Beans In The Pressure Cooker: Tastier, Healthier, Quicker. Throw Away The Canned Stuff

I don’t think anyone would disagree that making your own beans from scratch has to be better for your body, tastier and cheaper.
The main problem has always been the time. That pressure cooker you have sitting in your cupboard will help with that time problem.

  

If you remember to soak your beans overnight the cooking process can be really fast. You’ll be eating within an hour of taking your pressure cooker out of the cupboard.

You often hear people lecturing how preparing your own food is way better for your health. Here are some of the reasons that apply in the case of beans:

1. You know of, and approve all the ingredients you are using. 
2. None of that “made from Australian and Imported ingredients” crap. 
3. If they are too embarrassed to say where it came from they shouldn’t sell it.
4. You control the amount of salt, sugar, and fat
5. You don’t have to figure out the latest name they have invented to hide MSG.

In the following video, I cooked up some chickpeas ( also called: garbanzo beans ceci bean, India pea, Bengal gram, or Egyptian pea).

The recipe that I used

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of dry beans (1 small bag 375g) or (13 US ounces by weight)
• 2 tablespoons salt  when soaking plus 1 teaspoon of salt when cooking
• 1/4 yellow onion, just quartered not chopped or sliced
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tablespoon oil

Special equipment: Pressure cooker between 6 and 8 litres. I used my Chefs Toolkit 7-litre stove top cooker. (there might be different procedures between pressure cookers and stove top vs electric so read your cooker’s instructions).

Instructions
Rinse and sort through the beans to remove any broken or ugly ones or small stones.

Pre-soak the Beans: 6 to 12 hours before you cook the beans, dissolve 2 tablespoons of salt into 10 cups of water. Add the beans and cover.

Drain the Beans: When the beans are done soaking, drain them in a colander or strainer.
Rinse them
Put the rinsed beans into your pressure cooker

Add
6-8 cups of water
I like to cook my beans with homemade salt-free chicken stock so I used 2 cups of stock and 4 cups of water

1 teaspoon of salt

¼ onion

1 clove garlic

1 bay leaf

1 TBS oil.

Cook The Beans

Secure the lid according to the instruction manual and set the pressure to high. Keep an eye on the pot and when it reaches high pressure, reduce the stove to medium/medium low and start timing the beans.

For chickpeas I use 13 minutes. That would vary for electric cookers and different types of beans

When the peas are done use the Natural Release method

What is Natural Release?

When the time is up, turn off the heat. Remove the pot from the heat. Allow the pot to cool down, the pressure will release naturally. Follow your instruction manual to determine how you will know when the pot is ready to be opened.

Remove the Lid

Unlock and remove the lid, tilting the lid away from you and allowing any condensation to drip back into the pot. Remove the bay leaf, onion and garlic clove.

Bean Broth

With canned beans you are told to rinse and drain the liquid. With homemade beans, the liquid is a great stock. Save it with the beans, any leftover might make a good addition to soup.

After the Cooked Chickpeas Have Cooled

 With a strainer, I separate the beans from the stock. Then I put about 1 ½ cups of beans into a small plastic container and top each one off with a cup of bean stock.

I was able to get about 4 containers from the 375g bag of dried beans

Now What!

I used 2 ½ containers for hummus and froze the rest. They’ll probably wind up in either minestrone soup or a rice dish.

Why Soak My Beans

Most beans, ideally, should be soaked for a period of time. Overnight seems to be the best way to do it. This eliminates most of the gas causing parts of the bean. It also makes it easier for the body to absorb a higher amount of the things that are good for you. An extra special added benefit is that your beans will cook evenly, be less likely to crack. Without the soaking you will have some beans like mush and some that are really undercooked.