How To Cook and Freeze Your Own Black Beans

Instant Pot Black Beans are so easy to make! Did you know you can easily cook and freeze your own black beans? It’s way cheaper than buying canned, and you’ll know exactly what goes into them.

I always make mine in my Instant Pot, but you can cook them on the stove top too if you don’t own a pressure cooker!

Did you know I grew up with pressure cooking? Seriously. It’s quite the thing in my family. And I LOVE it!

I make mushroom risotto in the pressure cooker. I make lentil soup. And chicken gnocchi soup. Oh, and pulled pork, too.
 

Instant Pot Black Beans

The truth is – I refused to buy an actual instant pot and just had someone else test my stovetop pressure cooker recipes in the instant pot for the blog.

Until now, that is.

I caved and got my firrrrst ever electric pressure cooker the other week.

Did you see it on my Instagram stories? I thought I’d start off with an easy recipe and made a batch of black beans.

Only to have the pressure valve release steam at full force… All over my kitchen ceiling.

Yep, there was bean juice sprayed everywhere ??‍♀️ at first I was angry. Then I decided to figure this thing out, and here we are now.

It’s the best thing ever to cook and freeze your own black beans – it’s budget friendly, free from aluminum cans and you know exactly what goes into them.

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If you’re looking for the full list of ingredients and clear instructions, that’s all at the bottom of this post! Before you scroll, there’s important information in the text below to make sure your recipe turns out amazing!

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How do you sort black beans?

Sorting black beans can be tedious, but it’s worth it and while you need a little patience, it’s not hard to do at all:

1. Place a large kitchen towel or a baking sheet on a work surface
2. Spread the beans on the towel or baking sheet
3. Look through them to remove any debris, shriveled or broken beans

It’s especially important to sort out small stones etc. I once broke off a small bit of a tooth from a tiny little stone in my food. Not fun!

Do I need to soak beans before pressure cooking?

The short answer: No, you don’t have to. It doesn’t take that much longer to cook unsoaked beans vs dried beans.

And I definitely don’t always remember, and LOVE that my pressure cooker cooks dried beans without soaking in 20 minutes.

The long answer: I still prefer to remember a soak, for various reasons.

• the beans cook way more evenly
• I have less split beans when I soak them
• uhm… gas? It’s worse with unsoaked beans.

But again, I don’t always remember to soak them, and there’s no right or wrong here. You do you.

Do you soak beans covered or uncovered?

If you do want to soak your black beans before you cook them, it’s very easy to do:

1. add sorted beans to a large bowl
2. cover the beans with cold water
3. let them stand at room temperature for 6-8 hours

You don’t need to cover the bowl, but I usually put a clean kitchen towel on top because I’m a germaphobe.

Are beans supposed to float?

Floating beans usually mean they’re hollow (apparently insects do that to beans, HENCE THE KITCHEN TOWEL when I soak them).

Either when you soak the beans, or if you skip the soak when you fill the instant pot with water: Remove any beans that float below the water’s surface.

How long does it take to cook black beans in a pressure cooker?

Unsoaked beans need to cook for around 25 minutes on high pressure in an instant pot. Do a natural pressure release for 10 minutes (natural pressure release just means you switch off the instant pot and leave it alone for 10 minutes).

If you do a quick pressure release with beans, the chance is that more will burst.

Soaked beans only need to cook for around 8 minutes on high pressure in the instant pot. Again, do a natural pressure release for 10 minutes before manually releasing any remaining pressure.

How long does it take to cook black beans on the stovetop?

If you don’t have a pressure cooker, you can also cook black beans on the stove in a large pot.

Unsoaked beans take about 1 hour and 30 minutes on the stove.

Soaked beans take about 1 hour to soften when cooked on the stove.

How To Cook Black Beans

What do I need to cook my own black beans?

You really don’t need a lot to make your own black beans, but there are a few essentials that help.

Tools you need to cook your own black beans:

FYI, the following product links are affiliate links. I make a commission for purchases made through these links.

• An instant pot is not essential – but it’s quicker. You can cook dried beans in a fraction of the time it takes to cook them on the stove if you use a pressure cooker.
• Freezer containers – because you’ll probably make more black beans than you’ll go through within a few days. I like using glass storage containers.

Other than that, you just need the ingredients, which are super simple.

Ingredients for instant pot black beans:

• 1 pound dry black beans
• 6 cups hot water
• 1 teaspoon salt
• a few juniper berries and bay leaves, optional

As you can see, I don’t season black beans a lot when I cook them. That’s because I usually make them for the freezer, and don’t have any immediate plans for them yet.

If I added tex-mex seasoning and then wanted to bake with them? That would be… Strange ?

If you know you’re only going to use them to cook savory foods, you can add more seasoning. Cumin, taco seasoning, onion or garlic would be great choices.
 

Step By Step Instructions

Step 1

The first thing you have to do is pick over your beans and sort out any bad ones or debris like small pebbles or twigs that were accidentally packed with the beans.

If you don’t know how to sort beans, check further up in this post where I describe how to do it.
 

Step 2

The next step is soaking, if you want to soak your beans.

Simply place them in a large bowl, cover them with water (cover the bowl with a towel if you like) and leave them at room temperature for 6-8 hours.
 

Step 3

Then, you can cook your beans.

If you soaked them, drain off the soaking water and rinse the beans under cold water.

If you didn’t soak them, just rinse them.

Then, place the beans in your instant pot with all the remaining ingredients of the recipe.

Step 4

To cook the beans, close the lid and set the pressure valve to “sealing”.

Pick “manual” and make sure it’s on “high pressure”.

Set the timer to 8 minutes for SOAKED beans.

Set the timer to 25 minutes for UNSOAKED beans.
 

Step 5

Once the beans are done cooking, switch off the instant pot. Leave it alone for 10 minutes.

After that, manually release the remaining pressure: Place a kitchen towel over your hand and carefully push the pressure release valve to “venting”.
 

Step 6

Finally, carefully open the instant pot once the pressure gauge has dropped all the way.

Do NOT drain off the cooking liquid if you want to freeze the beans. You can also drain the beans, but catch the liquid in a bowl.

Or scoop out the black beans to let them cool.

How do you freeze black beans?

It’s super convenient and easy to cook the black beans you cooked yourself.

Not to mention, a lot more frugal than buying them canned!

While this recipe can be frozen, please remember to do the following:

• Wait for the beans to cool completely before freezing them (otherwise your freezer could heat up too much and affect the other frozen goods in there).
• Use a container that is suitable for freezing.
• Add the beans to the container and cover them with cooking liquid. If you forgot to save it, cover them with clean, cold water.
• Label the bag or container with the contents, today’s date AND the use-by time (cooked black beans can be kept in the freezer for 2-3 months)
• Defrost thoroughly before using.

And always make sure the beans are piping hot all the way through before eating them!

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Like this recipe? Why not try some more of my homemade pantry ideas?

I LOVE stocking my pantry with things I make from scratch. It’s more budget-friendly, I know what goes into everything – and it’s a great way to teach kids about food!

Some of my other favorite from-scratch recipes  you’re going to love just as much include Homemade Taco Seasoning, Homemade Ranch Salad Dressing and Homemade Meatloaf Sauce.

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So… What can you make with black beans?

I mean, you cooked them. Now they’re in your freezer. But… What do you make with them? ?

Here are some of my favorite recipes using black beans:

• One Pot Black Bean Enchilada Pasta
• Southwestern Crockpot Chicken Tacos
• Chicken Taco Salad

Grab the printable recipe for Instant Pot Black Beans here:

Printable recipe