Instant Pot Kidney Beans (Fast, Tender, No Soaking!)

I did 2 cups of dried beans and 7 cups of water per the recipe. They came out absolutely perfect! Thank you!

I followed the instructions precisely, and the beans turned out perfectly! Tomorrow I’ll try Great Northerns. Thank you so much!

Unfortunately I read the comments after making my beans and I too ended up with kidney mush. Normal sized beans that are over a year old, no soak, 40 min cook time with 15 min NPR and immediate draining – complete mush. Bummer.

I needed to make a large pot of beans for a party. Did one 16oz package of pinto beans and one 16oz package of kidney beans. I used 12 cups of water because that’s all my IP could take. I’ve made beans before and done 45 to 50 min but they never come out as tender as I like them. I cooked these for 1 hour and my beans came out perfect!

Turns beans to mush! Try 20 mins for unsoaked. My beans are very old and 40+ mins in the cooker basically turns them into refried beans. Struggled w this recipe until I found other suggestions. Usually my recipes from here are a hit – this one isn’t right.

Okay, finished cooking my first batch of red kidney beans. 2-1/2 cups of beans with 8-1/2 cups of water for 45 minutes. Slightly too big a combo for my Instant Pot and had some boil over. They came out great for my purposes. The bottom beans were a little mushy and the top ones were somewhat tender. The mushy beans are now making a great bean sauce while the tender ones finish softening. Next time I’ll use less beans and water. Thanks for the recipe.

Discovered I had no canned beans for my chili, but I did have dried kidney beans. So I followed these directions using organic low sodium beef broth vs water, threw in a bay leaf and a shallot I cut in half. Cooked for only 30 minutes as they would have some additional cooking time in the chili. Delish! People actually picked out the beans to smack on. LOL!

These cooked perfectly! I did the 45 minute cook, since I wanted a softer texture for some chili. Of course, if I were making a salad with them, I would do 40 minutes instead.

I tried this after using your black bean instant pot recipe that also turned out perfectly. You are my respected authority on instant pot bean making!

Bonus Note: I’m sure I’ve had my kidney beans on hand for at least a year, maybe longer, and they still turned out perfectly.

My beans are mush!

Thank you for this straightforward recipe/instructions on how to get my dried beans edible in under an hour. I truly appreciate that you did not include the history of the kidney bean, why it’s your families favorite bean and wrap it all up with a heart felt story of memories of eating kidney beans and cornbread on your grandpas back porch. I just needed some basic instructions without any fluff. THANK YOU!

Recipe worked beautifully!

Absolutely delicious!!! Ended up with a lot of water, is that normal??

Made this 2 times now. 1st time I doubled the recipe. The 2nd time I tripled it. Both times went from dried kidney beans to fully cooked. Set pot for 50 minutes with release. Then added them to slow cook in a chicken masala recipe. This recipe works! (You don’t need to slow cook). They are good after the initial cook. My guess is people who have a hard time with them not being cooked have really old beans?

I did 40 minutes on high as directed with the 15 minutes of natural release for 2 cups of dried kidneys in 7 cups of water. The beans are way over cooked, to the point that they came out as a creamy mush. Next time I will follow all the other recipes I’ve found since ruining the beans that say to cook them for 30 minutes

This worked perfectly! Yes there’s extra liquid at the end of the process, but I simply drained it off. The result was delicious tender beans!

I’d reduce the water by at least a third. With this much water it’s basically soup. I reduced it by a bit and it was still far more liquid than it took to cook them. I threw a diced medium yellow onion in ours, 4 tablespoons of garlic, and pieces of pan browned pork roast (3 inch squares). Pork helped flavor the beans.

I made these tonight and it was easy using the Insta Pot, since I had not decided on beans until it was too late to soak them. But I found that 45 minutes with 15 minutes for natural release wasn’t enough for tender beans. I ended up repressurizing for another 15 minutes. They were delicious. I cook beans in the Insta Pot from now on. Here’s a tip. If you add 1/4 tsp of baking soda to the recipe before cooking, it will take the “wind” out of the beans. Just cut back a bit on the salt… or not.

Thanks for sharing. I still soak the beans which I believe is helpful for digestion and then put in instapot – no issues at all! Can’t wait to try your other bean recipes once these are done!