Beans

how to cook them

Two Favourite Beans

• Kidney beans
  • soak 10-12h
  • cook 90 min - 2h
  • pressure cook 30-60 min?
• Chickpeas
  • soak 10-12h
  • cook 60 - 90 min
  • pressure cook 30-45 min?

Dried bean cooking times list

Lentils

• Red lentils 15 min
• Black lentils 20 min, ratio: 1x beans to 3x water
  • Grim grains instructions:
    • Wash 115g (¹⁄₂ cup) of dry beluga lentils. Put 375 ml (~1 ¹⁄₂ cup) of vegetable bouillon in a pot and add the lentils, bring to a boil.
    • Reduce heat to medium and simmer for 25 minutes. Don’t let them cook for too long or they’ll get too mushy. If the lentils seem cooked but haven’t absorbed all of the water, strain it out.

My pressure cooking

• Split chickpeas (unsoaked): 150g, 1l water, 15 minutes active time + natural release
• Red lentils (unsoaked): add a couple of cups (3.5-4 dl) lentils to the pot. Add enough water such that when your index finger tip is touching the lentils, the water level reaches to between your first and second knuckle. Leave the lid off, and heat up the pot while stirring until the lentils start boiling. Turn off the pot, put on the lid, and build pressure. Once the pressure is built up and steam is coming out: set the stove timer for 9 minutes , lower to inductin setting 5 or 6. Once the time is up, the heat should be off and leave it to natural release. Note: rinsing the lentils may decrease the volatilty and spitting of the pressure cooking section of the process.

Pressure cooking on electric hob

For pressure cooking 600g dry weight of beans use 1800g water, or 1:3 beans to water.

Soak over night before pressure cooking, and don’t use the soaking water.

Pop some peppercorns and a few bay leaves in for some added taste.

Stats for my current hob (2025-03):

• The time to reaching a boiling whistle is 25 minutes when using the small hob plate at heat setting 9.
• The maintenance heat after having boiled up is heat setting 4.
• maintaining heat for 55 minutes after reaching the boiling whistle results in very good consistency beans.
• This was for a mix of kidney, black, mung, and white beans. More easily cooked beans would take less time in the maintenance phase.
• Total time from water in pot until done is therefor 80 minutes, or basically 1h30 min before use - plan accordingly.

NOTE: Soaking with salt over night might’ve improved the consistency.

Pressure Cooking tips

http://www.hippressurecooking.com/pressure-cooking-times/

Induction Cooktop– Bring cooker to pressure on medium heat setting, supervise for the first few minutes at pressure as the cooker may need additional adjustments. Then lower the heat setting to maintain pressure

DO use the induction burner’s timer feature to set the pressure cooking time so the burner turns itself off automatically when time is up!

the maximum operating pressure for most modern European Cooker is about 13 psi for spring-valve type cookers

My pressure cooker

Lagostina IRRADIAL PLUS Lagoeasy’UP (Irradial):

• Operating pressure at normal altitude: 55 kPa — 8 PSI
• Max pressure: 130 kPa +- 10%

Works awesome … I use it to make beans (pre-soak over night to cook on high for 10 minutes then heat off natural release for 20 minutes)

from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6tQ2rSM0mU

Water level rule of thumb

The general rule of thumb is that you need the water level to be at least 2.5 cm above the bean level in your pressure cooker. This is usually about 1.2l water for every 450g dry beans. The amount of water can also affect the final texture of the bean. If you like very soft beans then add another cup or so of water.

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Or:

• 400 ml water for every 150g beans.
• (approx) 270 ml water for every 100g beans (almost too little water for safely cooking)
• (approx) 135 ml water for every 50g beans (too little water for safely cooking)

When determining how long to cook dry beans in a pressure cooker, it is important to consider the size of the bean. Smaller beans take less time to cook than larger ones.

Pressure Cooking table

Compared to the values in the table below, it seems to take my pressure cooker ~2x the time to get the desired texture of beans, or roughly half the time it would take to cook them in a normal pot.