonings plus 2 to 3 inches of liquid covering them) to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat so that your beans are barely but steadily simmering and cover with the lid.

For 1 Pound of Unsoaked Pinto Beans

Put the pintos into the slow cooker with 8 cups of water or broth, and add any aromatics and spices (except salt) that you desire. Cover and let the slow cooker run on low for 8 to 9 hours. Season and Serve: Check the pinto beans. They should be tender and creamy.

How many people does 1lb of pinto beans feed? ›

Half a cup of beans is considered a serving, and contains about 7 grams of protein, depending on the type of beans you're using. One standard-sized can of beans is about two cups (or four servings), so a one-pound bag of beans will make three cans' worth, or 12 servings.

All you need to do to cook beans in the instant pot is add them into your pot, followed by 2 – 3x that amount of water. So if you're using 1 cup of dried beans (unsoaked), you'd follow that with about 2 – 3 cups of water. Basically, you want the beans to be fully submerged or else they won't cook evenly.

And for the tastiest, most flavorful extraction, we use a golden coffee to water ratio of 1:16 parts coffee to water when we brew. (We prefer to measure this ratio in weight, like 22 grams of coffee to 352 grams of water, but if you don't have a scale, you can measure by volume.)

Coffee's golden ratio is 1:18 (1 gram of coffee to every 18 grams of water). If you want a stronger cup, use a ratio of 1:15 or if you want a lighter cup, use 1:18. But somewhere between 15 to 18 grams of water to every gram of coffee is most common.

As a broad standard, we recommend 1:17 ratio

With a 1:17 ratio, for every 1 gram of coffee, use 17 grams of water.

In general, the ratio of water to beans is typically around 3 cups of water per 1 cup of dried beans. Here's a general guideline for cooking dried beans on the stove top: Rinse and sort the dried beans to remove any debris. Soak the beans overnight in a large bowl of water.