Making black-eyed peas in an Instant Pot is extremely easy. In less than an hour, you can be enjoying soft, tender black-eyed peas with bacon without any soaking.
Black Eyed Peas
I learned a lot about eating black-eyes peas working at the Cracker Barrel on New Year’s Day. It’s a mad rush for people to come in just to get some peas on the first day of the year.
There were people waiting for over an hour just to get a table. We even ran out of black-eyes peas at one point and the entire dining room full of people stayed and waited until the peas were ready.
People in the south take their black-eyed peas tradition very seriously. Everyone wants to get their bowl of good luck and not have to worry about preparing it for hours.
Luckily, Instant Pot makes it so fast and easy to prepare beans and peas. There is no soaking required. Simply saute bacon directly in an Instant Pot, add black-eyed peas, broth, water, and seasoning, and cook for 30 minutes.
That’s all it takes to get this delicious side dish.
Soak or no soak
Before you jump on me for not soaking the beans first, I have to tell you that it truly doesn’t make much of a difference when it comes to cooking time and tenderness.
Over years, I’ve gotten lazy a few times or simply forgot to soak beans, or peas, or lentils before cooking them. It have not affected my cooking time.
BUT, when it comes to digestive distress, that’s a different story. Every person’s digestive system is so different that there is no way to tell how you will react to legumes without trying yourself.
If you noticed that soaking beans and peas is better for your digestion, then that is what you should do.
Soaking can either be done overnight or quickly about an hour before cooking.
To soak beans and peas overnight, rinse them, cover them in water and soak for 6-8 hours. (Small beans and peas would take less time.)
To do a quick soak, rinse beans and peas and place them in the pot. Cover with water and bring to boil. Turn off heat, cover with a lid and let the beans sit in water for about an hour.
Use 3 to 1 water to bean ratio. Three cups of water for 1 cup of beans.
Some more delicious Instant Pot sides:
Instant Pot Garlic Mashed Potatoes
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Instant Pot Black Eye Peas
Easy black-eyed peas made in an Instant Pot. No soaking needed to get these delicious, bacon flavored, tender black-eyed peas.
Ingredients
- 16 oz bacon
- 1 lb dry black eyed peas (1 lb bag usually has 2-2 1/4 cups of peas)
- 3 cups water
- 3 cups chicken stock
- salt
- fresh cracked black pepper
Instructions
Rinse peas and set them aside.
Dice raw bacon into small pieces. Make sure your knife is sharp and bacon is cold to make it easier to cut.
Turn Instant Pot to Saute and let it heat up. Add a little bit of oil to the bottom of the pot and add bacon. Saute bacon until browned.
Add peas to the pot and mix.
Add water, chicken stock, some salt, and fresh cracked black pepper. (Don't add too much salt since bacon is salty.)
Stir and close the lid and make sure it's latched. Turn the valve to "seal" and set the Instant Pot to cook on high pressure cook mode for 30 minutes.
Let it do a natural release for 10-15 minutes.
Fluff up peas and serve.
Recipe Notes
All images and text ©Lyubov Brooke for ©Will Cook For Smiles. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If using my posts in collections and features, please link back to this post for the recipe. Disclaimer: Nutrition information shown is not guaranteed to be 100% accurate as most ingredients and brands have a slight variation.
KalynsKitchen
December 14, 2018 at 8:37 pmThanks for the shout-out. I’m a big black-eyed peas fan!
Lisa Entrekin
January 1, 2019 at 4:36 pmThank you for the resources that you provide. I received an Instant Pot for Christmas, and this is the first recipe I tried. The peas were delicious! Now, on to my newbie question. If I’d like the peas a little more firm, do I just set the time for less, say 20 instead of 30 minutes?
Thanks again,
Lisa
lyuba
January 10, 2019 at 3:05 pmHi Lisa!
So glad you liked the peas!
I would say definitely play around with time since you know exactly how firm or soft you like them. Set it to 20 and then give it a try. 🙂
Glenda Voyles
January 8, 2019 at 8:21 pmI’ve always been afraid of pressure cookers, but decided to take the plunge on an Instant Pot this past Black Friday. I JUST tried it for the first time tonight with your Black-Eyed Pea recipe and OH MY GOODNESS are these beans awesome! The recipe was easy, and the beans turned out perfect. Hallelujah! Thank you for the great recipe!!!
lyuba
January 10, 2019 at 3:06 pmWelcome to the club, Glenda!
I took that plunge myself about 6 months ago and I love using it on things that normally would take a long time to cook. Love the texture and how fast it’s done 🙂
I’m SO glad you like the peas!
Jeff
January 12, 2019 at 7:42 pmIf I wanted to cut the recipe in half would the cook time also be cut in half?
lyuba
January 26, 2019 at 12:00 pmHi Jeff!
No, the time shouldn’t be affected since pressure cooker cooks evenly throughout the dish. This is how much time the beans will need to cook completely 🙂
If you like your beans more whole and less soft and mushy, you can turn off the pressure cooker after 20-25 minutes. Size of the bean will affect cook time more than amount.
Robert
February 9, 2019 at 8:14 pmThanks for a excellent recipe, it’s a good base for me. Because, I have a low sodium diet. The changes made by me was no salt, and reduce the liquid by one cup.
lyuba
February 23, 2019 at 11:12 amI’m glad it worked well for you, Robert! I would also recommend finding a brand of bacon that would give you lower sodium as well since bacon tends to be quite salty. I’m glad you liked it!
Alex
February 14, 2019 at 9:42 amYum!
I’m veggie so omitted the bacon and added lots of spices & garlic. It was great! I would say it was a bit too soupy for my taste. I ended up ladling out some of the liquid to use to cook some rice. Would definitely omit one cup of water next time.
lyuba
February 23, 2019 at 11:14 amI’m happy to hear that, Alex! I can definitely understand not wanting too much liquid 🙂
Maida
March 6, 2019 at 6:31 pmI definitely enjoyed this recipe
Beverly
March 8, 2019 at 3:17 pmI’m a Texan who definitely takes my black eyed peas seriously. In addition to bacon, I added 1 1/2 cups of diced ham. My husband and I enjoyed this as a main dish with a fresh green salad and bisquits. Great on a cold evening!
lyuba
March 16, 2019 at 12:08 pmHam and bacon sounds perfect together!!
I’m so glad you liked it. Thank you, Beverly!
Paula
March 13, 2019 at 12:49 pmTwenty minutes worked just fine for peas soaked overnight. Thanks for the recipe:)
lyuba
March 16, 2019 at 11:47 amWonderful to heat that, Paula! Thank you 🙂
Stephanie
March 17, 2019 at 7:01 pmPretty tasty, but the amount of liquid just makes it a soup. I’m not sure how you got the photos you did. Will do again with much less liquid!
lyuba
March 30, 2019 at 10:58 amHi Stephanie!
You can maybe add 1/2 cup less liquid to start. I did have some excess liquid as well but it was just left behind in the pot when I scooped the beans. You can also carefully tilt the pot and strain off some liquid.
Paula Hallman
April 13, 2019 at 4:09 pmJust made these with no changes. Perfect. Great recipe. I used china doll peas.
LyubaB
April 25, 2019 at 10:44 amPaula, I’m so glad you liked it!