I love my pressure cooker. Instead of hours to cook beans it take just a few minutes. But as much as I love the convenience I have a big complaint about the taste. Toooooo bland!

According to the “experts” you are NOT supposed to add salt of herbs to the pot when you pressure cook beans. This means that you end up cooking them in plan old water with a little oil to keep the foam down. When they come out they taste like very plain, very boring beans; no real flavor. I have added garlic, garlic powder, onions and onion powder to the water. That helped a little – but really only a little.

One day, standing in the kitchen washing out at my nut milk bag, I got an idea. What if I filled the muslin bag with my herbs and other things and added it to the beans and water. ?

Of course I had to try it! Black beans where the first test case. They turned out wonderfully! Then I tried it with others: red beans, white beans, black eyed peas and lima beans.  They were all really good!

The next step was to experiment with different herb, spice and vegetable combinations. After some trial and error I arrived at a good general purpose mix.

Pressure Cooker Beans with Flavor

1. 2 cups of beans overnight
2. Rinse well and put into the pressure cooker
3. Add one teaspoon of vegetable oil (I use olive oil)
4. In a 5×8 muslin bag add:
   • 1/2 cup fresh herbs: I use a combination of  oregano, thyme and marjoram
   • 1 whole dried chipotle chili; I use a smallish one
   • 1 cup mirepoix
     • or 1/2 cup chopped onion,
     • 1/4 cup chopped celery
     • 1/4 cup chopped carrot
     • garlic to taste
5. Put the bag in with the beans and cover the contents with water
6. For more flavor you may want to add:
   • 2 Tablespoons dried onions
   • 1 Tablespoon dried garlic powder
7. Cook for the amount of time recommended for the specific type of bean you are using
8. Let the beans cool and when you open the top add salt to taste
9. Take out the bag; you then can:
   • and toss the contents
   • Pull out the herb stems, the chipolte and any other items you do not want and add the rest of the contents back into the beans

I promise these are the tastiest pressure cooker beans you have ever tasted!

Other variations include adding epazote and red chili pepper to black beans, rosemary and sun- dried tomatoes to white beans and green pepper and dried red chili pepper to black eyed peas. I have been playing with cilantro, sage and various peppers. So far, so good.

Any experiences or idea? Send them to me. I would love to hear from you.