Bean Soup under Pressure

Who says you have to presoak beans and then slow cook them half a day to have delicious bean soup? That’s not the hasty tasty meals way. You can have bean soup in about an hour if you use your pressure cooker. Also, if you use a small bean (navy, Anasazi, pink, etc) there’s no need to soak first.

Here’s my recipe, inspired by my friend Beverly Summitt who first introduced me to navy bean soup years ago, for bean soup in a pressure cooker.


100_1376Bean Soup Under Pressure


  • 1 pound navy beans, rinsed
  • ¼ pound smoked pork or ham
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 3 ribs celery, chopped
  • 1 clove garlic, chopped
  • 1 carrot, shredded or thinly sliced
  • 1 potato, peeled and diced
  • 2 quarts water
  • 1 Tbsp. salt (I use pink Himalayan)
  • ¼ tsp. cayenne pepper (or more if you like a little heat)
  • 1 bay leaf
  • nonstick cooking spray


  1. Spray bottom of pressure cooker pot with nonstick cooking spray and place over burner set to medium heat.
  2. Saute onions, celery, carrot, and potato.
  3. Stir in garlic and pork.
  4. Add beans, salt, pepper, bay leaf, and water. Close lid.
  5. Bring to pressure. (It takes a while to bring ½ gallon of water to a boil, so be patient)
  6. Once indicator jiggles, time for 40 minutes for a 10 psi cooker or 35 minutes for a 15 psi cooker.*
  7. When time is up, remove pot from the burner and allow the pressure to drop on its own. This can take about 15 minutes.
  8. Carefully open pressure cooker, remove bay leave, and serve. For extra thick soup, blend or mash two cups of the soup mixture and stir it back in.

*Check your manufacturer’s information for pressure rating. Most cookers are 15 psi.


Filed under beans, cooking, Healthful Eating

5 responses to “Bean Soup under Pressure

  1. I still don’t have a pressure cooker. Don’t want to add any more cookware to my kitchen.

  2. We grew up with a pressure cooker. It’s a life saver. You can do boiled potatoes in 6 minutes. You basically steam the potatoes. Fantastic! That was our prime use. Pea soup and fish soup were popular around the house.

  3. Soaking beans for 3 hours releases the carbohydrates ~ Change the water several times when soaking dry beans, and discard this water when soaking is good. Many of the gas-causing carbohydrates are
    released into this soaking water. That’s why beans are soaked. Less flatulations.

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