So, How’ve You Bean?
I have had an Instant pot for a little over a year now. And, while I love it, I really hadn’t been using it more than one or two times a month. (I have friends who say they use theirs constantly. But, I always wondered what they were making because I always seemed to be making the same recipes over and over, mainly pulled pork or some sort of stew.) During the summer months, I didn’t use it at all figuring it was just as fast to grill and the whole point of the Instant Pot is to make stuff faster.

Lately, I have been leaving my Instant Pot out on my counter because I feel like I am using it every other night. Probably because I AM using it every other night…

My daughter gave me a couple of Instant Pot cookbooks for Christmas and I have been having a great time going through them and making all of the recipes that appeal to me. It is a testament to the power of a good cookbook because I have a number of Instant Pot cookbooks and none of them have lit a fire under me like these two. They have even inspired me to do my own experimenting. You can find them here is you are interested:

• The Essential Instant Pot Cookbook: Fresh and Foolproof Recipes for Your Electric Pressure Cooker
• The “I Love My Instant Pot” Affordable Meals Recipe Book

Most of my experiments have involved dried beans. I love cooking with dried beans but I really haven’t done much in the past because the old fashioned way is kind of a pain. First, you have to soak ‘em overnight then you have to cook them for long periods of time. That’s time I don’t always have and can be a roadblock when you’re craving a good bean soup for dinner. But, by playing around with new recipes, I have figured out how to make my own bean-filled creations happen in the span of an hour. Until recently, I was a bit intimidated by cooking beans in a pot because I didn’t have a recipe with beans intriguing enough to try it. I found one for a barley side dish with mushrooms that was great and that was all it took to get me going crazy with beans.

For example, I had a bag of the Zürsun Paris Bistro Beans that we sell here in the store in my pantry and I had been wanting to use them for a while. So, I got a ham shank from our Meat Department and threw it in the Instant pot with the dried beans, some sautéed onions, diced carrots, and fresh thyme along with a few cups of chicken stock. After about 30 minutes of cooking using the Multigrain setting, I had a very hearty hot bean soup that was fantastic. The meat on the shank fell off the bone and added some protein to the mix as well as great flavor. Served with some crusty French bread, it was exactly what I wanted for dinner on a chilly night.

I didn’t really follow a recipe but if you are interested in trying it out here’s the rough idea of what I did…

Amy’s Hearty Bean Soup
Yields 6 Servings

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 24-ounce bag Zursun Paris Bistro Bean mix, or whatever strikes your fancy
1 yellow onion, diced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme
2 cups chicken stock
1 cup water
Splash of white wine, optional
1 meaty ham shank

Directions
Cook the veggies
Set your Instant Pot to Sauté and add the olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the onion and sauté until onions have softened (about 3 minutes). Add the carrots and fresh thyme and sauté for another two minutes.

Deglaze the pan
Add the stock and the wine, if using, to deglaze the pot and give it a stir scraping up and brown bits.

Add the beans, ham shank and water to the pot and stir to combine.

Pressure cook the soup
Secure the lid and set the Pressure Release to Sealing. Press the Cancel button to reset the cooking program, then select the Multigrain setting and set the cooking time for 30 minutes at high pressure.

When cooking is done, let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes, then open the Pressure Release to Venting.

Open the pot and serve hot with crusty bread.