genec

Yeah, this is like two separate subjects... but they were momentarily entwined at my house.

First, the good... we were just given an Instant Pot... not something I would have gone out and bought. We have used a slow cooker for decades... worked fine... has made us countless meals. (and yes, now we read of those "crocks" leeching out metals... sigh)

So we have this Instant Pot... and decide to try it on one of my favorite slow cooker things... pinto beans... so we look up some recipes to get an idea of cook times and finally settle on 65 minutes and let the pot cool on it's own. Makes the total cook time something like 5 minutes to heat up, 65 minutes at pressure and 25 minutes to cool, or an amazing hour and a half to pinto beans, vice soaking over night and 5 hours in the slow cooker. Hey... wow, "beans for dinner" decision made just after lunch... nice.

So we did black beans... similar situation from dry beans to cooked in just over an hour and a half.

Made tortilla soup using dried pintos, worked great.

Wife had some pork roast... made a guajillo chili sauce and cooked the pork in it for about 20 minutes or so... tender wonderful pork adobo (yes, I tasted).

So we are convinced that the instant pot is a good idea... and are now looking for other recipes to try, or figure out how to modify our own long saved recipes for the IP. That's the good news.

So, now we come to fava beans.

They look like this, dried. Sort of like dog kibble, almost.

I need to mention we found a somewhat local store that has a great rice and bean area... rices and beans I have never heard of or seen before... so we kinda randomly bought some of this and that and we are now "expanding" our menus.

OK, back to the fava beans... so these things are pretty big actually... interesting. We go off and look up a few recipes, and find fava bean soup... several recipes seem to settle on about 25 minutes in the IP for soup... the seasons vary a bit, but the ratio of beans to liquid and cooking times is about the same. So off we go... fava bean soup. Give it the full 25 min cook time under pressure, then about 20 minutes rest time. The broth is great... seasonings came through, mirepoix worked it's usual charm, diced tomatoes, great... but the beans... ugg.

Eating fava beans was like eating flavorless garbanzo beans wrapped in a grass or hay outer husk. Oh sure, you could eat them, but you had to chew and chew this fibrous outer husk forever. (OK, sure, fiber... I get it) Well, maybe they didn't cook long enough... sure, that's it. So gave it another turn in the IP... another 25 minutes. Nope. Gave it another 25 minutes. Total cooking time 75 minutes at pressure and about 40 minutes total cool down time... still like eating hay covered garbanzos... or old peanuts in the shell, with the shell... and not nearly the flavor.

So I put this out there... anyone ever try fava beans? Dry? How did they work for you? What am I missing?

And the Instant Pot... I think that is clearly a keeper... even easier to clean than the old "Crockpot." And just in case we miss it... it can be used as a slow cooker too.

noisebeam

Sounds good. I've been curious about the IP, but perhaps like you would never buy one.

Pinto and many other types of beans don't really need to be pre-soaked or cooked all day to be tender if they are fresh. By fresh I mean not old.
Up until about 5y ago I also soaked overnight, etc. But I've found with the dry ones I buy I can get as tender a pot of beans from start to finish in 3hr.

Unca_Sam

Interesting notes on Fava beans. Generally I find them to have a smoky, mushroomy flavor to them, with hints of barnyard. They're excellent cooked almost to a paste for pairing with braised or slow roasted pork. Seek Spanish recipes for them. Fresh, Fava beans are quite a delight. They're grown at the same times and places as garden peas (they like cool, wet growing conditions), so they're OOS locally until about April and May.

I haven't cooked dried fava beans in a while because of the hulls. That's the tough fibrous skin on the outside of the bean that you described. The French will peel these off of every bean after the initial soak. They'll slip right off, but it's still tedious.

I've had an instant pot for a while, and I'm pleased that it lives up to the hype. I started cooking more dried beans with a stovetop pressure cooker years ago, and the instant pot was a welcome improvement for timing and temperature consistency. While most sources will tell you that you don't need to soak dry beans for the instant pot, I still do and adjust the cook time way down. AFAIK, the soaking not only softens the beans for cooking, but also leaches some of the oligosaccharides that tend to cause gas.

genec

Been buying them in 20 lb bags for years, same with brown rice... part of the "earthquake kit..." so yes, they are dried and old... but still cook up great. More on Fava beans below.

genec

OK... here's the thing. I did quick searches on the 'net... did not bother doing a "deep dive" on these Favas. Big mistake.

Yes, they come fresh, in long green pods and must be "liberated" from those.

But that wasn't what we bought, we bought dried beans... apparently still in the "shell." "SHELL" you say... hey, wait a minute...

Yes, apparently Fava beans are available fresh, or dried in the shell, or dried husked. These are important characteristics.

We had the dried beans still in the shell. oops. (man, talk about fiber...)

There are ways to remove that husk... https://toriavey.com/how-to/fava-bea...k-peel-freeze/

We will try this soup recipe again... with husked beans.

genec

Yeah, I have heard about the advantages of soaking... The biggest disadvantage is having to plan that meal ahead. Not that it is such a terrible task mind you... some weeks we plan menus out for the whole week and what and when to use the left overs. Other times, we simply go to the pantry and think... "what do we got here."

The IP will allow for that spontaneous choice... and it allows for some experimenting too. When my wife made that pork adobo... I took the remaining stock, added a bit more water to it, and made some great guajillo pinto beans. Our total cook time that afternoon was close to two hours... but that evening she had her great pork adobo, I had great beans, we laughed at long cooking times.

noisebeam

We get our beans in different varieties in 5lb bags from local farmer. They definitely don't need soaking. I've read about leeching out gassy stuff but beans have never made me (or my family) gassy.

Found this about no soak beans. They also note the beans need to be fresh (less than year old)
https://www.nola.com/entertainment_l...2e9d258c1.html

My attempt here is not be contrary, but to suggest that if one hasn't planned ahead then dry beans can still be on the menu even without pressure cooker or IP. This has been liberating for me.(as would be the IP)

Another trick I've developed which even helps old beans is to super heat them in a bit of oil before adding hot water. I've done this and had tender ones in 2hr after getting back from all day hiking trip, but they do split more.

Hondo Gravel

Beans, beans the musical fruit the more you eat the more you toot. The more you toot the better you feel. So we have beans with every meal.

This bean thread has me craving some beans and putting something on the smoker with some cold beers . Tortilla soup is great.

skijor

65 min for dried legumes in an IP?
I have an IP clone that does dried legumes in half that time. Yes, that's for unsoaked. Just a rinse and in they go with water, spices, and maybe some broth. And I consult the IP times for stuff regularly. Maybe it's different for the fava beans you described. I've done the typical dried legumes (black, pinto, great northern, etc).
I do this as a precursor to larger batches of soup and chili with a crap-ton of veges. And yes, chili has beans in it. #flameon

skijor

I was looking into a rice cooker for both rice and dried beans. There's a grey line between the more sophisticated rice cookers and the multi-cookers like IP. I opted for a multi-cooker (an Ultrapot) that does yogurt, canning, and several other one-button type functions. They're pretty darn cheap.
Start to finish time for my Ultrapot is an hour for two cups of dried beans. Half hour for cooking, another half hour-ish for depressurizing.

genec

Depends on the bean and what you are looking for in final texture... in the case of my pintos, I want them very soft, with a thick rich broth... almost a refried bean, more like a thick soup. If I were just going for cooked beans, 65 minutes would be too much.

The mistake with the Fava beans mentioned in the OP was not in removing the husks, which I did not realize were there... I am betting 22 minutes or so would yield that soup just fine with shelled Fava beans. It was a real D'OH moment. The wife and I just spent about 20 minutes or so fishing out these fava beans from the soup... (one by one, with a fork) and popping them out of their now very loose shells... (they almost spit out) and then putting them back in the broth. It was a very enlightening session.

So I am here to tell anyone that has followed this thread thus far... there are different types of fava beans... fresh, dried and shelled, dried with shell still on... the latter need to be shelled first. (I will be pooping "sticks" later, from all the husks I ate.)

noisebeam

Speaking of extra fibre. I had a friend visit from the northeast. We had tamales. He picked one up and bit into the whole unwrapped thing and was chewing away vigorously before we noticed what had happened.

genec

I can totally imagine.

work4bike

I've never tried Fava beans, but I plant them every year during the fall season as a cover crop; they have a mean tap root to loosen up soil and get carbon way down deep in the soil. And of course they fix N2 into the soil. I've never bought the seeds at a nursery, rather I go to a local health food store and buy them in bulk.

Hondo Gravel

President Ford did that in San Antonio back in the 70s.

genec

Here is an illustration of the various states of Fava beans... fresh, dried in the husk and dried and shelled...



From this site: https://toriavey.com/how-to/fava-bea...k-peel-freeze/

jack pot 

...another fava bean serving suggestion ................................................................. for which I couldn't help but share

canklecat

I'm considering an instant pot. Sometimes the slow cooker is too slow. I'd like to see if an instant pot would do as well with tenderizing cheaper, tougher but tasty cuts of beef.

Unca_Sam

It does well at this, when there is sufficient collagen to hydrolyze. You get delicious jus, and a fork tender roast in about an hour and a half.

noisebeam

It will do it very well, much better than a slow cooker.. The instant pot is just a fancy pressure cooker. Best to sear some of that meat for better flavor and you can do that in the IP too!

J.Higgins 

We've had an instant pot for several years now. Its one of the few countertop appliances that I actually like to use. My wife makes a mean hummus using it to cook the garbanzos. I like to use it to make pot roast and sometimes pork roast. Fattier, cheaper cuts seems to come out better than leaner meats.

skijor

IP Hummus recipe please The store-bought hummus is ok, but on the bland side. I'm gonna have to locally-ish source non-GMO dried chickpeas.

J.Higgins 

My wife says the hummus recipe is the one taken directly from the IP cookbook, and the chickpeas are Palouse-brand found on Amazon. As a side note, I must say that those chick-peas are fantastic quality.

skijor

Thanks. I'll look up the IP recipe. (I have a Mueller Ultrapot...super similar to IP)

RubeRad

I got one, simplified from one you can find online by Ottolenghi. I've got it jotted down at home and will try to remember to come back to night and share it.