We love Rancho Gordo heirloom Yellow-Eye Beans that we learned about from Kathleen Purvis in the Charlotte Observer. We try to keep tasty cooked beans in our fridge at all times for the resident pescatarian who can only eat fish 3 times a week. Sometimes we cook beans in the slow cooker, but nowadays the Instant Pot is the preferred method of cooking beans.
You can use Yellow-Eye Beans for lots of recipes. I particularly enjoy them warm with a dollop of Savory Lemon Yogurt. They are also delicious substituted for red beans in Puerto Rican Beans and Potatoes.
If you have time to soak the beans, rinse before soaking for 8 hours in enough water to cover them by 2-3 inches. They will expand.
If you don’t have time to soak the beans, you can just cook them longer in the Instant Pot. Below we give instructions for soaked and unsoaked beans.
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons cumin
1 pound of Rancho Gordo Yellow-Eye Beans
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
water–amount depends on whether beans were soaked or not
If you didn’t soak the beans, rinse them in a colander and pick out any debris.
- Start the Instant Pot on Sauté.
Add the olive oil to the pot and when it is hot, add the diced onion. Cook 3-4 minutes, until the onion is soft. Add the cumin, salt, and pepper to the onion mixture. Stir well.
Add the garlic and stir well. Cook for 1 more minute, stirring frequently to make sure the garlic does not burn. (The Sauté setting on the Instant Pot is a little hotter than normally used for sautéing garlic and it is easy to burn the garlic.)
For soaked beans
Put the beans into the pot. Add 5 cups of water, enough to cover the beans.
- Lock the Instant Pot cover.
- Make sure the vent is set to Sealing.
- Cancel the Sauté setting.
- Set the Instant Pot on Pressure Cook.
- Press the Pressure Level button to select High Pressure.
- Set the timer for 8 minutes.
- Allow the pressure to release naturally.
If you didn’t soak the beans
Put the beans into the pot. Add 6 1/2 cups of water.
- Lock the Instant Pot cover.
- Make sure the vent is set to Sealing.
- Cancel the Sauté setting.
- Set the Instant Pot on Pressure Cook.
- Press the Pressure Level button to select High Pressure.
- Set the timer for 28 minutes.
- Allow the pressure to release naturally.