Instant Pot Baby Lima Beans recipe. Pressure cooker lima beans, from dry, with no soaking, are cooked in under an hour and way better than canned beans. Sort and rinse the dry baby lima beans, then pressure cook them with onion, bay leaf, and a little salt for 30 minutes with a natural pressure release.

Would you like to save this recipe?
Jump to:
INGREDIENTS
- 1 pound dry baby lima beans, sorted and rinsed
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 6 cups water
- 1 small onion, peeled and halved
- 2 bay leaves
How to make Instant Pot Baby Lima Beans
Sort and rinse the beans
Sort the lima beans, discarding any stones, dirt, or broken beans. Rinse the beans.
Pressure Cook for 30 minutes (unsoaked) with a 15-minute Natural Release:
Put the beans in the pressure cooker, add 6 cups of water, sprinkle with the salt, then add the onion and bay leaf. Lock the lid and pressure cook at high pressure for 30 minutes in an Instant Pot or other electric pressure cooker, or for 25 minutes in a stovetop pressure cooker. (Use Manual, Pressure Cook, or Pressure Cook - Custom mode set to 30 minutes in an Instant Pot). Let the pressure come down naturally, about 20 more minutes. (If you're in a hurry, you can stop the natural pressure release after 15 minutes by quick releasing any remaining pressure.)
Serve or Save
Discard the onion and bay leaf. Serve the beans with their broth as a side dish or drain them to add to another recipe. Enjoy!
Substitutions
Add a Smoked Ham Hock
Ham and beans are a classic combination for a reason. I love the flavor smoked pork adds to beans. I buy packaged smoked ham hocks from my grocery store, freeze them in a zip-top bag, and pull out a hock when making beans. A thick slice of smoked ham, or leftover bone from a ham, will also work. Or, if you want to branch out from pork, try a smoked turkey wing or leg.
Aromatics
You can replace the onion with a couple of unpeeled garlic cloves or skip it altogether.
You can also skip the bay leaf if you don't have any. Beans, water, and a little salt are enough - but the onion and bay add a subtle extra flavor to the lima beans.
🛠 Equipment
Pressure cooker dried beans are one of the reasons I became a pressure cooker convert. Try them—you'll never go back to canned beans. (OK, maybe you will, for convenience, but see the Storage section for tips on make-ahead freezer beans.)
Scaling
This recipe scales down easily - cut everything in half if you don't need as many beans or have a 3-quart pressure cooker. Scaling up runs into space issues; if you have an 8-quart pressure cooker or larger, you can double this recipe, but it's too much to fit in a 6-quart pressure cooker.
Soaking lima beans?
I always get the "to soak, or not to soak?" question. I don't soak my lima beans in this basic recipe. They cook to tenderness in 30 minutes at high pressure plus a natural release, which is fast enough that I skip the soak.
That doesn't mean you can't soak the beans. They turn out fine, though the bean broth isn't quite as full-bodied. Soaked beans cook much quicker, 10 minutes at high pressure. I use that when cooking the beans with other ingredients, where the shorter cooking time keeps me from overcooking the whole dish to get the beans tender.
Sorting Beans
Beans are an agricultural product, and stuff tends to creep in when they are processed. Beans should always be sorted and rinsed before being used to remove any twigs, stones, clumps of dirt, or broken beans.
To sort the beans, I pour them out on one side of a rimmed baking sheet (a half-sheet pan) to keep the beans from escaping. Then I slowly run my fingers through the pile of beans, pulling them towards me on the sheet. I watch the beans as they move, looking for anything that doesn't seem right. If I see something, I poke around in the beans until I find what caught my eye and discard it. I repeat this a couple of times, until I'm satisfied everything is out of the beans.
Then I dump the beans into a fine mesh strainer and rinse them under cold running water to wash off any dirt or dust still on them.
Now, the beans are sorted, rinsed, and ready for soaking or cooking.
Tips and Tricks
- Salt your bean water! "Salt toughens beans" is a myth. Salting before cooking helps season the beans all the way through as they cook.
If your beans are still tough when the cooking time is over, especially any "floaters" at the top of the pot, give the beans a stir, lock the lid, and pressure cook for another five minutes. Older beans take longer to cook, and if they have been sitting on the shelf at your store for a while, they may need extra time.
- Simmer to thicken: If you have the time and want thicker bean liquid, simmer the beans for 20 minutes after pressure cooking. I set my Instant Pot to Sauté mode adjusted to low, set the timer to 20 minutes, and leave the lid off to let the broth evaporate.
Lima Bean FAQ
What's the difference between Baby Lima Beans, Large Lima Beans, and Butter Beans
They are all the same bean, according to Camellia Beans. (And if I can't trust them for Cajun bean facts, who can I trust?) Baby lima beans are the young version of the bean, tend to be green, and are what I think of when I think "lima bean." Large lima beans (aka butter beans) are the same beans, just left on the vine longer, where they tend to lose their green color and turn white. Baby Lima Beans are a little sweeter and more delicate than large lima beans. This recipe is for baby lima beans; if you want to cook large lima beans, check out my Instant Pot Christmas Lima Beans for a basic recipe.
How to pronounce Lima beans
It's pronounced like the citrus fruit (lime) with a short "a" on the end: LIMEah. The beans originated in Lima, Peru (pronounced LEEmah) and have spread throughout the Americas.
Vegetarian Lima Beans
Skip the ham hock, and you'll have vegetarian (or vegan) lima beans.
How do I use baby lima beans?
I'll serve them straight up as a beans-in-broth side dish or with some sauteed onion, green pepper, celery, and Cajun seasoning (and maybe a little diced smoked sausage). My friend Rhonda, who lived in New Orleans for years, says I have to use them in lima beans and shrimp, so expect that recipe soon.
Storage
Cooked lima beans store beautifully. A 2-cup container of beans in their cooking liquid replaces a 15-ounce can of beans from the grocery store. They'll last in the refrigerator for a few days and in the freezer for up to 6 months. I always make extra beans and freeze the leftovers for use in other recipes. Freezer beans are ready to use with about 5 minutes in the microwave and are so much better than canned beans.
PrintInstant Pot Baby Lima Beans (from dry, no soaking)
- Total Time: 55 minutes
- Yield: 6 cups of beans 1x
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
Instant Pot Baby Lima Beans recipe. Pressure cooker lima beans, from dry, with no soaking, are cooked in under an hour and way better than canned beans. Sort and rinse the dry baby lima beans, then pressure cook them with onion, bay leaf, and a little salt for 30 minutes with a natural pressure release.
Ingredients
- 1 pound dry baby lima beans, sorted and rinsed
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 6 cups water
- 1 small onion, peeled and halved
- 2 bay leaves
Instructions
- Sort and rinse the beans: Sort the lima beans, discarding any stones, dirt, or broken beans. Rinse the beans.
- Pressure Cook for 30 minutes (unsoaked) with a 15-minute Natural Release: Put the beans in the pressure cooker, add 6 cups of water, sprinkle with the salt, then add the onion and bay leaf. Lock the lid and pressure cook at high pressure for 30 minutes in an Instant Pot or other electric pressure cooker, or for 25 minutes in a stovetop pressure cooker. (Use Manual, Pressure Cook, or Pressure Cook - Custom mode set to 30 minutes in an Instant Pot). Let the pressure come down naturally, about 20 more minutes. (If you're in a hurry, you can stop the natural pressure release after 15 minutes by quick releasing any remaining pressure.)
- Serve or Save: Discard the onion and bay leaf. Serve the beans with their broth as a side dish or drain them to add to another recipe. Enjoy!
Equipment
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 50 minutes
- Category: Beans
- Method: Pressure Cooker
- Cuisine: American
Would you like to save this recipe?
Related Posts
Instant Pot Christmas Lima Beans
Instant Pot Ham and Beans Recipe (with Dry Beans)
Instant Pot Cannellini Beans (Marcella Beans)
Instant Pot White Turkey Chili Recipe (With Dried White Beans)
Pressure Cooker Senate Bean Soup
My other Instant Pot Bean Recipes
My other Instant Pot and Pressure Cooker Recipes
Enjoyed this post? Want to help out DadCooksDinner? Subscribe to DadCooksDinner via email and share this post with your friends. Want to contribute directly? Donate to my Tip Jar, or buy something from Amazon.com through the links on this site. Thank you.
Karim says
I see six references to cooking for 30 minutes, and three references to 20 minutes of cooking. Which should it be?
Mike Vrobel says
30 minutes. (Cut and paste will be the death of me - thanks for letting me know.)
Bowden says
Thank you so much for this! I had been looking for a cook time for these beans in the instant pot and these came out perfectly. Really appreciate it!
Mike Vrobel says
You’re welcome!