Instant Pot Cranberry Bean Gratin

Instant Pot Cranberry Bean Gratin. A hearty bake of beans and vegetables, topped with a bread crumb crust, with extra flavor from homemade pressure cooked cranberry beans.

Alice Waters’s style of California cooking, using local, seasonal ingredients, is one of my biggest influences. “Seasonal” can be interesting this time of year in Ohio, with lots of root vegetables and hardy greens. But the core of her message still resonates with me: quality local ingredients, cooked simply, are a fantastic way to cook.

Jump to:

• 🥫Ingredients
• 🥘 Substitutions
• 🛠 Equipment
• 📏Scaling
• 🤨 Soaking cranberry beans?
• 💡Tips and Tricks
• Instant Pot Cranberry Bean Gratin
• ☃️ Storage
• 🤝 Related Posts
• 💬 Comments

Her The Art of Simple Food is one of my favorite cookbooks, which is why I was a little embarrassed to find this recipe idea using a Google search. I was looking to use up a bag of Rancho Gordo cranberry beans, and I saw a bunch of recipes for Cranberry Bean Gratin. And all of them pointed back to a cookbook sitting on a shelf in my family room.

So, here is my take on Alice’s cranberry bean gratin, a bake of beans and vegetables topped with a crispy crumb crust. As always, I’m cooking my beans in my Instant Pot. You can find more details on pressure cooking cranberry beans in my recipe from earlier this week. The one thing I will repeat from that recipe: I don’t soak cranberry beans before pressure cooking. It’s not worth the soaking time when they take so little time to pressure cook.

🥫Ingredients

• Dried cranberry beans (aka borlotti beans)
• Garlic
• Rosemary
• Olive oil
• Onion
• Celery
• Carrot
• Canned diced tomatoes
• Panko bread crumbs
  See recipe card for quantities.

🥘 Substitutions

If you can’t find cranberry (aka Borlotti) beans, substitute cannelini beans or pinto beans. You can also substitute canned beans - drain and rinse 2 cans of beans, and skip to the "sauté the aromatics" step. But, please try dried beans in your Instant Pot - you'll love them!
Regular bread crumbs can replace the Panko bread crumbs, but I like the extra crunch of Panko style crumbs.
If you want to skip the bread crumbs and the baking step entirely, you can, and serve this as a soupy side dish. (But, as I said, I like the extra crunch of the bread crumb topping).

🛠 Equipment

A 6-quart pressure cooker. Pressure cooker dried beans are one of the key reasons I became a pressure cooker convert.
A 2-quart oven safe baking dish, or individual serving sized gratin dishes.

📏Scaling

This recipe doubles easily in a 6-quart pressure cooker. Cut all the ingredients in half and this recipe will fit in a 3-quart pressure cooker.

🤨 Soaking cranberry beans?

I get the “to soak, or not to soak?” question all the the time. I don’t soak my cannellini beans in this basic 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, though the bean broth isn’t quite as full bodied. Soaked beans cook much quicker, 12 minutes at high pressure. I use that when I’m cooking the beans with other ingredients, where the shorter cooking time keeps me from overcooking the whole dish just to get the beans tender.

💡Tips and Tricks

• The beans are the only pressure cooked part of this recipe. I’m using the best tools for the three steps to a gratin: pressure cook the beans, sauté the vegetables in a frypan on the stovetop, and bake everything in a baking dish in the oven. If you want, you can do the sauté step in your Instant Pot (set to sauté mode) but it will take longer because of the narrow pot. The baking step really needs the oven. The gratin has to bake all the way through, and I want that crispy bread crumb crust on top.
• See my Instant Pot Cranberry Beans recipe for more bean cooking details.

Adapted from: Cranberry Bean Gratin from The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters

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☃️ Storage

You can pressure cook the beans ahead of time. Store them in their liquid in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, or frozen for up to 6 months, and continue with the "Sauté the aromatics" step when you are ready.

This recipe freezes well, in 2-cup containers, for up to 6 months. The bread crumb crust will get soggy, but still taste good.

🤝 Related Posts

Instant Pot Cranberry Beans
Brussels Sprouts Gratin
Swiss Chard Gratin
My other Instant Pot and Pressure Cooker Recipes

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