Instant Pot Black Beans

These no-soak Instant Pot black beans are so flavorful and easy to make! Serve them as a side dish, or add them to your favorite black bean recipes.

Instant Pot Black Beans

These Instant Pot black beans did something that I didn’t think was possible – they changed my mind about the Instant Pot. After I made them…and then rice…and then soup (recipes coming soon!), I went from being an Instant Pot skeptic to a total convert. It is so handy to be able to start cooking your beans/rice/whatever you’re making and then walk away, not having to worry about adjusting the heat on the stove or having a pot boil over. Plus, it does speed things along, at least in the case of these Instant Pot black beans. They cook up in about 45 minutes, as opposed to almost 90 on the stove. I’ll take it!

These Instant Pot black beans are well-seasoned, so you could serve them as a side dish on their own. However, they’re also perfect for using in recipes that call for black beans, such as tacos, enchiladas, soups, etc. You’ll find more specific suggestions in the post below!

Bowl of beans surrounded by onion, garlic, spices, and limes

Instant Pot Black Beans Recipe Ingredients

To make this recipe, you’ll just need a few basic ingredients:

  • Dry black beans – The fresher, the better. If you can, buy them from a local grower or a grocery store with high turnover. (Older beans can be tough and not soften fully when they cook.)
  • Onion and garlic – For sharp, savory depth of flavor.
  • Chili powder, cumin, and oregano – They add aromatic flavor and a little heat to the beans and cooking liquid.
  • And sea salt – To make all the flavors pop!

If I’m planning to eat the beans on their own, I also like to dress them up with a squeeze of fresh lime juice.

Find the complete recipe with measurements below.

Bowl of dry black beans with wooden spoon

How to Make Instant Pot Black Beans

This Instant Pot black beans recipe is super simple to make! Here’s how it goes:

First, rinse and sort the beans. Any time you’re cooking dry beans, it’s important to rinse them well and pick through them to discard any stones or debris.

Black beans, onion, garlic, spices, and water in the Instant Pot

Then, add the ingredients to the Instant Pot. Pour in the rinsed beans, followed by the onion, garlic, spices, salt, and water.

Hand holding spoonful of cooked black beans over Instant Pot

Next, cook. Secure the lid on the Instant Pot and select the Pressure Cook function. Cook on high for 25 minutes, or 20 minutes if you prefer firmer beans. (The entire cooking process will actually take longer, as the Instant Pot will need to preheat before cooking and depressurize afterwards.)

Finally, allow the pressure to release naturally. This will take 20 minutes or so. When the float valve drops, remove the lid and season the beans to taste. That’s it!

Bowl of black beans with wooden spoon

How to Use Instant Pot Black Beans

The simplest way to serve these Instant Pot black beans is as a side dish. Drain them and season them to taste with salt, pepper, and fresh lime juice. They pair well with any Mexican-inspired recipe, but I especially like them with cilantro lime rice and veggie tacos like these cauliflower ones or these jackfruit ones.

Instead of serving these beans on their own, you could also add them to larger recipes. Drain and rinse them and use them as you would canned beans or regular cooked dried beans. They’d be perfect in any of these recipes:

How do you like to use Instant Pot black beans? Let me know in the comments!

Instant pot black beans recipe

More Favorite Cooking Basics

If you love this recipe, try making one of these cooking basics next:

Get This Recipe In Your Inbox
Share your email, and we'll send it straight to your inbox. Plus, enjoy daily doses of recipe inspiration as a bonus!

Instant Pot Black Beans

rate this recipe:
4.80 from 24 votes
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Serves 8
Learn how to make perfectly cooked black beans in the Instant Pot! This easy, hands-off recipe is the quickest method I know for cooking black beans from scratch.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups dried black beans
  • 6 cups water
  • Heaping 1/2 cup diced white onion
  • 2 large garlic cloves, chopped
  • 2 teaspoons sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon chili powder
  • 1 teaspoon cumin
  • 1 teaspoon oregano
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • Lime juice, optional

Instructions

  • Place the beans in a large colander and sort through them to remove and discard any stones or debris.
  • Rinse the beans and transfer them to the Instant Pot. Add the water, onion, garlic, salt, chili powder, cumin, oregano, and several grinds of black pepper. Secure the lid on the Instant Pot and Pressure Cook on High for 25 minutes, or 20 minutes if you prefer firmer beans.
  • Allow the Instant Pot to release pressure naturally. This will take 20-30 minutes. When the float valve drops, remove the lid.
  • Use the beans in your favorite black bean recipe or season to taste with more salt, pepper, and squeezes of lime juice, if desired, and serve as a side dish.

43 comments

Leave a comment:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Rate this recipe (after making it)




  1. Peter
    05.07.2023

    5 stars
    I made these beans yesterday and they were perfect. I was pleased with their taste and used the water as a vegetable stock for another recipe I was making. Thank you.

    One quick question I have regarding the freezing of any beans. Should I freeze them with the water or should I drain the water instead?

    • Jeanine Donofrio
      05.09.2023

      Hi Peter, you can freeze them either way, but I think they come out a little better if you freeze them with their liquid.

  2. Rebecca
    04.09.2023

    5 stars
    This is our go to black bean recipe! As we follow a WFPB diet, I make a big pot of these two to three times a week. I use less water as we don’t like soupy beans. I also use a bit more of the spices and cook them for 20 minutes with a 10 minute natural release which provides a “toothier” texture.

    • Jeanine Donofrio
      04.12.2023

      I’m so glad you’ve loved this bean recipe!

  3. Sam
    01.02.2023

    3 stars
    Way too much water. I saved it to make black bean soup later on because I hate waste but would have preferred the beans to not have been so soupy. Will probably cut water by 30% next time. Good flavor though.

    • Phoebe Moore (L&L Recipe Developer)
      01.03.2023

      I’m glad you enjoyed the beans! For a really thick, starchy cooking liquid, I recommend simmering the beans on the stove, like we do in this recipe. Hope this helps!

    • Christina P.
      06.01.2023

      4 stars
      I have a comment to add about the extra liquid. I followed the directions for the 8qt cooker size mentioned in the writing section which said to increase the water in the larger cooker. But it definitely didn’t need it. I removed some liquid after cooking then simmered the beans on low for some extra time maybe 20 or more minutes. Then I used the back of a large spoon and Smashed some of the beans against the side of the pot. It thickens up the liquid. Was lovely any how I enjoyed it.woth some liquid def flavors the rice nicely. Ate with coconut, Cilantro, and lime rice. Will make again. This time for my family size of I will do an extra 2 servings. Dad claimed the leftovers for the next day and I was jealous. Lol I think this recipe would be nice too made with veggie broth when on hand.

  4. Father Allan
    11.18.2022

    5 stars
    I cooked them for 30 minutes, as I like really soft beans. It really helped with the amount of liquid left so it was more like beans cooked on the stovetop.

  5. Natasha
    10.13.2022

    5 stars
    Best beans I’ve ever made and they are 99% less gassy when using the instant pot! Yes, there is quite a bit of “broth” left over. I just drank it because it’s delicious, but I do not think it needs 6 cups.

    • Jeanine Donofrio
      10.16.2022

      Hi Natasha, I’m so glad you enjoyed the beans!

  6. Alan G.
    09.19.2022

    3 stars
    I followed the recipe exactly, using dry beans.

    The taste is alright.

    But I measured an excess of 2.5 cups of liquid when done. I am probably losing a lot of flavour to that excess water.

  7. Courtney
    09.16.2022

    5 stars
    My beans had soaked overnight because they were in my pantry for awhile. I started with 1 cup dried beans, 1.5 cups water, onion and seasonings and pressure cooked for 28 minutes w/ natural release and they are perfect, little bit of extra water but not enough that I need to drain them.

    • Jeanine Donofrio
      09.21.2022

      I’m so glad they turned out well!

  8. Jody
    07.12.2022

    I’m not sure what happened, but my beans are like soup. I added less liquid (5 cups) as I saw someone in the comments added less liquid and I didn’t want it to have any extra liquid. I cooked it for 28 min. It was soupy. I tried cooking it for 15 more minutes and that may have helped a little but it’s still very soupy.

    • Jeanine Donofrio
      07.16.2022

      Hi Jody, are your beans tender and cooked? You don’t get that thick bean cooking liquid in the instant pot as you do with beans on the stove. These are meant to be drained before using.

      • Jody
        07.16.2022

        Ok thank you. That’s good to know. I didn’t see that in the recipe.

  9. Andrea
    06.26.2022

    5 stars
    Best black bean recipe I have ever made!!!

    • Jeanine Donofrio
      06.26.2022

      I’m so glad you loved it!

  10. Barbara
    06.07.2022

    Can I half this recipe?If so do I need to adjust the cooking time?

    • Jeanine Donofrio
      06.11.2022

      Hi Barbara, yes, I often cook half using the same recipe – my Instant pot is 6 quart. If yours is larger the lower quantity might not work.

  11. Do I need to rinse the beans after they’re cooked?

    • Pops
      05.23.2022

      No. Pre-cooking rinse is the clean dirt and debris off the beans.

  12. Suzanne
    01.17.2022

    These are the best black beans I’ve ever tasted!

  13. Jessica
    11.25.2021

    Is there a conversion to make this in a slow cooker? I’d love to try it but I don’t have an instant pot 🙁

  14. Lucy
    10.08.2021

    5 stars
    Great dump and go black bean recipe! I like a little less liquid so I used 4 cups of water and increased the cook time to 28 minutes to account for the pot taking a bit less time to come to pressure. Absolutely perfect. Thank you!

  15. Scarlet
    10.06.2021

    5 stars
    I enjoyed the spice combo you used for these black beans and they were so easy to cook in the instant pot. The lime on top was delish too!

  16. Sabrina from newkitchenlife.com
    10.04.2021

    great black bean dish and a nice alternative to my go to pinto beans, so thank you

  17. Karen
    10.04.2021

    Can you freeze a portion of the cooked beans? I find that they do not last long before going off ( at least the canned black beans do )

    • Jeanine Donofrio
      10.04.2021

      Yep! I freeze my extras all the time.

  18. Rosemarie DGinto
    10.04.2021

    For a smoother taste, add a couple tbsps of cocoa powder.

  19. Maria
    10.03.2021

    It should be expressly noted to leave the pressure naturally. I think it is mentioned also in guidelines from instant pot. Otherwise it could block the steam thing.

    • Jeanine Donofrio
      10.04.2021

      Hi Maria, it’s step 3 in the recipe instructions.

  20. SherryinChicago
    10.03.2021

    Why so much water? I usually use just one cup when I cook beans in my Instant Pot. My understanding is the more water the longer it takes to come to pressure.

    • Jeanine Donofrio
      10.04.2021

      Hi Sherry, this amount of water worked for us with this quantity of dried beans.

A food blog with fresh, zesty recipes.
Photograph of Jeanine Donofrio and Jack Mathews in their kitchen

Hello, we're Jeanine and Jack.

We love to eat, travel, cook, and eat some more! We create & photograph vegetarian recipes from our home in Chicago, while our shiba pups eat the kale stems that fall on the kitchen floor.