Instant Pot Black Bean Soup (soaked or dry beans!)
Posted: 01/29/2021
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Made with ingredients you probably already have in your pantry, Instant Pot black bean soup is flavorful, creamy, and satisfying. Perfect for a meatless dinner or a filling lunch.
Recipe Overview
Why you’ll love it: Your Instant Pot is an amazing tool for cooking dried beans. This soup is delicious, economical, and healthy.
How long it takes: i hour, 40 minutes (most of the time is hands off)
Equipment you’ll need: Instant Pot, immersion blender (optional)
Servings: 6
Turn dry black beans to creamy delicious soup in just over an hour with your Instant Pot. My Instant Pot has revolutionized how I cook beans. No soaking necessary! You can take economical dried beans from hard dry pebbles to perfectly cooked tender beans so quickly and easily. I love how pinto beans turn out (try making Instant Pot refried beans!) and this black bean soup is another winner.
You’ll love Instant Pot bean soup. It’s just so homey, with good plant protein, fiber, and healthy vegetables. While it’s perfect for vegetarians and vegans, it will please pretty much everyone in your family.
And the bonus? Black bean soup is really good leftover. Make a big batch and look forward to it for lunch the next day, or freeze half for another meal on a busy day.
Serve black bean soup with warm whole wheat cornbread or cornbread muffins with herbs and cheddar. Baked tortilla chips (or try air fryer tortilla chips!) and salsa are always good, too.
If you like toppings, this soup is made for a dollop of sour cream or sliced avocado, or even guacamole. Shredded cheese is great idea, too, or a sprinkling of chopped jalapeño peppers, fresh cilantro or onions.
I’ll get you started on the recipe here and give you lots of extra tips to help out. Be sure to look for the printable recipe card near the end of the post, with complete instructions, measurements, and nutrition information.
What You’ll Need
- Dry Black Beans – No need to soak them first! This is a quick and inexpensive way to cook beans. You’ll need about two cups, or a one pound bag. Rinse the beans with water and remove any foreign objects before adding them to the pot.
- Onions, Carrots, Celery, Garlic – These building blocks give the soup tons of flavor.
- Jalapeño Pepper – Leave the seeds and ribs in if you like extra heat; remove them if you prefer things a little more mild.
- Cumin, Chili Powder, Red Pepper Flakes, and a Bay Leaf – So much flavor in this soup!
- Low Sodium Vegetable Broth – Chicken broth would also work well if you’re not preparing this for vegans or vegetarians.
- Fresh Cilantro – You’ll add this when the soup is done cooking for a pop of fresh flavor.
- Lime Juice – Adding a squeeze of lime juice right at the end gives the soup a touch of acid and provides the brightness it needs to balance out the spices.
How To Make This Recipe
This is a one pan meal for easy clean up. Chop up the veggies and sauté them briefly in your Instant Pot, adding the garlic and spices for the last minute or so.
Turn the Instant Pot off, add the beans, broth, bay leaf, and water, and set the pressure cooker for 45 minutes on High Pressure (or Manual, depending on what model you have).
Remember to allow time for the pot to come to pressure. It takes nearly fifteen minutes. Once the soup has cooked, let the pressure release naturally for another fifteen minutes.
If you add the time together, you’ll see that the cooking time is pretty close to an hour and a half but most of it is completely hands off.
This next part is optional but recommended. For really creamy soup, remove about half of the soup from the pan and, using a stick blender or a regular blender, purée it. You can either purée the soup you removed or the soup that’s remaining in the pan, it doesn’t really matter. If you prefer chunkier soup, simply skip this step; however, it does help to thicken the soup too.
Mix the puréed soup with the remaining soup and stir in the cilantro and lime juice. The lime juice adds just a bit of acidity which enhances the flavor of the soup. Check the seasonings, and serve with the desired toppings.
Or if you’re not quite ready yet, no problem, just keep the soup on Warm until you are. Like most soups, black bean soup doesn’t mind waiting around.
FAQs
Can you use dry black beans to make black bean soup?
Dry beans are a more cost effective way to buy beans but typically you have to soak them overnight before using them (or do a quick soak with boiling water).
Using the pressure cooker, you can skip this step. You’ll still want to rinse the black beans to remove any debris, but then you can throw them right in the Instant Pot.
Can you make this soup with canned beans?
Yes, but you won’t need to cook it as long. If you use canned beans, it may be easier to just simmer it on the stove until the vegetables soften. However, if you would like to cook it in the Instant Pot, five minutes under high pressure will likely do the trick.
How many cans of beans equals 1 pound of dry beans?
You’ll need three cans (15.5 oz. each) of beans to be equivalent to 1 pound of dried beans.
Make It Your Own
Like most soups, you can change pretty much anything you like and still have good results.
- Try a different type of bean if you don’t happen to have black beans. Pinto beans are a good substitute.
- Play around with the seasonings to come up with your own special recipe.
- If you like meat, add diced ham, cooked bacon, sausage, or another meat of your choice.
- Cook it on your stovetop. Follow package directions for soaking the beans overnight or doing a quick soak. The soup will still have to simmer about two hours even after a soak. An alternative is to substitute three 15.5 ounce cans of black beans instead of the dry beans for a quick cooking soup.
- Rather have brownies? Try black bean brownies. They’re pretty amazing, fudgy and gluten-free, too.
Storage & Reheating Tips
Instant Pot black bean soup can be stored for three to four days in the refrigerator in a tightly covered container. You can also freeze the soup for up to a month. Thaw it overnight in the fridge for best results.
Reheat gently in the microwave or on the stove. If soup seems too thick, add a bit of water or broth.
Interested in a weekly meal plan (it’s free!) that includes this recipe? Take a look at my Meal Plan #14. You’ll find a wholesome recipe for each weekday plus a categorized grocery list. Let me do the planning for you this week!
We’ll be adding a new meal plan weekly. If you’re interested, browse all of our meal plans.
More Instant Pot soup recipes
Do you love soup but feel like you just don’t have time to simmer it? Your Instant Pot speeds the process up. Try:
- Instant Pot Tomato Soup — so creamy and easy to make!
- Instant Pot Chicken and Rice Soup
- Instant Pot Broccoli Cheese Soup
- Instant Pot Minestrone Soup Recipe
- Instant Pot White Chicken Chili
- Instant Pot Chicken and Dumplings
- Instant Pot Beef Pho (Noodle Soup) by The Spruce Eats — can’t wait to try this one!
- Instant Pot Borscht from Feasting at Home (for all you beet lovers)
More Soups and Stews
Browse All
Did you make this? Be sure to leave a review below and tag me @rachelcooksblog on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest!
servings
Made with ingredients you probably already have in your pantry, Instant Pot black bean soup is flavorful, creamy, and satisfying. Perfect for a meatless dinner or a filling lunch.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 cup chopped yellow onion (about 1 medium onion)
- ½ cup finely chopped celery (about 1 stalk celery)
- ¾ cup finely chopped carrot (about 2 small carrots)
- 2 small jalapeño peppers, ribs and seeds removed, finely diced
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 2 teaspoons chili powder
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes, more to taste
- 2 cups dried black beans, rinsed and any foreign matter removed (1 lb.)
- 4 cups low-sodium vegetable broth (or chicken broth)
- 2 cups water (see notes)
- 1 bay leaf
- ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro, more for garnishing
- 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
- Suggested toppings: fresh cilantro, sour cream, shredded cheese, crushed tortilla chips, sliced jalapeños
Instructions
- Heat Instant Pot to sauté. Add oil, onion, celery, carrot, and jalapeno and cook, stirring, until onions are translucent and soft, about 5 minutes. Add garlic, cumin, chili powder, and red pepper flakes and continue to cook, stirring, until fragrant, or about 1 minute.
- Add black beans, broth, water, and bay leaf. Stir to combine, scraping bottom clean.
- Place lid on Instant Pot and set on high pressure, Manual mode (or Pressure Cook, depending on model) for 45 minutes. Allow 13-15 minutes for it to come to pressure.
- When cooking time has elapsed, let pressure release naturally for 15 minutes before turning vent to release any remaining pressure.
- Remove bay leaf and discard. Remove about half of soup and use an immersion blender to blend (or a standard blender).
- Stir blended soup and non-blended soup together, adding the cilantro and lime juice, and serve with desired toppings.
Notes
- Makes about 9 cups.
- This soup is fairly thin immediately after cooking, but thickens up after cooling. If you prefer a thicker soup, reduce water by one cup. You can always add more, but it’s harder to remove it once it’s in.
- If you prefer chunkier soup, omit step 5.
- Like meat? Add diced ham, cooked bacon, or sausage to the soup.
- Cook it on your stovetop. Follow package directions for soaking the beans overnight or doing a quick soak. The soup will still have to simmer about two hours even after a soak. An alternative is to substitute three 15 1/2 ounce cans of black beans instead of the dry beans for a quick cooking soup.
- To Prepare with Soaked Beans: If you want to soak your beans overnight, omit the 2 cups of water from the recipe. Reduce cooking time to 15 minutes, with a 15 minute natural release.
Nutrition Information
Serving: 1.5cups, Calories: 280kcal, Carbohydrates: 49g, Protein: 16g, Fat: 4g, Saturated Fat: 1g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g, Monounsaturated Fat: 2g, Sodium: 235mg, Potassium: 1131mg, Fiber: 12g, Sugar: 4g, Vitamin A: 3056IU, Vitamin C: 11mg, Calcium: 113mg, Iron: 4mg
This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.
KRIS says
I have not made this yet but I have a question. When would you add the meat if you’re not making it vegetarian? I tried, not your recipe, and added some spicy sausage, maybe too soon. There wasn’t much taste from it and the pieces were not quite as chewy as I would have hoped for, lol.
Rachel Gurk says
You could saute it until cooked through, and then remove it, leaving the drippings and continuing with the recipe. The drippings would add flavor and then you could add the meat back in at the end if you’re finding it gets overcooked.
denise says
look simply delicious!
Rachel Gurk says
Thanks Denise!