Instant Pot Piloy Beans

Instant Pot Piloy Beans. Guatemalan Piloy beans (frijoles piloy) are a round and red beans that cook up plump and creamy. Here's how to take these local market finds from dry beans to a meaty side dish, by pressure cooking for 30 minutes in your Instant Pot.

Jump to:

• Ingredients Notes and Substitutions
• Equipment
• Instant Pot Piloy Beans Recipe
• Scaling
• Sorting Beans
• Do You Need to Soak Piloy Beans Before Pressure Cooking?
• Tips and Tricks
• Storage
• How to use Piloy Beans
• Related Posts
• 💬 Comments

I've never seen Piloy beans before. But there they were, big, round, brick red beans, bags and bags of them, one of many bags of beans at my local Hispanic market. A new bean? I have to try them!

Finding recipes online was tricky - Piloy beans look like they are specific to Guatemalan cooking, and aren't used many other places. (Or, if they are, they change their name - but I couldn't find them.) That said, they are a staple food in Guatemala, a central part of their cuisine. (Kind of like all their neighbors in Central America, where beans are an important part of everyone's meals.)

Figuring out how to pressure cook them was also tricky - it took multiple tries, because I didn't believe the one pressure cooking recipe I could find - 30 minutes? Even after soaking? That can't be right. I tried 20 minutes - most of the beans were still hard. 25 minutes - almost, but not enough - some of the beans were still tough. Turns out, they were right, I was wrong. Even after soaking, Piloy beans take 30 minutes at high pressure in an Instant Pot.

I'll live with the extra soaking time, though, because Piloy beans are nice and meaty, like an extra-plump kidney bean or Scarlet Runner Bean. I'm not upset that I bought a bunch of bags for my testing, because now I have some in my pantry for the next time I need a big red bean.

Ingredients Notes and Substitutions

• Piloy beans remind me of Kidney Beans and Scarlet Runner Beans; if you're going to substitute them, use my Instant Pot Kidney Beans recipe or Instant Pot Scarlet Runner Beans recipe instead of these instructions.
• I don't have a great source for red Piloy beans. I buy my beans from a local Hispanic market - La Loma market in Akron, but they are tough to find online. I can find them from a few ebay sellers if I search for Frijol Piloy, but have never tried to buy from any of them.
• Don't have an onion? Skip it and add an extra clove of garlic.
• Don't have garlic? Skip it, as long as you have an onion.
• Don't have bay leaves? It adds a nice flavor note, but it's not necessary. Skip it, or substitute a pinch of dried thyme.
  

Equipment

A 6-quart pressure cooker. Pressure Cooker dried beans are one of the reasons I became a pressure cooker convert. Try Instant Pot beans and 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, which are just as convenient as canned beans, and taste much better.)

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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. Either way, scaling up or scaling down, the cooking time is the same. The cooking time is determined by cooking each bean all the way through, not the total number of beans - 30 minutes under pressure is the same to them either way.

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.

Do You Need to Soak Piloy Beans Before Pressure Cooking?

I get a lot of questions about soaking beans. I prefer to soak Piloy beans. They are a dense bean, because it takes a long time to pressure cook them to tenderness if they are not soaked.
If I completely forget to soak, I cook them without soaking, for 45 minutes at high pressure with a natural pressure release. Then I'll check them, and if they need it, I'll pressure cook them for another 5 minutes with a quick release. (Also, see the "Tips and Tricks" section about floaters, below.)

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.
• "1 tablespoon of salt for soaking, plus another teaspoon for cooking? That seems like a lot of salt." The tablespoon of salt in the soaking water helps brine the beans, only a little of it is absorbed into the beans. Most of it washes away when you drain the beans. If you are worried about sodium, skip the salt; the beans will still turn out OK.
• 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 on the shelf 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 15 minutes after pressure cooking. I set my Instant Pot to Sauté mode adjusted to low, set the timer to 15 minutes, and leave the lid off to let the broth evaporate.
• Hard water: If you have hard water, add ½ teaspoon of baking soda to the pot with the soaked beans. The alkalinity of the baking soda softens the bean skins, which helps them cook through in stubborn hard water.
• Quick Soaking: I have had reports that quick soaking is not working for people, but if you forget to soak overnight, you can give it a try. Sort and rinse the beans, then put them in a pot and cover with water (or in your Instant Pot set to Sauté mode-High) and bring the water to a boil. Boil for 1 minute, then turn off the heat and let the beans sit for an hour. Continue with the instructions as written above.
  

Storage

A 2-cup container of cooked beans, with cooking liquid, replaces a 15-ounce can of beans from the grocery store. Cooked beans 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.

How to use Piloy Beans

Piloy beans are big, meaty beans, and great in dishes that use kidney beans, like red beans and rice or chili. They are traditionally used in Guatemalan Piloyada Antiguena, served with sausage and eggs - I'm working on a recipe for that, so please stay tuned.

Related Posts

Instant Pot Kidney Beans
Instant Pot Small Red Beans (Domingo Rojo Beans)
Instant Pot Pinto Beans
Instant Pot Large Lima Beans (Butter Beans)
Instant Pot Rio Zape Beans
Instant Pot Moro Beans
My other Instant Pot and Pressure Cooker Recipes
My other Instant Pot Bean Recipes

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