Adzuki beans are a staple of Asian cooking and a tasty filling for steamed buns and pastries. Cooking adzuki beans in the instant pot saves a lot of prep time, and allows you to focus on the rest of the dish.
My husband just loves Asian dumplings in any form. Homemade from scratch Japanese Gyoza happen in our house at least once or twice a month, and traditional Mongolian buzz dumplings are always a big hit. Recently we’ve started experimenting with steamed buns as well, and there’s no end to fun fillings for those.
I’m particularly fond of char sui pork, but my husband loves sweet red bean paste. The first step in making sweet red bean paste for dumplings is, of course, cooking the adzuki beans.
Adzuki beans are versatile, and they are as at home in a soup or chili as they are mashed and sweetened for red bean paste. They have a relatively mild flavor, along with a beautiful deep red color that livens up foods.
Beyond there versatility, there’s some rumor that they’re easier on the stomach than other beans. We have a friend that insists she has a bean allergy, but the only beans she can eat are adzuki beans. She puts them in everything and substitutes them for pinto and black beans readily. I can’t say from personal experience whether or not they’re easier on the stomach, since my family loves all manner of beans and never has any issues with them.
Either way, when we told her that we cook our adzuki beans in the instant pot, along with just about every other manner or bean, she wanted to learn about this new gadget. If you soak them first, the cook time goes down dramatically.
Personally, I never remember in time to soak the beans. We make no soak instant pot adzuki beans when we forget to cook them the day before, and they’re ready just in time for stuffing into a batch of steamed buns.
Instant Pot Adzuki Beans
Cooking adzuki beans in the instant pot preps them for other recipes quickly.
Ingredients
- 1 pound Adzuki beans (about 2 cups)
- 4 cups water
Instructions
- Place adzuki beans in the instant pot and add water. (beans can be soaked or un-soaked, see note)
- Seal the pressure cooker lid and set the vent to sealed.
- Select high pressure and set the timer. See recipe notes for times.
- When the instant pot has finished cooking, allow the pressure cooker to naturally depressurize for at least 10 minutes before releasing the remaining pressure and opening.
Notes
For un-soaked beans:
- Cook 25 minutes at high pressure for very soft adzuki beans for red bean paste
- Cook 16 to 20 minutes for firm beans for chili, soups, salads and stew.
For beans soaked 6 to 8 hours before cooking:
- Cook 10 minutes for very soft adzuki beans for red bean paste
- Cook 4 to 6 minutes for firm beans for chili, soups, salads and stew.
More Instant Pot Adzuki Bean Recipes
Stacey
Great information. Thank you!
Ellen
Thank you! I did not know how long to cook the beans in the pressure cooker until I read this.
Admin
No problem! I’m glad you liked it!
Marty
My beans were soaked and after 6 minutes and 10 minutes before qpr they were still very hard. I redid them, unfortunately too long for 18 minutes. Just don’t see how 6 minutes can possibly be enough.
Catherine
You must not have soaked them long enough. And natural release for only 10 minutes then quick release. If you wait any longer, the beans will get mushy!
Deb
Thanks for the recipe. I think I have the Same issue as your friend. I can only adzuki beans and chickpeas. If I eat black beans, kidney beans, navy or any white beans I get painful esophageal spasms. The first time I had it I though I was having a heart attack. So scary.
Admin
Interesting, Deb. Thanks for sharing. I’m glad adzuki beans don’t give you a hard time.
Dolly
Super helpful, thank you! I did exactly as suggested – 1 lb dried adzuki with 4c water at high pressure for 20 min (my beans are older so I went with the longer end of the cooking time) and they turned our great.
Philip Brett
Thanks for the information on cooking Adzuki beans.
The spasms may be due to the oxalate content of beans. Those that you have mentioned are higher than others in oxalates. Also, you must be fairly sensitive to them as well. I must be careful with my oxalate intake, so that is why I am looking into using adzuki beans along with a few other beans that are fairly low in them.
Mel
For those who the cooking times didn’t work, did you add salt? Salt will sometimes prevent beans from getting soft. I’m not sure why, but it happens.