I had a very “Louisiana” day yesterday. I made a big pot of red beans during the day and then went to a crawfish boil at night. :P I was craving red beans, so I thought it was a good opportunity to try making them in my pressure cooker. Red beans are a super simple, flavorful, filling, and cheap meal, which is why they’ve been a staple food across the souther U.S. for generations. Beans are notorious for taking forever to cook, but with pressure cooker technology, these Pressure Cooker Red Beans can be finished in just about an hour! So, that pretty much makes them the perfect food, IMHO.
What Kind of Pressure Cooker Should I Use?
I used my 7-1 Multi-Functional Instant Pot pressure cooker so that I could do the sauté steps all right in the same pot, but you can use any electric or stove top pressure cooker.
There are several other brands of multi-function pressure cookers on the market as well, such as this Cosori model that is a little less expensive and comes with a glass lid for when you’re using the slow cooker function.
If you’re using an old-school single-functin pressure cooker, just do the first couple of sauté steps in a skillet and then transfer everything to the pressure cooker when you add the beans, spices, and broth.
What is The Secret to Good Red Beans?
The secret to good red beans is to use some sort of smoked meat, like sausage or a smoked ham hock, and to cook the beans down until they’re so soft that they begin to break down. When the beans break down they turn the cooking liquid into a deliciously thick and creamy mixture that is absolutely delightful with rice. It’s a match made in heaven.
What Type of Sausage is Best for Pressure Cooker Red Beans?
If possible, use andouille sausage, but if you can’t find it in your area just use another variety of smoked sausage. Make sure it’s a smoked sausage, not something like Italian sausage. And if you don’t want to use meat at all, I made a pretty delicious (if I do say so myself) Vegan Red Beans and Rice a few years back. No pressure cooker? No problem. Here is my recipe for regular stove-top Louisiana Red Beans and Rice.
What to Serve with Red Beans
Rice, of course! But no, there are other options, too. Want a real comfort food experience? Serve up your red beans with some Mac and Cheese or Cornbread. Yummmmmmm.
Pressure Cooker Red Beans
Servings 6Ingredients
- 1/2 lb smoked sausage (like andouille)* ($1.60)
- 1 Tbsp olive oil ($0.13)
- 1 onion ($0.37)
- 1 bell pepper ($0.98)
- 3 stalks celery ($0.24)
- 4 cloves garlic ($0.32)
- 1 lb dry uncooked red beans ($0.97)
- 1 tsp dried thyme ($0.10)
- 1 tsp dried oregano ($0.10)
- 1 tsp smoked paprika ($0.10)
- 1/4 tsp cayenne ($0.02)
- Freshly cracked black pepper ($0.05)
- 3 cups chicken broth ($0.39)
- 2 cups water ($0.00)
- 3 green onions, sliced ($0.20)
- 6 cups cooked rice ($1.13)
Instructions
- Slice the smoked sausage into medallions. Add the olive oil and sliced sausage to the multi-function pressure cooker or a skillet and sauté the sausage until it is brown on both sides (about 5 minutes). Once the sausage is well browned, remove it from the pot with a slotted spoon.
- While the sausage is browning, finely dice the onion, bell pepper, and celery, and mince the garlic. After removing the sausage, add the onion, bell pepper, celery, and garlic to the pot and continue to sauté for another five minutes, or until the onions are soft and transparent. The moisture from the vegetables should dissolve the browned bits off the bottom of the pot.
- Rinse and sort through the beans to remove any bad beans or debris. Add the beans to the pot along with the cooked sausage, thyme, oregano, paprika, cayenne, some freshly cracked pepper (about 20 cranks of a pepper mill), chicken broth, and water. Stir to combine.
- Secure the lid on the pressure cooker and close the vent. Cook on high pressure for 35 minutes (either use the manual button or bean/chili button on the Instant Pot and increase time to 35 minutes), then let the pot naturally release pressure as it cools. Test the beans to make sure they’re extremely soft. If they’re not soft yet, re-secure the lid, close the vent, and cook for an additional 20 minutes on high power.
- Once the beans are very soft, stir and smash the beans agains the side of the pot with the back of a large spoon until the liquid thickens. Taste and add salt as needed (start with a teaspoon and add more until the flavors pop).
- Add about 1.5 cups of red beans to a bowl, top with 1 cup rice and a sprinkle of sliced green onions.
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Notes
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!Want more Instant Pot recipes? Check out my Pressure Cooker Chicken and Rice!
How to Make Red Beans in an Instant Pot – Step by Step Photos
Start by slicing 1/2 lb. smoked sausage into medallions. Use andouille sausage, if possible, but if you can’t find it in your area, use another type of smoked sausage. Add the smoked sausage to the pot with 1 Tbps olive oil and sauté until the sausage is browned. If your pressure cooker does not have a sauté function, you can do this part in a skillet.
While the sausage is browning, finely dice one onion, one green bell pepper, and 3 stalks of celery. Mince four cloves of garlic. Remove the browned sausage from the pot and add the onion, bell pepper, celery, and garlic.
Continue to sauté until the onions are soft and transparent. The moisture from the vegetables should dissolve all the browned bits off the bottom of the pot.
Rinse 1 lb. red beans and sort through them to remove any bad beans. Add them to the pot along with the cooked sausage, 1 tsp dried thyme, 1 tsp dried oregano, 1 tsp smoked paprika, 1/4 tsp cayenne, and some freshly cracked pepper.
Finally, add 3 cups chicken broth and 2 cups water. Stir to combine. Secure the lid on the pot and cook on high pressure for 35 minutes (you can either use the manual or bean/chili buttons on the Instant Pot, then increase the time to 35 minutes).
After cooking at high pressure for 35 minutes, let the pot cool and release pressure naturally. Open the pot and test the beans for tenderness. You want them to be extremely tender and breaking down so that they make the liquid thick and creamy once you start stirring. If they’re not soft just yet, simply put the lid back on, close the vent, and set to high pressure again for another 20 minutes. If your beans are having a hard time softening, it’s most likely due to hard water or old beans.
Once the beans are very soft, stir the pot and smash the beans against the side of the pot as you stir. The starches from the beans will begin to turn the liquid into a nice thick sauce. Finally, taste the beans and add salt as needed. With dishes like this you absolutely will not taste all the flavor notes until it is seasoned well with salt. The chicken broth will add some salt, but you’ll most likely need to salt it at the end as well. Start with a teaspoon and add more as needed (the total amount will depend on the type of broth you used and your individual taste buds).
To serve the red beans, place about 1.5 cups in a bowl and top with a cup of cooked rice. Sprinkle sliced green onions over top. Don’t skip the green onions, either! They give the dish a blast of freshness that really brings it all together. :)
The way that rich sauce coats the rice is just so MMMM-mmmm!
If I were to make this in a cast iron pot and slow cook it, would I have to change anything about the amount of liquid?
It should be about the same, but it’s hard to say without testing that method.
I’ve made a few bean and sausage dishes in my Instant Pot a few times and I just don’t like how the sausage comes out. It seems mushy and flavorless, but the broth is divine with all that sausage flavor. Do you think it would work if I add the sausage back in after the pressure cooking is complete to keep the texture and flavor of the sausage? Do you think the brown bits in the bottom of the pan from browning the sausage will be enough to give the broth that delicious sausage flavor?
Maybe try cooking the sausage and the veg in some bacon grease if you’ve got it, for extra flavor. And if you want to go even further, grab a ham hock at the store, and cook the beans with that in there. Then you’ll get lots of flavor and can leave the sausage out until after the beans are cooked.
I actually ALMOST used that method. I do think that the grease and browned bits would be enough flavor. And, when you stir the sausage back in at the end, you can let them heat through and that should infuse more flavor at that point, too. :)
Thank you Beth, I am going to give it a go with this method of adding the sausage back in. I will let you know if the sausage grease and brown bits was enough.
Might there be an easy way to modify this for a slow cooker?
Unfortunately it’s not recommended that you cook kidney beans in slow cookers because they contain a molecule that can be toxic and cause gastric distress. Beans in the kidney bean family need to be hard boiled for at least ten minutes to break that compound down and slow cookers usually only get up to a simmer.
Would canned red beans work just as good (having in mind I’d surely need to reduce cooking time)?
You’ll need to reduce cooking time AND the cooking liquid quite a bit. In fact, since canned beans are already cooked, you really don’t need to do it in a pressure cooker. It would be faster and easier to just do it on the stove top. :)
Yes! Beans take forever to cook. I think I should try out a pressure cooker. They sound so amazing. Anytime I hear red beans and rice though I automatically think of Mondays. Haha I wonder if that’s just a Louisiana thing..to always have that on Monday or if that is a real thing lol.
Yes Bean on Monday are a real thing in Louisiana, it started because monday was wash day and people needed a dish that was a start and forget until later.
This recipe is so adaptable (using what I already had in my kitchen), tasty, filling, and saved me from ordering takeaway. More importantly, I have a husband looking forward to leftovers tomorrow!
I used minced beef instead of sausages, dried soup mix (split peas, lentils, etc.) instead of beans, mushrooms instead of celery, and I used up an old (expired) sachet of taco spice that contained the herbs and spices in this recipe.
I make a version of this in my regular pressure cooker. I’ve found that you can still sauté everything in the cooker, add your beans and liquid, and then proceed as usual–no need to dirty another pan :)
Awesome!! Good to know. Thanks for sharing! :)
Red beans aren’t supposed to be pressure cooked. They are sorta toxic, so you boil them and pour out the water.. in a pressure cooker all the toxin stays in them
Got any source for that? Because that seems very false.
Oh? I included the cooking water when I added my beans back to the veggies.
From what I have read, pressure cooker temperature get hot enough to neutralize the toxin. Cooking them in a slow cooker not recommended.
I tracked down an FDA publication that half-agrees with you. Raw kidney beans contain a protein called phytohaemagglutinin that is toxic and “can cause you to have extreme nausea, severe vomiting, and diarrhea.” But, they say that the protein is destroyed by cooking at high temperatures, so there’s no need to dispose of the cooking liquid. They cite a study that showed the protein destroyed by 10 minutes of boiling, but recommend 30 minutes just to be sure. So pressure-cooking should be fine, but you wouldn’t want to do kidney beans in a slow-cooker that doesn’t ever reach boiling temps.
See page 254 of this: https://www.fda.gov/downloads/Food/FoodborneIllnessContaminants/UCM297627.pdf
You seem fun
It’s more about the level of heat that deactivates the protein that is toxic. Slow cookers that heat beans to 180F or less can cause poisoning.
Temperatures above 180F cause conformational changes in the protein rendering it harmless. This is why you’re instructed to boil the beans for 10 minutes.
Pressure cookers that heat beans to much higher temperatures than boiling water will render the protein harmless quite quickly. It’s not necessary to pour off any liquid from the beans. This recipe is safe.
I’ve found that red beans done in my pressure cooker are those least likely to cause me gastric distress. I feel like it’s a temperature thing rather than toxins that need to be washed off.
Is this the same recipe as your regular red beans and rice?
Funny enough, I’m here to print the original red beans and rice recipe and you happen to have posted this yesterday. I’ve been cooking your recipe with a blend of pressure and regular cooked ingredients. I’ll post later how I do it, since I don’t have an Instant Pot.
Also, why are you in my head, lolz. Keep up the good work.
It’s very very similar, but not exactly the same. :)
Yeah, I compared the two and saw that this recipe omitted the green bell pepper. Do the bell peppers not do well in pressure cookers?
I ended up using the original recipe but forgot to add the chopped celery. :/ It still tasted good, though.
This recipe has a bell pepper in it too. :)
Yum! This recipe takes me back to my vacation in South Carolina. Love the aromatic Southern foods. Cannot wait to try this one.
I would be excited to see what else you do in your Instant Pot. I bought one and still haven’t used it.
I LOVE red beans and rice. Looks like I’ll have to make this recipe for dinner very soon. :-)
I’m not a fan of red beans and rice (New Orleanian blasphemy, I know), but my mama taught me how to make them anyway. Your recipe is nearly identical to hers, except she always uses sausage AND ham and she puts bay leaves in with the other herbs and spices.
And she always cooked them in a pressure cooker (a stovetop Magnalite pot with the the weight on top to create pressure that announced to the whole house that it was in use with that noise it made.)
Awesome recipe! I took a cooking class down in New Orleons a couple months ago and loved the food we made! This one looks like a winner too!
My mom is from N. Louisiana and this is probably her all-time favorite dish! I didn’t like it much as a kid, but as an adult I find myself craving it every now and again. Thanks for the memories, Beth :)