Instant Pot Black Eyed Peas. Looking for good luck in the New Year? A pressure cooker prepares dry black eyed peas in less than an hour.
Black eyed peas are a Southern New Year’s Day tradition, where eating black eyed peas will bring you luck in the New Year. (If you want to be sure you’re getting all the luck the South can offer, eat them with easy instant pot collard greens and cornbread.)
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Am I from the South? No, I’m a Midwestern boy, with Polish side of the family that believes in Pork and Sauerkraut for luck in the New Year. I’ve never had the nerve to mash the Southern and Polish New Years Day dinners together - greens and beans and pork and sauerkraut seems like a bit too much all at once.
That’s why I’m glad Black eyed peas are also a soul food classic and a common barbecue side dish. I don’t have to wait for New Year’s Day to have a pot of these beans. (And, if you want to make them as beans and greens, check out my Instant Pot Black Eyed Peas and Collard Greens recipe.)
Ingredients
- Dry Black Eyed Peas
- Onion
- Garlic
- Smoked Ham Hock
- Fine sea salt
- Fresh ground black pepper
See recipe card for quantities.
How to Make Instant Pot Black Eyed Peas
- Heat a tablespoon of oil in an Instant Pot set to Sauté mode until the oil is shimmering. Sauté a diced onion, minced garlic clove, and ½ teaspoon of salt until the onion softens
- Add a pound of dry black eyed peas, sorted and rinsed, to the pot, with 1 teaspoon of salt, a smoked ham hock, and 6 cups of water. Lock the lid on the pot.
- Pressure Cook at High Pressure for 15 minutes with a 15 minute Natural Release.
- Add ½ teaspoon of fresh ground black pepper, serve, and enjoy!
Substitutions
Black eyed peas and black eyed beans are the same thing - a subspecies of cow beans.
You can skip the onion and garlic - but I really like the extra flavor they add to the recipe.
For a vegetarian version of the recipe, skip the ham hock.
If you can't find the ham hock, substitute 4 ounces of hickory smoked bacon. I dice it up and crisp it up. Then I set it aside and use the bacon fat instead of the vegetable oil for sautéing the onions, then add it back into the pot with the black eyed peas and water.
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, you can double this recipe, but it’s too much to fit in a 6-quart pressure cooker.
How Do I Cook 2 Cups of Black Eyed Peas?
2 cups of Black Eyed peas is slightly less than 1 pound. It's so close that the instructions in this recipe will work as written, with a ratio of 2 cups beans to 6 cups of water.
Can I Cook Black Eyed Peas Without Soaking?
I get the “to soak or not to soak?” question all the the time. I don’t soak black eyed peas. They cook in 15 minutes under pressure - soaking them seems like a waste of time when they cook so quickly.
Sorting Peas
Black eyed peas are an agricultural product, and like other beans, stuff tends to creep in when they are processed. Dried 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 black eyed peas, I pour them out on one side of a rimmed baking sheet (a half-sheet pan), to keep the peas from escaping. Then I slowly run my fingers through the pile of peas, pulling them towards me on the sheet. I watch the peas as they move, looking for anything that doesn't seem right. If I see something, I poke around in the peas 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 peas.
Then I dump the peas into a fine mesh strainer and rinse them under cold running water, to wash off any dirt or dust.
Now the black eyed peas 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.
- Shred the meat on the ham hock? The ham hock adds smoky pork flavor to the beans. Once the beans are cooked, the hock has done its job. Most hocks don’t have enough meat to be worth shredding and should be thrown away after cooking. If you can see a lot of meat on the hock, and you don't mind the extra work, separate it from the skin, fat, gristle, and bone. Shred the meat that remains and stir it into the beans.
- Simmer to thicken: If you have the time, and want thicker pea broth, simmer the peas for 20 minutes after pressure cooking. Set the Instant Pot to Sauté mode adjusted to low, with a 20 minute cooking time, and leave the lid off to let the broth evaporate. I keep a loose eye on the pot, stirring every so often to keep the peas from sticking to the bottom of the pot.
Storage
A 2-cup container of cooked black eyed peas, with cooking liquid, replaces a 15-ounce can of beans from the grocery store. They’ll last in the refrigerator for a few days, and freeze 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.
Instant Pot Black Eyed Peas
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 6 cups 1x
Description
Instant Pot Black Eyed Peas recipe. Looking for good luck in the New Year? Or a simple Southern-style side dish? A pressure cooker prepares black eyed peas in less than an hour.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, smashed
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 pound dry black eyed peas, sorted and rinsed
- 1 smoked ham hock
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 6 cups water
- ½ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
Instructions
- Sauté the aromatics: Heat the tablespoon of oil in the pressure cooker pot over medium-high heat until the oil is shimmering (Sauté mode adjusted to high in my Instant Pot.) Add the onion and garlic to the pot and sprinkle with ½ teaspoon of salt. Sauté until the onion softens, about five minutes.
- Everything in the pot:Add the (sorted and rinsed) black eyed peas and nestle in the ham hock. Pour in the water, and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon salt.
- Pressure cook for 15 minutes with a Natural Release: Lock the pressure cooker lid. Pressure cook for 15 minutes in an Instant Pot or other electric pressure cooker, or for 12 minutes in a stovetop pressure cooker. (On the Instant Pot, use the Manual or Pressure Cook setting, and set the cook time to 15 minutes.) When the cooking time is over, 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.) Remove the lid, tilting it away from you to avoid any hot steam.
- Serve: Discard the ham hock, and stir in the ½ teaspoon of fresh ground black pepper. Serve and enjoy!
Notes
Yes, only 15 minutes under pressure. Black eyed peas cook fast.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Category: Side Dish
- Method: Pressure Cooker
- Cuisine: American
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Kathy says
Made this last night and to our delight this simple, easy dish was delicious! We’re adding it to our regular rotation. Thanks for sharing. PS We subbed a slice of bacon for the ham hock.
Paul says
In south Texas so everything we cook includes bacon. I put it in an sautés it with the onion garlic and jalapeños. The bacon does not completely cook before the onions start to stick. Next time I’ll try cooking the bacon in the pot first then add the onion and garlic. Recipe is right on point. Thanks another dad cooker!
Val says
Discard the ham hock?!?! NO WAY!! That would cause a fight in my house! The second fight would be about who gets the ham hock! I pressure cook the hamhock until tender, then add the peas and pressure cook until tender!
Michael says
Yeah he must be getting some measly sized hocks, there’s a good bit of meat on them.
I cook my hocks for an hour at pressure in the broth take it out, add the beans, and once the hock is cooked and the beans are cooked I add the meat back in. It’s adds a lot of the gelatin to the peas and really thickens them up cooking the hock for longer.
SheB says
Perfect in every way!! I added cooked chopped up bacon, but it would have been spot on without it as well. Just like Grandma used to make.
Lauren says
Made this a few times, and making it again today. Couldn't find a ham hock in my local grocery store so I just bought a ham steak and cut it into cubes - it doesn't have the same flavor hit a hock would provide but it is still really really good! I also pre-soak my beans out of habit for the health benefits, and still cook it for the fifteen minutes in my instant pot. If I have an extra can of diced tomatoes, sometimes I'll throw those in too. Comes out perfect! Thank you for sharing!
Linda Thompson says
I use smoked pork tasso which is a meat we cajun love to add smoked meat to our dishes
Donna Christian-Bruce says
Great recipe! I used the leftover spiral ham bone from Christmas. Substituted chicken broth for the water and added poultry season and a touch of cumin. Once cooked there was plenty of ham that fell off the bone to make it substantial. I did not add the greens. Definitely a keeper.
Janet says
Seriously good. Followed the recipe exactly except I used leftover ham chunks instead of ham hocks.
R. Thomas says
I just made these in my electric pressure cooker and this dish is PERFECTION!! I am a southerner and am experimenting with pressure cooking. This recipe is a definite keeper!!
Heather says
Just made this tonight. Perfect cook time and amount of liquid. The peas weren’t mushy and it was kind of stewy. I had veggie broth and turkey broth on hand as a sub for lacking a ham hock. Thanks for the great recipe!
Mark J says
Just made this for our traditional Southern Black-Eyed Pea lunch. Excellent. I admit to being worried about the 15 min cook time. But it turned out perfect. This recipe is a keeper. Thanks.
Jeff says
Tried this, but had no ham. I used one package of Lil' Smokies cut in half. I also added 3 teaspoon of Cajun seasoning for some added flavor. Very tasty and quick. Love my pressure cooker for beans.
T.J. says
Made this today! Used hock from smoked Christmas ham. Perfect! Thank you so much!
Lisa says
How would I go about using presoaked beans?
Mike Vrobel says
Maybe 5 minutes at high pressure?
Barbara says
New to pressure cooking. Can I do 2 lbs with12 cups of water? Cook it longer?
Mike Vrobel says
Same cooking time, add only add water up to the max fill line on your pressure cooker pot. As long as you get at least 10 cups in there, it should be enough water - I think 12 cups of water + 2 pounds of beans will go above the max fill line on a 6 quart PC.
Judy says
Yum! I like to grind about 1/2 teaspoon of celery seed with the pepper for additional pop. Also, left over ham or hambone, or leftover sausage works nicely too . I have even made this with polish sausage 😀