Instant Pot Red Beans and Rice
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Thanks to the pressure cooker, everyone’s favorite New Orleans dish can be made in no time! No need to presoak the beans either. Simply throw everything into the Instant Pot and let it do the work for you. SO EASY!
So I’ll be completely honest with you.
I never cook with dried beans. Never, ever, ever.
I have always used canned beans instead. That is, until now.
Because hello? The IP can pressure cook the beans in just a fraction of the time it would take in real life! (“Real life” meaning stovetop.)
And guess what? There’s no pre-soak needed here either!
So there you have it. Red beans and rice literally from scratch using dried beans.
If you want to keep it vegetarian, you can omit the andouille sausage but still keep the same cooking time in the IP.
Just be sure to serve warm with rice and a dash of Tabasco for a kick of heat!
Instant Pot Red Beans and Rice
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups white long grain rice
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 12.8-ounce package smoked andouille sausage, thinly sliced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 onion, diced
- 1 green bell pepper, diced
- 2 stalks celery, thinly sliced
- 1 pound dry red beans
- 1 ½ teaspoons Cajun seasoning
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon dried basil
- ¼ teaspoon dried sage
- 2 sprigs fresh thyme
- 2 bay leaves
- 4 cup low sodium vegetable broth
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 teaspoon hot sauce, or more, to taste
- 2 green onions, thinly sliced
Instructions
- In a large saucepan of 3 cups water, cook rice according to package instructions; set aside.
- Set a 6-qt Instant Pot® to the high saute setting. Add olive oil and sausage. Cook, stirring frequently, until sausage is lightly browned, about 3-4 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate; set aside.
- Add garlic, onion, bell pepper and celery. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 2-3 minutes.
- Stir in sausage, red beans, Cajun seasoning, oregano, basil, sage, thyme, bay leaves and vegetable broth; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Select manual setting; adjust pressure to high, and set time for 30-35 minutes. When finished cooking, release pressure naturally according to manufacturer's directions, about 20-30 minutes.*
- Serve immediately with rice and hot sauce, garnished with green onions, if desired.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
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I’ve made this recipe before and it is very, very good – however I always pre-soak my beans as I usually get mixed results with my pressure cooker. I wanted to ask though if it is necessary to pre-cook the sausage as it is usually purchased smoked and fully cooked? Would slicing it up unbrowned and putting in with the beans during cooking give it additional flavor? As someone suggested using a smoked ham hock in addition. When I make stuffed cabbage in a crock pot, I chunk up the kielbasa and put it in the pot unbrowned and it swells up with the fluid making it very tender and delicious.
Beans were a tad on the under-done side after 35 minutes and a natural release, but after cooling completely and a night in the fridge they are perfect. Delicious meal!
So does the rice materialize from the expelled liquid inside the instant pot?
Yes it does!
I’ve made this recipe many many times and follow it adding 10 extra minutes of pressure cook time (I do mine for 40 minutes). It always turns out amazing and I use jasmine rice in bags instead of white rice. So comforting a delicious. I cook a lot and bring leftovers to work. Everyone that tries this begs me for the recipe!
Can someone explain to me how the garlic, onion, bell pepper, and celery are supposed to be cooked and stirred occasionally while in the instant pot and what setting should it be on for step 3 of the directions?
Turn your instant pot on sauté. When in this mode you will not have the top on. It’s like using a regular pot on the stove at this point.
I made this dish today and am really happy with how it turned out. Things I opted to do a bit differently than the recipe called for: Soaked my beans overnight, chicken broth and didn’t add additional salt. After reading the other reviews and trying this dish last year from a different food blogger, I knew I’d either need to soak my beans overnight or get up sooner in the morning to double the cooking time. With doing so, I was able to cook it for 25 minutes with the beans still having some texture left but not hard as a rock. Chicken broth is what I keep on hand. And from previous experience with the cajun seasoning I use, I found it be rather salty and knew between that and regular brother, added salt would be too much taste bud wise. This is definitely my go to recipe now when I want red beans and rice
Oh My Goodness!!!! Best soup ever! So easy, so comforting on a cold rainy day. Thank you for taking simple ingredients and creating a heaven bound meal.
I’ve been following you for years and several of your recipes are in my box. Thank you for being a goody who got up one day with a camera and started taking pictures.
So far MY FAVORITE Instant Pot recipe!!! I’ve never been a bean fan….until now!!! This was divine!!!!!!
Awesome !! My first meal on our new instapot… I would agree however that it needs extra cooking time for dry beans. Will definitely use this recipe again !! Thanks
Taste was fantastic but it took me 1 hr 15 minutes to cook beans all the way.
Good recipe. I made mine vegetarian. It needed a good bit of salt. I didn’t add hot sauce, heat was good for me and mine with just the cajun spice and pepper. I did soak my beans (small red) overnight first, and still used 4 cups veggie broth, which was just enough to cover the beans/veggies mix with none to spare. Pressure cooked for 30 mins, natural released for 20 mins (was too anxious, couldn’t wait any longer). The result was perfectly cooked beans. Soft on the inside, skins had a ‘snap’ to them and no exploded beans. There was enough broth to nicely flavor the rice.
Overall, pretty great! I recommend adding two tablespoons-ish of white vinegar after everything finished cooking to add some depth. Really fantastic for how fast it is.
Why not just use Italian season instead of going through all the traveling? Turned out amazing for me and my family. Just saying.
This was delicious! I used chicken broth, and poblano pepper because they were what I had on hand. I also added a smoked ham hock. Definitely – use a ham hock if you can get one. It was, in my husband’s words, “the recipe of the month, better than my dad’s.” That’s big praise.
GREAT recipe. I used canned beans and it was delicious. Using the canned beans, I did have to cook down the broth. I also used chicken broth instead of veggie broth. I also had to free hand the seasonings and add in some extra seasonings.
About how much broth did you need to cook off, roughly? I’d like to make this soon but only have canned beans as well; I’m thinking of adding less liquid off the bat, but don’t want to drop it by too much. Thank you!
This was fantastic! I pre-soaked the beans for 8 hours and I did not have to adjust the time. Perfect in 35 minutes. My husband, who does not like beans, even ate it. Great recipe!
This was really good….I did soak my beans for 2 1/2 hours and I cooked it all in the IP for about an hour with natural release…very flavorful and I will do this again….thanks!
Fantastic, will make again
Great recipe, awesome flavors. But like many other reviewers have said, the cooking time needs to be doubled in order to properly cook the beans.
We made some changes because of what we had on hand. Soaked the beans overnight and most of the day (changed the water in the morning). We also cooked on high pressure for an hour and everything was perfect.