I returned from the NY / UT leg of the book tour Tuesday night and Wednesday I was right back at it at – prepping for a cooking demo class at Whole Foods in Colorado Springs. My good friend Cindy, the healthy eating specialist at the store, made a point to prep all the food for the demo and I was only in charge of soaking the beans and bringing a pressure cooker.
Um…I forgot to soak the beans!
I’m writing about this for those of you who do pressure cook. Everything turned out fine.
Listen, I prefer soaking my beans. If I had soaked them, this one-pot meal would have cooked up in about 9 minutes (6 – 8 minutes at sea level). I knew unsoaked beans would take about 18 – 20 minutes (22 at my elevation). So I decided to swap out the white rice in the recipe and use a longer cooking long-grain brown rice (22 minutes). It came out great.
When you’re in your kitchen cooking, I encourage you to be playful. Experiment with different beans and grains. The easiest way to do that in the pressure cooker is to mix and match grains and legumes with similar cooking times. Pearled barley would have been a fine option with my unsoaked beans because it also cooks up in 18 – 20 minutes. Had I soaked the navy beans I could have matched it with other grains that cook in 6 – 8 minutes, such as amaranth, arborio rice, basmati rice, bulgur, or farro.
Here’s the original recipe:
Navy Beans, Rice, and Greens
from Vegan Pressure Cooking: Beans, Grains, and One-Pot Meals in Minutes by JL Fields
- 1 cup dried navy beans, soaked for 12 hours or overnight
- 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup diced red onion
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 cup short-grain white rice
- 4 cups loosely packed bite-size pieces kale
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 2 1/2 cups water, or more as needed
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1/2 to 1 teaspoon sea salt
Rinse and drain the beans.
In an uncovered pressure cooker, heat the oil on medium-high. Add the onion and garlic and sauté for 3 minutes, until the onion is soft. Add the beans, rice, kale, bay leaf, thyme, and water to cover.
Cover and bring to pressure. Cook at high pressure for 6 to 8 minutes. Allow for a natural release.
Remove the lid, remove and discard the bay leaf, and stir in the lemon juice and salt.
Yield: 4 servings
Recipe Notes
- If you don’t have time to soak the navy beans, proceed with the dried beans, increase the water by 1/2 cup (120 ml), and cook for 22 minutes total.
- For a leafy green alternative, substitute baby spinach or shredded collard greens for the kale.
