Instant Pot Black Bean Soup

Instant Pot Black Bean soup. Earthy black bean soup seasoned with cumin, coriander, and lime. Pressure cooking makes dry beans easy to cook, especially black beans. No soaking is needed; the beans can go directly into the Instant Pot after sorting and rinsing. The beans release starch while they're cooking, resulting in a thick and hearty soup.

Jump to:

• Ingredients
• INSTRUCTIONS
• Substitutions
• Variations
• Tips and tricks
• Sorting Beans
• Storing leftover black bean soup
• What to serve with Black Bean Soup
• Instant Pot Black Bean Soup Recipe
• Related Posts
• 💬 Comments

Ingredients

• 1 pound dry black beans
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon ground coriander
• 1 tablespoon paprika (preferably smoked paprika)
• ½ teaspoon dried thyme (or a couple of sprigs of fresh thyme)
• 1 tablespoon minced chipotle en adobo (optional)
• 6 cups vegetable broth or chicken broth or water
• 1 ½ teaspoons fine sea salt (if using homemade broth or water)
• 2 bay leaves
• Juice of 2 limes
• 2 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper
• Minced green onions (optional for garnish)
• Diced avocado (optional for garnish)

INSTRUCTIONS

Sort and rinse the beans

Sort the dry black beans, discarding any stones, dirt, or broken beans. Put the beans in a strainer and rinse, then let them drain.

Saute the aromatics and toast the spices

Heat 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil over medium heat in the pressure cooker until shimmering. Add the onion, red pepper, and garlic and sprinkle with ½ teaspoons fine sea salt. Saute until the onion and peppers soften, about 5 minutes. Make a hole in the middle of the onions and add the cumin, coriander, paprika, thyme, and (optional) chipotle. Toast the spices for 1 minute, then stir them into the onions.

Everything in the pot

Add the sorted and rinsed black beans to the pot, pour in the broth (or water), and stir in 1 ½ teaspoons of fine sea salt if using homemade broth (or water). Scrape the bottom of the pot with a flat-edged wooden spoon to loosen any bits of stuck-on onion or spices. Float the bay leaves on top.

Pressure Cook for 35 minutes with a quick release

Lock the lid and cook on high pressure for 35 minutes in an Instant Pot or other electric pressure cooker (use Manual, Pressure Cook, or Pressure Cook - Custom mode in an Instant Pot) or for 30 minutes in a stovetop pressure cooker. Quick release the pressure.

Season and serve

Unlock the pot, opening the lid away from you to avoid any hot steam. Stir in the lime juice and 2 teaspoons of fresh ground black pepper. Ladle into bowls, top with the (optional) green onion and avocado, serve, and enjoy!

Substitutions

No chipotle en adobo

Canned chipotle en adobo sauce is easy for me to find nowadays in the international aisle in my local grocery store, and it was always available at my local Mexican markets. If you can't find chipotle en adobo, substitute dried chipotle powder or diced jalapeno pepper.

Mild soup

If you don't want any heat, skip the chipotle en adobo.

Extra spicy soup

Add a second chipotle en adobo. Or, on top of the chipotle, add ½ teaspoon of cayenne pepper, which has a lot more heat than chipotle.

Bell peppers

I like the sweet taste of red bell peppers, but you can substitute green bell peppers - or any color you want, basically.

No limes

I add the limes at the end to give the soup a hint of citrus and acid. If you don't have limes, skip them or substitute 2 teaspoons of cider vinegar.

Vegetarian or Vegan

Easy! This recipe is vegetarian and vegan as written.

Carnivore

If you don't care about eating vegetarian, you can make some or all of the following changes: 

• Butter: Substitute 2 tablespoons of butter for the olive oil. Melt the butter in the pot before adding the onions and bell pepper.
• Ham hock: Beans always taste better with a little smoked pork mixed in. Throw a ham hock in the pot when you add the beans. 
• Chicken broth: Use chicken broth instead of vegetable broth. Chicken broth is richer and has more body.

Fancy vegetable sprinkle

If I want to dress this soup up, I'll save some of the red bell pepper and the onion, mince them fine, mix them with the green onions, and sprinkle them on the soup right before serving.

Variations

Cuban Black Bean Soup

Cuban black bean soup is very similar to this one; everything cooks the same but with a slight variation in the ingredients. Substitute green bell pepper for the red bell pepper, diced cubanelle pepper for the chipotle, skip the coriander and paprika, replace the thyme with 1 teaspoon of dried oregano, and use 1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar instead of lime juice at the end.

Tips and tricks

Dry beans are the key

Dry beans are the reason this is a thick, hearty soup. While they cook, they release a lot of starch into the liquid. Then, the quick pressure release roughs them up some more, releasing even more starch.

Blending for a thicker soup

As I said above, this soup is thick enough for my taste without any extra help, thanks to the starch in the dry beans. If you want an even thicker soup, after cooking, scoop out 2 cups of soup and beans,  blend it, and stir it back in. I use my immersion blender and a 4-cup Pyrex measuring cup. You can also use a regular blender, but be careful - hot air escaping from the soup will try to push off the lid. Hold the lid down with a towel, and if your lid has a removable plug in the middle, take it out.

Floating or tough beans after cooking

Older beans take longer to cook; if they have been sitting on the shelf at your store for a while, they may need extra cooking time. 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.

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 several times until I'm satisfied everything is picked 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.

Storing leftover black bean soup

Black bean soup makes great leftovers and keeps for a few days in the refrigerator or for months in the freezer. I store it in 2-cup airtight containers, which are the perfect size for a grab-and-go lunch. 

What to serve with Black Bean Soup

I like to sprinkle minced onions on my soup-usually green onions, like in the recipe, but red onions are another favorite. Sour cream, tortilla chips, and shredded cheese are also good to serve with this soup. I'll add lime wedges if my diners like tart flavors.  
As for side dishes, soup, salad, and bread(sticks) are popular at restaurants for a reason-they're a remarkable combination. I'll make a side salad, and serve it with rolls or a loaf of crusty bread.

Adapted from: Lorna Sass Great Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure

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