Instant Pot Red Beans and Rice–dried small red beans are pressure cooked quickly and simmered with cajun sausage, onion, green pepper and cajun seasonings to make a saucy stew to serve over rice. And the rice can be cooked at the same time and in the same pot as the red beans!
Get the SLOW COOKER red beans and rice recipe here
Instant Pot Red Beans and Rice
It’s Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) today so I thought it would be fun to celebrate with a cajun-inspired recipe–Instant Pot red beans and rice. I’ve made red beans and rice in the slow cooker with canned beans before but I really wanted to try making red beans and rice with dried beans. And the best way to cook dried beans, in my opinion, is in the Instant Pot.
I love how something that could take a few hours on the stove only takes a few minutes in the Instant Pot. This time cut has transformed the way that I view dried beans, lentils and grains.
I started this recipe by soaking my beans. I find that soaking my beans really helps with texture of the beans and digestion. If you forget to soak your beans overnight don’t worry! You can do the quick soak method in your Instant Pot. One thing a friend mentioned that she does is soak the beans while she’s away at work then when she gets home 8-9 hours later she makes the recipe as stated…brilliant!
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What Pressure Cooker Did You Use?
To make Instant Pot Red Beans and Rice I used my 6 quart Instant Pot Duo 60 7 in 1*. I love this Instant Pot because it has the yogurt making function which I use almost weekly. It has two pressure settings (high and low), and there are also little slots in the handles so that you can rest the lid there instead of putting it down on your counter-top.
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Instant Pot Red Beans and Rice
- Total Time: 60 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
Description
Dried small red beans are pressure cooked quickly and simmered with cajun sausage, onion, green pepper and cajun seasonings to make a saucy stew to serve over rice. And the rice can be cooked at the same time and in the same pot as the red beans!
Ingredients
- 1/2 pound (8 ounces) dried small red beans (adzuki beans not the large kidney beans)
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 6 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp cajun seasoning
- 1/2 tsp thyme
- 1 rib celery, diced
- 1 green pepper, diced
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 pound cajun andouille sausage, sliced into ½ inch pieces
- 3 cups water
- 2 Tbsp cornstarch + 3 Tbsp cold water
- Optional: sour cream
For optional pot in pot rice:
- 2 cups water
- 1 ⅓ cups uncooked white rice
Instructions
- Soak or quick soak: Soak your beans overnight in 4 cups of water and 1 tsp of salt OR perform the quick soak method.
- Quick Soak: Add the beans to your Instant Pot with 4 cups of water and 1 tsp of salt. Bring to a boil using the saute setting. Once the water is boiling then quickly cover the pressure cooker and and turn valve to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 2 minutes. When time is up slowly move valve to venting. If foam escapes then move valve back to sealing for 20 seconds and try again. Remove the lid.
- Drain and rinse the beans thoroughly.
- Add soaked beans to the Instant Pot. Add in onion, garlic, paprika, cajun seasoning, thyme, celery, pepper, bay leaf, sausage and 3 cups of water.
- Cover your Instant Pot and move valve to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 12 minutes. When the time is up let the pressure release naturally for up to 20 minutes. Then remove the lid.
- Discard the bay leaf.
- Thicken the stew with a cornstarch slurry. Mix 2 Tbsp of cornstarch with 3 Tbsp of cold water until smooth then stir the mixture into the Instant Pot. Turn the Instant Pot to the saute setting. The stew will thicken fairly quickly.
- Serve red beans and sausage over rice. We liked ours with a dollop of sour cream on top. To make this less spicy you could use a regular smoked sausage instead of cajun sausage and use half as much smoked paprika.
Notes
To make pot in pot rice: Fill a pan that fits in your Instant Pot with 2 cups of water and 1 ⅓ cups of rice. Use a sling to lower the pan on top of the other ingredients. I did this using my OXO sling* and a pan like this* and it worked fabulous!
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes (plus NPR)
- Category: Sausage
- Method: Instant Pot
- Cuisine: Cajun
*Karen Petersen is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
I made this tonight for dinner. It tasted really good. But the beans were hard. I did an overnight soak. How can I get it better next time?
Were they old beans? Sometimes they never get completely soft if they are too old.
Delicious and fast… no added oil makes this a healthy option!
★★★★
Glad you enjoyed it Michelle!
If you use the insert pan that you showed, does it fit low enough in the IP to fit with the IP lid on?
Also can you double this recipe if u have a 8 qrt IP?
Yep it fits great! Yes you can double it in the 8 quart.
You don’t say hi or low pressure is there a reason for that?
For me it’s always high pressure. It’s my default. Although I should type that into the recipe.
What is the reason you cannot use regular size red beans?
Preference. But you can use larger beans. They will take longer to cook though. Make sure they are soaked too!
Other IP recipes I’ve seen for this require sauteing the veggies first and have longer cooking times. Do the veggies get soft using your recipe? I can’t stand crunchy onions! 🙂 If not, I may add the extra step of sauteing them when I try this recipe. Thanks!!
Hi Shannon, the onions are definitely not crunchy! They get soft for sure. Maybe not as much flavor since they aren’t sauteed in butter or oil, but not crunchy.
Hello! This will be my first try with the pot in pot cooking. Do I need to have a semi-tall trivet to put the pot of rice on? (The one it came with is very short). Also, does the silicon sling stay in while cooking?
Thank you!!
Hi Lindsay, I just set the pan with rice and water on top of the silicone sling and lowered it right on top of the food in the pressure cooker. It worked perfectly. You can use a short or or a tall trivet. The bottom of the trivet or sling will get dirty from sitting on the food but that’s okay!
How would I cook rice like the consistency of minute rice in my 7-1 nova duo 6 qt instant pot?
Hi Brenda, I’m not exactly sure what you mean by the consistency of minute rice. Can you explain further?
Can you cook the rice and beans together without the pot in pot method?
I haven’t tried it but I don’t think that would work. Here’s why. The rice doesn’t need as long of a cooking time as the rice. You could try this with brown rice, I suppose but then you’ll need a 22 minute cooking time. I wouldn’t try it I just don’t think it would turn out great.
Yes it will
Very good! My first time using dried beans in the instant pot- worked great!
good!! glad you tried it Becky!
Hi! I’m still pretty inexperienced with my instant pot so I’m still sketchy on the pot-in-pot cooking method. I have a trivet and Pyrex bowl that I’ve used to cook rice in pretty successfully but the recipes I’ve followed have always said to cook the meal for four minutes. In this recipe, at what stage do I put the rice into the pressure cooker? It’s it okay to cook the rice for the 12 minutes with the beans?
Yep it worked GREAT for me
Thank you and thanks for the rice cooking tips chart. It is eye opening!
you’re welcome!
Can I double the recipe using the 6 quart IP?
yes
Made this last night, loved it and so did my family!!! Great flavor, the beans have a great creamy texture . ( Thanks for the saok overnight tip😊) I served it over rice, great hearty dish. Keep sharing!!!
★★★★
So glad you liked it Robin!