Instant Pot White Beans

Instant Pot Cajun White Beans. A taste of Louisiana from dried Great Northern Beans, ready in about an hour thanks to pressure cooking.

Jump to:

• 🥫Ingredients
• 🥘 Substitutions
• 🛠 Equipment
• 📏Scaling
• 🤨 Soaking Great Northern beans?
• Sorting Beans
• 💡Tips and Tricks
• Instant Pot Great Northern (White) Beans Recipe
• ☃️ Storage
• 🤝 Related Posts
• 💬 Comments

I got my first Camellia bean box from the New Orleans bean company. (#NotSponsored, I just can't help but pick up bean subscriptions...) Much to my surprise, there was a seasoning packet for Cajun white beans to go with the pound of Great Northern beans in the box. Cajun…white beans? Why didn’t anyone tell me there were Cajun white beans?

(To paraphrase Terry Pratchett, I’m such a Northerner that I’m approaching the South from the other side. That’s probably why I didn’t know about Cajun white beans.)

I knew I could do better than a pre-mixed seasoning packet, so I got to work.

This Instant Pot White Beans recipe is similar to my red beans and rice and Cajun pinto beans, but with white great northern beans. This is a hearty side dish, or the center of a meal served with white rice. (Sure, white rice and white beans doesn’t have the pop of color that red beans give - but they still taste great together.)

🥫Ingredients

• Dried Great Northern beans
• Onion
• Green bell pepper
• Celery
• Garlic
• Cajun seasoning
• Smoked sausage
• Baking Soda

See recipe card for quantities.

🥘 Substitutions

You can substitute smaller Navy beans for the Great Northern beans; cut the pressure cooking time back to 30 minutes at high pressure.

Canned Great Northern beans: Really, you want to use dried beans in this recipe. But, if you can’t, substitute 3 15-ounce cans of beans, drained. Since these beans are already cooked, cut the water back to 2 cups, and pressure cook for 10 minutes at high pressure.

The aromatics are the Cajun trinity that I learned from Emeril Lagassse (Bam!), with onion, bell pepper, and celery. If you have to skip any of them, just add more of the other two. And don’t forget the garlic!

Cajun seasoning is what gives these beans the taste of New Orleans. You can use my homemade Cajun Spice Rub, or use a store-bought cajun seasoning. There are all sorts of brands, and I think they’re all about the same.

If you want to remove the heat, skip the Cajun seasoning and replace it with 1 ½ teaspoons of fine sea salt, ½ teaspoon of garlic powder, ½ teaspoon of onion powder, and ½ teaspoon of paprika. It’s not Cajun any more, but it will still be good.

Smoked sausage is what Camellia recommended in their white bean spice pack; andouille sausage is the authentic smoked sausage you want, if your grocery store carries it. Or, substitute diced ham. It won’t be as smoky, but it will be fine.

Baking soda helps keep the beans tender in case of hard water. (Hard water is acidic, and baking soda helps counter that.) I add it to all my bean recipes as insurance…when I remember. You can skip it if you want, but if you’re having problems with beans not cooking all the way through, give it a try.

🛠 Equipment

A 6-quart pressure cooker. (Though it will fit in a 3-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, you can double this recipe, but it's too much to fit in a 6-quart pressure cooker.

🤨 Soaking Great Northern beans?

I get the "to soak, or not to soak?" question all the the time. I don't soak my Great Northern beans in this recipe. They don't need an overnight soak, and cook to tenderness with 40 minutes at high pressure.

That doesn't mean you can't soak the beans. They turn out fine. Soaked beans cook much quicker, 20 minutes at high pressure. I use that when I'm cooking the beans with ingredients that overcook; the ingredients in this recipe can handle the heat, so I don’t add an extra soaking step.

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 using, 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 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 the beans.
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 the beans have been sitting in the shelf at your store for a while, they may need extra time.
• Make ahead beans - I cook chickpeas by the pound, freeze them in 2-cup containers, and then I have homemade chickpeas ready for recipes like this one. I thaw them in the microwave (about 5 minutes), then continue with the drying and roasting steps.

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☃️ Storage

Make ahead: This recipe can be cooked ahead of time, stored in 2-cup containers, and reheated for serving. It will last for a couple of days in the refrigerator, or can be frozen for up to 6 months.

🤝 Related Posts

Instant Pot Cajun Pinto Beans
Instant Pot Dirty Rice
Pressure Cooker Red Beans and Rice
Instant Pot Cannellini Beans
Instant Pot White Chili with Ground Chicken and Navy Beans
My other Instant Pot and Pressure Cooker Recipes

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