Instant Pot Pinto Beans

Ready to use in your favorite Mexican style recipe, or to just eat plain, these Instant Pot pinto beans are a game changer, with no soaking and a much quicker cook time.

We're just in love with our Instant Pot! All right, maybe that’s a little over the top, but every day we find new things to love about cooking with our pressure cooker.

Mostly, we love the speediness. When you can take something like dry, hard beans and have them ready to eat in about an hour, we find that truly kind of memorable, don’t you?

And it’s all pretty much hands-off time, so you can be working on other aspects of your dinner, or just taking a break with a cup of coffee and a good book (our preference, for sure!).

The ultimate question is: How do pinto beans taste when they’ve been pressure cooked in an Instant Pot? Rich! Much more tasty and economical than canned beans.

About these Instant Pot Pinto Beans

An important thing to remember is that dry beans absorb a lot of water. We use 6 cups of water with 1 pound of pinto beans. The beans don’t absorb all 6 cups of the water. You’ll have lots of nice bean broth, which you can eat with the beans. We like to let the beans sit in the cooking liquid while they cool a bit so they can absorb a little more of that rich broth.

Season the beans liberally with chopped onion, a bay leaf or two, salt and pepper. Put the lid on securely, select Pressure Cook, set the cooking time for 50 minutes, and let the pinto beans cook. When the cooking time is up, natural release for 15 minutes, then speedy release any remaining pressure. That’s it! In just over an hour, you have evenly cooked pinto beans, firm but not crunchy.

We like to use these cooked pinto beans in a variety of recipes. You can make them into refried beans, add them to your favorite chili with ground beef or turkey, make soup or vegetarian stuffed peppers (coming soon!), or use them in a taco salad. One of our favorite pinto bean dishes is frijoles borrachos, or “drunken beans”.

Instant Pot pinto beans are rich just plain, too. We had a bowl of cooked pinto beans on the counter cooling and our mom and we kept sneaking a taste because they’re kind of addicting.

Do you need to soak the beans before they are cooked in a pressure cooker?

As we mention above, you don’t need to presoak the beans. However, if you pre-soak the beans for 4-6 hours in water (4 times the volume of the beans), the cooking time will be reduced.

If you have time to presoak the beans, as you can see, the cooking time is cut drastically. Soak or no soak? Decide which way works best in your schedule.

Or maybe slow cooking works best for you, we get that! Check out how to make slow cooker pinto beans.

How do you cook dried beans in an Instant Pot?

You can cook any type of dried beans in your Instant Pot pressure cooker. Water and beans are all you need, seasoning is optional. Check the cookbook that comes with your Instant Pot for guidelines on how long to cook each type of bean. Straightforward, straightforward, straightforward! We love to make Black Bean Soup in our Instant Pot.

How it comes together

• Add seasonings, like garlic, chili powder, cumin, paprika, and/or cayenne.
• Spice it up a little with a can of green chiles.
• Make them plain. We would definitely add a little salt though.
• Add chopped bacon to the Instant Pot and cook it with the beans.
• Try different varieties of beans.

Reheating and Storage Tips

Cooked pinto beans will keep in the refrigerator for 3-5 days, ready to use in the recipe of your choosing.

For longer storage, freeze pinto beans in freezer containers with their juice, or in freezer bags if they’re drained, for up to 6 months. If you’re adding beans to chili or soups, you can toss them in without thawing. If you’re adding the pinto beans to salads, thaw overnight in the refrigerator for best results.