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 says
Thanks for the shout-out. I’m a big black-eyed peas fan!
Dolores says
How long Would you cook 2 pounds of black Eye peas in your instinct pot
Lisa Entrekin says
Thank 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 says
Hi 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 says
I’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 says
Welcome 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 says
If I wanted to cut the recipe in half would the cook time also be cut in half?
lyuba says
Hi 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 says
Thanks 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 says
I’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 says
Yum!
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 says
I’m happy to hear that, Alex! I can definitely understand not wanting too much liquid 🙂
Andrea says
I will add, I made a different bean dish that came out a little too liquidy, and I left the pot on “warm” for 2 hours, with the lid of & it evaporated and made the dish nice and thick for leftovers. (For the instant meal, I drained it off my bowl
Jacky Mallett says
I ended up with TONS of liquid. What have I done wrong??
Maida says
I definitely enjoyed this recipe
Beverly says
I’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 says
Ham and bacon sounds perfect together!!
I’m so glad you liked it. Thank you, Beverly!
Paula says
Twenty minutes worked just fine for peas soaked overnight. Thanks for the recipe:)
lyuba says
Wonderful to heat that, Paula! Thank you 🙂
Stephanie says
Pretty 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 says
Hi 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 says
Just made these with no changes. Perfect. Great recipe. I used china doll peas.
LyubaB says
Paula, I’m so glad you liked it!
Sierra says
Hello, I followed the recipe by adding 3 cups water plus 3 cups chicken stock to 1 lb beans. But the water didn’t absorb in the beans. It’s like bean soup. Is that right? Am I just supposed to pour the liquid out now? I’ve never made black eyed peas before…
LyubaB says
Sierra, since it’s made in the instant pot all the water won’t absorb I prefer to drain it off then risk it burning.
Sheri says
I like black eyed peas and I followed your recipe exactly but when I opened the lid on my instant pot all I had a mushy, soupy mess. I think from now on I’ll just buy canned. My family thought they were horrible and I had to throw them out. It was a total waste of time and money.
Rachel says
I made this tonight and it was superb! Instead of chicken broth, I used a homemade vegetable broth also made in my instant pot using the pulp left over from my juicer! I was a little nervous that it wouldn’t turn out, but tonight we had a little taste of heaven. 🙂 Thank you for this recipe. It is a little soupy, but I loved it this way. one solution to it being too soupy is to blend half of it to make a creamy texture and mix it all together. The creamy beans will hopefully soak up some of the liquid.
LyubaB says
Hi Rachel, Thanks for the kind comment. I am so glad you liked it! 🙂
Becky says
Tried this recipe tonight. Turned out fabulous. I subbed 1 teaspoon of bacon grease, 1 tablespoon of canola oil and two onions diced instead of bacon. Delish!
LyubaB says
Hi, Becky! So glad you liked it!
Kay Holloway says
I’m cooking for group of 12 for Thanksgiving. Can I add another cup of peas and maybe they won’t be too soupy and have enough peas to serve?
LyubaB says
Hi, Kay! Yes, you can add another cup if you like it thicker, you may need to add more liquid though.
Marynette Herndon says
2 lbs of peas (little over 5 cups) 13 cups liquid. Salt pork,an onion 40 minutia cook time and 15 minutes natural release, (couldn’t wait any longer to see what I had) Peas were perfect. Just enough liquid that was slightly thick after cooling and pretty tasty. This is the first thing I’ve cooked (I bought extra peas just in case the instapot didn’t work). I am sold and our new year’s dinner for 12 will be a blast. Thanks for a great recipe and everyones comments for inspiration.
Zingarelli, KATE says
My peas turned out perfect! I only have one negative – the bacon frying in the IP is a waste of time. It took so long that I finally just put the bacon into a skillet. I think just frying the bacon that way to begin with is much quicker and you get to your delicious peas much quicker!
Cassandra R Deans says
Made this for our New Year’s Day 2020 meal! Served over brown rice really good. My husband and I enjoyed! I did kick my bowl up a notch by added stewed tomatoes and okra along with Ro Tel diced tomatoes with green chilies. It will definitely be the way to cook black eyed peas in the future and keep the New Year’s tradition going.