Instant Pot Magic: Classic Louisiana Red Beans

Today I’m cooking a classic Louisiana recipe — “Red Beans” — using a contemporary twist. Typically, preparing this recipe — using dried red beans (kidney beans) — takes most of the day. In past days in old New Orleans, Monday was “laundry day.” The red beans and sausage simmered all day on the stove while laundry was in progress. Folks had the time to let the pot simmer for hours back in the day. Today, I am using an Instant Pot to ramp up the process to “warp speed.” I love cooking dried beans cook in an Instant Pot because the appliance takes all the guess work out of the process, in addition to speeding things up. After soaking the beans (in the Instant pot) for an hour, just add all the ingredients — plus the drained beans and lots of water — to the pot. Set to the pressure setting and walk away. The Instant Pot removes all the guesswork while the pressure setting of the Instant Pot speeds up the cooking process. I add a flavorful mix of ingredients to make the best red beans ever. My recipe includes chicken broth, diced ham, onions, bell peppers, garlic, celery seed, bay leaves and black pepper.

Ah, yes. I still am using my Instant Pot. It now has the nick-name of my “dried bean” pot because that has become my primary use for this appliance. I have several variations of Louisiana “Red Beans.” It is time to document and share this recipe cooked in my Instant Pot.

Ingredients:

Traditional Louisiana Red Bean recipes include plenty of savory vegetable seasonings, in addition to ham (or sausage) and chicken broth, to make a dish which is full of flavor. Red beans are rather bland — they can accomodate lots of flavorful ingredients. Pus, one pound of dried read beans makes a huge recipe. For this reason, I used a large chopped onion and half a bell pepper plus a generous amount of minced garlic.

Bay leaves, celery seed and black pepper add characteristic flavor to this dish. (I didn’t have fresh celery — however, that would be an option.)

I used one large chopped onion and half a bell pepper. Chop these up, in bite size pieces. For convenience, I used commercial minced garlic in a jar.

The type of dried red kidney beans makes a difference. For example, don’t use old or expired beans. They may be hard and lacking flavor. I used “Blue Runner” brand of kidney beans in this recipe. I also used “Manda” brand of diced smoke ham chunks rather than traditional link sausage. I prefer the milder flavor of diced ham. Both of these ingredients are local Louisiana brands.

I included one (15 oz) can chicken broth for part of the liquid in this recipe. It adds lots of flavor. This is a good recipe to use homemade chicken or turkey broth. I had some of this broth frozen from our Christmas turkey and added this to the pot.

Making the recipe:

The first step in making this recipe is to soak the dried beans to remove the compounds which contribute to gas and flactulance. It really makes a difference — in my opinion. The traditional method is to let the beans soak overnight in a large amount of water. However, since my goal is to make “speedy red beans” I used a short-cut method. For this method, I added the beans to the Instant Pot along with 8 cups of water. After cooking on the pressure setting fore 20 minutes, I turned off the Instant Pot and let the beans soak for 1 hour. Then I rinsed the beans under running water. The beans swell and triple in size — don’t skimp on the 8 cups of water. Most of the water will be absorbed by the beans.

The next step is to saute and cook the chopped onion and bell pepper until soft and translucent. Then I added the ham and seared it, too.

Next, add the red beans and the chicken broth along with additional water. I added further seasonings of celery seed, bay leaves and black pepper. Although the beans won’t swell additionally, you must have plenty of liquid to cook things in an Instant Pot — again, don’t skimp on water. My Instant Pot holds 6-quarts; one pound of dried beans is the maximum which can be cooked at one time in the Instant Pot.

Secure and lock the lid on the Instant Pot. Select the “Pressure” setting and a cooking time of 20 minutes. I found that it took about 15 minutes to reach the “pressure” setting. Plus, I let the pressure cool down for 10 minutes after the cooking cycle was complete. So, actually time in the Instant Pot was about 45 minutes. However, this certainly is less time than if the beans were cooked on the stove (2 to 3 hours).

That’s it. The Red Beans are finished. Since it is necessary (and imperative) add enough liquid to allow the Instant Pot to come to pressure, these beans are more “soupy” than many traditional Red Beans recipes. However, that’s not a eoncern to me. The flavor is the same. This amount made enough for several meals; plus more to freeze for a later date.

Traditionally, red beans are served with cooked, long grain rice. I’m hungry; today we ate the beans with crackers.

If you are somewhat reluctant to cook and eat “red beans,” give my recipe a try. With soaking, the beans don’t have alot of flulactulose components. Plus, with all the seasonings, ham and chicken broth; the flavor of the beans is mild — yet very satisfying.

Enjoy!