I love my pressure cooker. Except…there's no evaporation. Once you lock that lid, all the liquid is trapped. I'm used to a thick broth when I cook dried beans, and it's tricky to get the amount of water right in the pressure cooker.
I love noodle soup. Except…dry pasta soaks up too much liquid. I add eight ounces of pasta to a soup, and pretty soon I have noodle stew, not a soup.
I should have put two and two together, but I'm a slow learner. I made pressure cooker pasta fazool - bean soup with dried pasta - and suddenly my problems were over. I had a thick bean and pasta soup. Perfect!
I'm taking this idea south of the border. I combined a Mexican black bean soup with fideos, Mexico's vermicelli noodle soup. The result is a thick black bean and pasta soup. It's not Authentic Mexican, but it sure tastes good.
Recipe: Pressure Cooker Mexican Black Bean and Noodle Soup (Frijoles y Fideos)
Cooking time: 60 minutes
Equipment:
- Pressure cooker (I used my Cuisinart Electric Pressure Cooker)
Ingredients:
- 1 pound black beans, sorted and rinsed
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 8.8 ounce package vermicelli nests (aka bird's nest pasta)
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 tablespoon ancho chile powder (or a chili powder blend)
- 1 chipotle chile en adobo (or 1 tablespoon chipotle en adobo puree)
- 8 cups water
- Stems from ½ bunch of cilantro (leaves saved for accompaniments)
- 1 (15 ounce) can fire roasted diced tomatoes
- 1 whole head of garlic, roots trimmed off (they hide dirt)
- 1 tablespoon Kosher salt
- Juice of 1 lime
Accompaniments:
- Shredded mexican cheese
- Minced fresh cilantro
- Hot Sauce
- Lime wedges
- Shredded cabbage
Directions:
1. Brown the vermicelli and bloom the spices:
Heat the vegetable oil in the pressure cooker pot over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add the vermicelli nests in a single layer; cook in batches if you need to. Brown the nests on one side, about 1 minute. Carefully flip the nests and brown on the other side, about another minute. Remove the nests to a paper towel lined plate with a slotted spoon, leaving as much oil behind as possible. After all the nests are browned, add the cumin, chile powder, and chipotle to the hot oil. Cook the spices until they are sizzling and fragrant, about 1 minute.
2. Pressure cook the beans:
Add the black beans and water to the pressure cooker, then stir to mix in the spices. Tie the cilantro stems into a bundle, then add the bundle of cilantro, garlic head, and can of diced tomatoes to the top of the liquid on the cooker. Lock the lid on the pressure cooker, increase the heat to high, and bring the cooker up to high pressure. (RTFPCM - read the fine pressure cooker manual - for the high pressure signal of your cooker). Reduce the heat to maintain the pressure and cook at high pressure for 25 minutes (35 minutes in an electric pressure cooker). Turn off the heat and let the pressure release naturally, about another 15 minutes. Remove the lid carefully, opening away from you - even when it's not under pressure, the steam in the cooker is very hot.
*Optionally, cook under pressure for 30 minutes, then quick release the pressure.
3. Cook the pasta:
Fish out the cilantro bundle and the head of garlic, and discard, then stir the tomatoes into the beans. Turn the heat to high under the cooker and bring the pot back to a simmer. Stir in the 1 tablespoon Kosher salt and the browned pasta. Simmer until the pasta is tender, about 9 minutes. (Note - do not lock the lid again - we aren't cooking the pasta under pressure.) Stir in the lime juice, taste, and add more salt, pepper, and lime juice as needed.
4. Serve:
Ladle the soup into bowls, sprinkle the accompaniments on top, and serve.
Notes
- Why vermicelli nests? Because they're the right size to fit in the bottom of my pressure cooker pot for browning, and the nest makes it easy to flip and brown the other side. I didn't like the idea of chasing individual noodles around the bottom of the pan. Of course, it would be more authentic if I took 8 ounces of vermicelli noodles and broke them into rough 2 inch lengths before browning. (Cheaper too.) But I took the easy way out.
- Loose noodles in the bottom of the bag? Don't bother browning them - just brown the nests, then dump the loose noodles into the pot with the browned nests.
- I didn't soak the beans for this recipe, because Rick Bayless says... OK, you got me, it's because I forgot to soak them. But that's OK - they came out fine. If you want to, brine the beans in 3 quarts of water plus ¼ cup of table salt for at least 8 hours, then drain and rinse before cooking. Cut the cooking time for soaked beans to 15 minutes under high pressure (20 minutes in an electric PC), with a natural pressure release. (Thanks to Tami for asking about this in the comments.)
What do you think? Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.
Related Posts:
Pressure Cooker Pasta Fazool
Pressure Cooker Pinto Beans in Tex Mex Broth
Click here for my other pressure cooker recipes
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Mike V @ DadCooksDinner says
I'm giving the beans an extra five minutes under pressure to make up for the acidic tomatoes. Seems to do the trick.
Amber says
I've heard not to cook beans in an acidic environment, but you add tomatoes before cooking. Any thoughts?
Mike V @ DadCooksDinner says
No, the recipe will be fine with those substitutions.
Chipotle en adobo adds a lot of heat, so I'd suggest another tablespoon of your chili powder blend, plus a half teaspoon to teaspoon of cayenne pepper. (Or, maybe a teaspoon to a tablespoon of tabasco for the heat.)
Skip the cilantro if you want - I know some people have a bad reaction to it. (Like my Mom...)
Pressure Cooker Newbie says
Hey Mike! I just found your site, and I'm really enjoying it! I'm a newbie when it comes to pressure cooking, so I'm grateful you've forged the way ahead! This recipe sounds great, but I don't have chile en adobo, I only have plain old chili powder and cumin, and I don't much care for cilantro (weird, I know). If I leave them out, will it completely unbalance the recipe? Thanks so much!
Mike V @ DadCooksDinner says
Thanks, Nancy! And...I never shudder when someone takes a recipe and adapts it to what they have on hand, or what they like to eat. That's the whole point of cooking.
Well, OK, maybe I'd shudder if they added cream of mushroom soup...but if you're using real ingredients, I'm all for it.
Nancy says
Hey Mike! This is Nancy again(below) I finally made the Black Bean and noodle soup, today and it was so good! I had to throw a chopped onion in cos I don't know, I just did. I also browned two links of turkey Italian sausage and threw that in. (I hope you and the other foodies aren't shuddering right now, I cook by the seat of my pants).The consistency was as advertised..Perfect. I'll make this again, I know. I have to admit that cooking those little birds nest was just plain fun. Thanks for the great recipe. I'm telling everybody about your site and have sung your laurels on Pinterest .
Mike V @ DadCooksDinner says
You're welcome. Enjoy!
Nancy says
I'm on your site again, cos I can never remember how long to cook beans in my Cusinart EPC. I'm making a Tuscan soup tonite. I saw this new recipe and it sounds so good! I'm trying this next. Thank You!!!
Mike V @ DadCooksDinner says
In general, PC beans cook more evenly with soaking. That said, you can cook beans without soaking if you cook them for long enough. This works better for me with smaller beans (black beans, navy beans) than bigger beans (kidney beans, chickpeas).
Chris Lukowski says
What's been your experience as to when you can get away with not soaking beans before pressure cooking them?
Mike V @ DadCooksDinner says
No soaking for this one - the beans were sorted, rinsed, and went straight into the pressure cooker. If you have the time to soak the beans, only pressure cook them for 15 minutes.
Tamara Mitchell says
did you soak the beans?