Instant Pot Ad(z)uki Beans
I consulted Adamant Kitchen’s Adzuki bean recipe and Just One Cookbook’s Anko recipe. There doesn’t seem to be as much controversy online about pressure cooking red beans as there is about rice. While some recipes offer pre-soaked and unsoaked advice, I can’t imagine ever getting my beans soaked ahead of time so this recipe is for dry dry beans.
Anko is Japanese red bean paste; directions are included for that highly likely target of my bean cooking.
Makes 6 cups.
Ingredients
- 250 g. dried adzuki beans
- 1 liter water
- 250 g. sugar (for anko)
- dash salt (for anko)
Directions
- Add beans and water to a six-quart instant pot.
- Close lid and close vent.
- Pressure cook on high about 18 minutes for cooked beans, or 25 minutes for anko.
- Release pressure naturally.
- Skim off any foam and check for doneness. If beans are not at the state predicted, cook up to 5 more minutes depending on hardness.
- Drain beans (e.g., with an Instant Pot strainer).
- For anko, add remaining ingredients and return to pot. (Otherwise, you’re done.)
- Saute to incorporate new ingredients.
- Optionally, immersion blend at this point. (You can also blend it later, but wetter is easier.)
- Saute 5 minutes or more to reduce liquid.
- Let cool.
Variants
It’s traditional to strain out the skins, but easier to immersion-blend them out of sight.
There’s also a chunky version of red bean paste, especially useful if you don’t have a strainer.
Sugar to taste.
If you don’t have a kitchen scale or metric measuring cup, see Just One Cookbook for imperial measures.
