Instant Pot Buckeye Beans

Instant Pot Buckeye Beans, aka yellow Indian woman beans, are easy to cook from dried in a pressure cooker, with no soaking required.

Buckeye beans, buckskin beans, yellow Indian woman beans...these beans go by many names. (Some of which seem culturally insensitive. That's why Rancho Gordo beans switched to calling them Buckeye Beans. As an Ohioan, I am all for calling them Buckeye beans.)

Forget the naming issues because these beans are fantastic, especially if you make them in the pressure cooker.

Jump to:

• INGREDIENTS
• How to make Instant Pot Buckeye Beans
• Substitutions
• Equipment
• Scaling
• Soaking buckeye beans?
• Sorting Beans
• Why use baking soda with beans?
• Tips and Tricks
• Instant Pot Buckeye Beans
• Related Posts
• 💬 Comments

Buckeye beans do have an interesting history. Like most beans, they originated from Central America, probably Mexico, and went to Europe during the Columbian exchange. They were forgotten in the Americas until Swedish immigrants brought them back, where Indian tribes in Montana adopted them. That's a world of travel for a humble bean.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 pound dry Buckeye beans (aka Yellow Indian Woman beans), sorted and rinsed
• 6 cups water
• 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
• ½ teaspoon baking soda (optional)
• 1 small to medium onion, peeled and halved
• 2 bay leaves (optional)
  

How to make Instant Pot Buckeye Beans

Sort and rinse the beans

Sort the buckeye beans, removing broken beans, stones, and dirt clods. Put the beans in a strainer and rinse under running water.

Pressure Cook the Beans for 35 Minutes With a Natural Pressure Release

Put the rinsed beans in an Instant Pot or pressure cooker. Pour in the 6 cups of water, then stir in the teaspoon of salt and the baking soda. Add the onion and bay leaves. Lock the lid on the pressure cooker. Cook on high pressure for 35 minutes in an Instant Pot or other electric pressure cooker or 35 minutes in a stovetop PC. (In an Instant Pot, use Manual, Pressure Cook, or Pressure Cook - Custom mode set for 35 minutes). Let the pressure come down naturally, about 20 minutes. (You can quick release any remaining pressure after 15 minutes if you're in a hurry.)

Serve

Unlock the pressure cooker lid, opening it away from you to avoid the hot steam. Discard the onion and bay leaves. Ladle the beans into bowls, serve, and enjoy!

Substitutions

• Other Beans: As I said above, buckeye beans are also called yellow Indian Woman beans or buckskin beans. They are very similar to black beans, pink beans, and pinquito beans.
• Non-Bean Ingredients: 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 beans.

Equipment

A 6-quart pressure cooker

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 buckeye beans?

I always get the "to soak, or not to soak?" question. I don't soak buckey beans in this recipe. They don't need an overnight soak to cook to tenderness with 35 minutes at high pressure.

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, 15 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 processed. Beans should always be sorted and rinsed before cooking to get rid of 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 several 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.

Why use baking soda with beans?

Baking soda can help beans soften by reducing the acidity in the water, which softens the skin on the beans. If you keep having tough beans, you may have hard water - water with a lot of minerals in it. Hard water is natural and not a health risk, but it is annoying for cooking. Those minerals make the water a little more acidic, making beans tough while cooking. If you keep getting tough beans, you may have hard water, so include the half a teaspoon of baking soda in the recipe. (I live in an area that has mildly hard water, so I add baking soda to my beans.)

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, stir the beans, lock the lid, and pressure cook for another five minutes. Older beans take longer to cook, and if the beans 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.
  

Print

Related Posts

Instant Pot Rio Zape Beans (No Soaking)
Instant Pot Mayocoba Beans (No Soaking)
Instant Pot Cranberry Beans
Instant Pot Yellow Eye Beans
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.