Baked Beans - Instant Pot

About this Recipe

My Grandma LOVES baked beans. I love them too. There is something about the hearty little protein packs mixed with all the delicious flavors or sweet and tangy ingredients that make up this delicious recipe. You can also do this in the oven at 400 degrees F. but the cooking time will be much longer that using an Instant Pot. Beans are an EXCELLENT food to make a more consistent part of your diet. Half a cup of boiled white navy beans have almost 10grams of fiber, which is 38% of the recommended daily value. It also has 7.5grams of protein, 12% recommended intake of iron, 6% recommended intake of calcium, 32% recommended intake of folic acid and many other micronutrients needed for health.(1) It used to take more hours to prepare beans with all the soaking and waiting. The Instant Pot truly changed everything in the bean making department. If you like to have things ready and on hand, you can also cook up a big pot of plain beans (unseasoned) and freeze them in small portions to pull out, defrost and add to soups, salads and stir fries.

Remember, baked beans go perfectly with Grandmother's Cornbread Recipe.

Grandmother's Tips for Baked Beans - Instant Pot Style:

1. Stay home when you are cooking with the instant pot. It is a high pressure cooker and so it is important to stay around. The great news is that meals are so quickly cooked that you would barely have time to go anywhere anyways!

2. Always use enough liquid in an Instant Pot. Instant Pots need 1 to 1.5 cups of liquid to get to and maintain pressure for cooking. You can use any kinds of liquid, but just be sure to use liquid.

3. Find the MAX FILL line on your Instant Pot and make sure that you keep your ingredients below this line.

4. Never put our face or skin above the lid when it is opening or the steam hole when it is being released.

5. NEVER force the lid open.

6. Locking the lid properly is important before any pressure cooking.

7. Refer your Instant Pot before cooking for more safety instructions.

8. You still need to pre-soak the beans using the instant pot.

9. If you made too much freeze left-overs in small ziploc bags. We froze them and were please with the taste and texture on reheating.

10. Order your own Instant Pot.

References: (1) Nutrient profile From Health Canada- Beans, navy, boiled /Haricots, petits blancs, bouillis (Date modified:2018-02-06) Retrieved from: https://food-nutrition.canada.ca/cnf-fce/report-rapport.do


Ingredients

(Print)

Makes: 16 - 1/2 cup Servings

1 Tablespoon olive oil or grapeseed oil

1 onion chopped into small pieces

2 cloves garlic

4 teaspoons paprika

1/4 cup water

4 cups broth, chicken or vegetable or combination

2 (156ml) cans tomato paste

1/4 cup molasses

1/2 cup maple syrup

1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce (we used Lea & Perrins)

4 Tablespoons mustard (we used prepared mustard, Kuhne brand-German)

8 cups pre-soaked small white navy beans (pre-soaking overnight will make them swell up to size)

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon salt

4 bay leaves

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

TO THICKEN: 2 Tablespoons cornstarch (or you can substitute flour)

Directions

Directions

1. Set the instant pot to sauté.

2. Pour in one tablespoon of olive oil or grapeseed oil. Chop the onion into small pieces. Put the chopped onions into the instant pot and sauté for a few minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon until soft. Smash and chop the garlic into small pieces and add to the cooking onions, stir and cook another minute. Add the paprika to the mixture.

3 Add the 1/4 cup water and stir together. Add the broth. You can use whatever type of broth you have, chicken or vegetable or a combination of both. One tetra pack is 946ml and equals 4 cups. Add the tomato paste, molasses, maple syrup and Worcestershire sauce. Add the mustard, pre-soaked beans, salt, pepper and bay leaves and stir together. Be sure BEANS are PRE-SOAKED. Add the apple cider vinegar. Stir everything together to combine well.

4. Put the lid on the pot. Be sure the vent is in the SEALED position. Push the pressure cooker button and manually set the time for 40 minutes. When done let the pot steam vent on its own. It will take about 20 minutes. Once it has vented the lid will open. Remove the lid from the pot. The beans would cook faster but the longer they cook the more tender they are so we suggest a bit longer cooking time..

5. The beans will be cooked and the liquid will be very runny. Now you need to drain the liquid into another pot using a colander to catch the cooked beans.

6. Transfer the beans to a suitable sized heat proof pot and remove the bay leaves. Let the liquid cool a little.

To Thicken and make a nice rich looking sauce:

1. Put 2 Tablespoons cornstarch into a small bowl. Add a bit of the cooked bean liquid to the bowl and use a fork to stir. Keep adding liquid a bit at a time stirring with the fork to form a nice smooth liquid. You do not want there to be any lumps, so keep stirring until it looks right.

2. Bring the pot with the cooked bean liquid to a boil and add the creamy cornstarch mixture to the pot. Use a spatula to stir while you bring the mixture to a boil. Shut off the heat and add the cooked beans. Gently stir in to coat all the beans in the nice thick sauce. Transfer the beans into the Dutch oven. You can serve immediately or let cool down and reheat in the Dutch oven when needed.

ENJOY!

Return to this Baked Beans - Instant Pot recipe or check out more recipes at Grandmother's Kitchen

Baked beans are healthy, flavourful and hearty but often take a long time to make because baked beans start with dried beans which require some time to rehydrate. By using an Instant Pot, you can minimize the cooking time by several hours which means you can have a usually time-consuming meal on the table in little time.

There are many variations of baked beans. The U.K. serves a tomato version, while Boston baked beans are heavy on the molasses and salt pork. This version is the best of both worlds by having molasses and tomato paste in the sauce.

If you are new to cooking dried beans, they can sometimes be a little tricky and take a long time to prepare. The secret to limiting the cooking time of beans is to soak them in water overnight. The navy beans will absorb a lot of the water and start to expand even before cooking. Using an Instant Pot or other pressure cooker turns baked beans into an easy meal that can be served on the busiest days of the week.

If you don’t have a pressure cooker, though, don’t worry. Baked beans can easily be cooked in the oven over the day or mix the beans with the sauce in a crockpot and cook over the entire day until the beans are soft. Either way, you will have a great addition to your list of quick and easy meals.

Although commercially sold baked beans sometimes have a bad rap due to the amount of salt and sugars in them, by making beans at home, you can control what goes in them. This version uses natural sweetener in the form of delicious maple syrup. Navy beans are an excellent source of fibre, protein, iron and magnesium, as well as others, making them a nutritious, hearty meal that can regulate blood sugar and promote intestinal health.



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