Today’s post is a guest post by Jill Nussinow, The Veggie Queen. For the past 16+ years, Jill, a registered dietitian, cooking teacher, and cookbook author, has been teaching people how to successfully use pressure cooker to get great meals on the table quickly. Her most recent book is The New Fast Food: The Veggie Queen Pressure Cooks Whole Food Meals in Less than 30 Minutes. His previous book The Veggie Queen: Vegetables Get the Royal Treatment also contains a chapter on pressure cooking.
Jill recently sent me a copy of The New Fast Food eBook to review and graciously offered to guest post on Pressure Cooking Today.
The Queen of Vegetables
I’m a vegetarian, a vegetarian who eats beans, that’s how I came to use a pressure cooker. Imagine cooking beans in just minutes. I can often cook my soaked beans in less time than it would take to drive to the store for a can of beans. I only save cans for emergencies.
I’ve been pressure cooking and teaching others how to use one, for over 16 years. The pressure cooker is one of my most essential pieces of kitchen equipment. I’ve even packed and transported it for camping trips by car, and taken it with me to do cooking demonstrations all over the country. If you use one, you know it’s fast, uses less fuel or energy (saving 50 to 70) and best of all, it makes the food taste great.
Cooking black beans in an
instant pot
An instant pot is one of the most popular brands of electric pressure cookers. They are easy to use and your Instant Pot can help you create these delicious black beans!
Cooking beans
from scratch saves results on better-tasting beans that don’t contain sodium or are low in sodium, if you use kombu seaweed as I suggest. You’ll also save money. One of my students discovered that the money she saved on buying canned beans would pay for her pressure cooker in less than a year.
You can pressure cook dried or soaked beans. Soaked pinto, black, small white or red beans take only 4 to 6 minutes under pressure, while chickpeas take only 12 to 14 minutes under pressure. To use unsoaked beans, multiply the cooking time by 3 to 4 times the regular time to start. (Black beans take about 25 minutes under pressure if they haven’t been previously soaked.)
To soak
the beans, place them in a large container and cover them well with water and soak for at least 8 hours and up to 12 hours. Drain and then cook.
A quick soak soaks time but consumes more energy. Cover your beans with water for 3 inches. Bring to a boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat. Cover and let stand for 1 hour drain and cook.
To cook beans, use 3/4 cup of water for every 1 cup of pre-soaked dried beans. Bring high pressure over high heat, then reduce heat to maintain high pressure. Once the timer sounds, remove the pot from the heat and let the pressure drop naturally. Carefully remove the lid, tilting it away from you.
If you want to make sure your pimples remain intact, don’t do a quick release with them, as they are likely to split. In addition, beans continue to cook during the natural pressure release, so they use less energy. I suggest you try some beans to determine if they are fully cooked.
Once you’ve cooked a large batch of beans, use them immediately after cooking or freeze them in zippered bags in quantities of 1 to 2 cups, making sure to date and label your bags. Add cooked beans to your salads, soups, stews, chili or make hummus or other bean sauce. Yum.
Thank you so much Jill for sharing your technique. I have a bag of black beans in the cupboard waiting to be pressure cooked. I love The New Fast Food. It’s a great resource. Thank you!
First photo provided by photo by Alan Bartl.
