Instant Pot Habichuelas Guisadas
The perfect habichuelas guisadas, flavored with garlic, onion, and adobo seasoning, and cooked in the Instant Pot. These stewed beans are easy to meal prep and can be enjoyed as a lunch or dinner meal.
Traditionally in the Dominican household you won’t see an instant pot. In fact, for as long as I can remember, my mom has always made her beans from scratch. She’d soak, boil and then flavor her beans to perfection. There was never any measuring and when she went all out with her beans she would be crushing herbs and garlic together in her mortar and pestle to make the most lush beans.
I love my mom’s beans. And I love watching her make them. However, to help save a tiny bit of time, I typically make mine in the instant pot. These instant pot habichuelas guisadas are still delicious, but require less babysitting over the stove.
What are Habichuelas?
Did you know that Dominican Habichuelas Guisadas is part of the “Dominican Flag”? If you’re Dominican, then you know! If you aren’t, it’s okay. Welcome to the table! Habichuelas Guisadas are stewed beans, and typically utilize dried red beans, pinto beans or cranberry beans. And when I mean the “Dominican Flag” I don’t mean the actual flag, this is another name for the typical lunch of the Dominican Republic. It’s literally in our culture to eat beans.
The thing that makes these stewed beans so special is the simple fact that each Dominican household has their own way of making them. We all have our own tastes and styles, so yes…every single Tia I visit has their own unique flavor too. But I grew up with my mom’s beans and I’ll be bias and say that they are my favorite. One thing that I particularly love about her beans is that they have some diced potatoes in them and they are just so good! So I’ll be sharing a variation I came up with that reflects what I’ve learned from my mom and what I currently enjoy.
Key Ingredients
- Beans: I used red beans for this recipe, but feel free to use pinto beans if that is what you have on hand.
- Potatoes: I love adding potatoes to mine, but you can also use kabocha squash if you have it available to you.
- Adobo & Sazon: My favorite spices and a major flavoring component. You can find both in the international aisle of your grocery store in the US or purchase online.
- Herbs: My favorite style beans always include at least one herb. This stew has 2, one being dry thyme and the other being fresh cilantro.
- Garlic: This recipe should not skimp on the garlic as it provides a lot of body to the recipe.
- Tomato Paste: A little goes a long way to help develop the flavor of the sauce around the beans.
How to Make Instant Pot Habichuelas Guisadas
Make sure to rinse your beans well then soak your beans in water over night. Place your beans into the instant pot insert along with your diced potatoes and enough water to cover the beans then add your bay leaves and thyme to the pot. Seal your pressure cooker and allow your beans to cook until softened.
In the mean time, sauté your onions, garlic and tomato paste with some oil. When ready, add your mixture along with the remaining ingredients to the beans. Simmer your beans for a few more minutes using the “Sauté” button on the Instant Pot. Once the beans have thickened, adjust salt and pepper to your taste and serve as desired.
Tips for the Perfect Beans
- Soak your beans! This recipe was made for soaked beans. If you don’t soak your beans, please note that you will need to pressure cook your beans longer to help soften them appropriately. Personally, I find this recipe has the best velvety texture when they are soaked.
- Feel free to adjust flavors to your preference. You can add more garlic, add additional spice like hot sauce to the pot, or even leave out the potatoes all together.
- For a bump in flavor, I love to add a little sofrito to my beans. Sofrito is a blend of herbs, garlic and spices. You can make your own or buy it (just make sure the ingredients are vegan). Usually, I will fry it up along with the onions before adding to the boiled beans.
- Adjust the consistency of your beans by mashing your beans. Your beans should be saucy. They shouldn’t be super thick, but they also shouldn’t be watery either. To help get the right consistency you can always lightly mash some of the beans to help thicken the sauce slightly to your desired consistency.
Frequently Asked Questions
Most often when these beans are made they are always served with rice. Growing up, we would also have them with sliced avocado, and tostones (fried plantains). Luckily, all these components are naturally vegan.
Dominicans stew a lot of things. If you are using things like black beans, chickpeas, or lentils it just goes by a different name, but a lot of them are similar in preparation and still really unique and delicious.
Beans provide protein and lots of fiber. Combining rice and beans together actually makes it the perfect balance of nutrients that is appropriate for fueling the body. You can also obtain quite a number of other vitamins and minerals as well like iron and folate.
Storing Your Habichuelas Guisadas
This makes a large batch of beans. I’ll keep half for eating throughout the week and then freeze the remaining half to enjoy the following week or as desired. Pour your habichuelas into smaller Tupperware containers and allow to cool before covering with a lid and placing it in the freezer. In the fridge, your beans should last for up to 4-5 days.
More Bean Recipes
Instant Pot Habichuelas Guisadas
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Soak Time: 8 hours
- Cook Time: 50 minutes
- Total Time: 8 hours 55 minutes
- Yield: 12 servings 1x
- Category: Main Dish
- Method: Instant Pot
- Cuisine: Dominican
- Diet: Vegan
Description
The perfect habichuelas guisadas, flavored with garlic, onion, and adobo seasoning, and cooked in the Instant Pot. These stewed beans are easy to meal prep and can be enjoyed as a lunch or dinner meal.
Ingredients
- 1 lb dry red beans, pinto beans or cranberry beans
- Water
- 2 small yukon gold potatoes, diced
- 1 tsp dry thyme
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 small yellow onion, quartered
- 5 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 vegetable bouillon cube or 1 tsp better than bouillon paste
- 1/4 cup cilantro with stems
- 1/2 tsp adobo seasoning
- 2 tsp sazon seasoning
- 1 tbsp hot sauce
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Add the beans to your instant pot insert and pour in enough fresh water to cover the beans by 2 inches. Allow to soak for at least 8 hours or overnight.
- Rinse and drain beans and then add fresh water back into the chamber, enough to cover the beans by 1 inch. Place the insert back into the pressure cooker chamber along with potatoes, thyme, and bay leaf and set to manual pressure, cook for 25 minutes and release pressure naturally.
- While pressure releases, sauté onions in a separate pan with a little oil until onions are translucent.
- Add in garlic and sauté until fragrant, then stir in tomato paste and sauté for about 2 minutes.
- Remove the instant pot lid and discard the bay leaf and 1 cup of the cooking liquid.
- Add in sautéed onion mixture along with cilantro, vegetable bouillon, adobo and sazon.
- Hit the sauté button on the instant pot and allow mixture to come to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes. Stir on occasion until the stew has thickened. If appearing watery, you can help the stew thicken more by lightly mashing the beans.
- Stir in hot sauce and adjust salt and pepper to taste and serve.
Notes
Soak your beans! This recipe was made for soaked beans. If you don’t soak your beans, please note that you will need to pressure cook your beans longer to help soften them appropriately.
Feel free to adjust flavors and some accessory ingredients to your preference. You can add more garlic, add additional spice like hot sauce to the pot, or even leave out the potatoes all together.
For a bump in flavor, I love to add a little sofrito to my beans. Sofrito is a blend of herbs, garlic and spices. You can make your own or buy it (just make sure the ingredients are vegan). Usually, I will fry it up along with the onions before adding to the boiled beans.
Your beans should be saucy. They shouldn’t be super thick, but they also shouldn’t be watery either. To help get the right consistency you can always lightly mash some of the beans to help thicken the sauce slightly to your desired consistency.
Did You Try This Recipe?
Then let me know what you thought in the comments below! Share your creations by tagging me on Instagram with the hashtag #plantbasedrdeats
★ Catherine
This looks sooooo good, but I don’t have an instant pot or pressure cooker. How do I alter the recipe to make on the stovetop. Also, looking to use canned beans. Help, I really want to make this recipe. Thanks in advance.
Thank you so much Jenna! You will want to follow the recipe pretty closely except you will be cooking the beans on the stove top. Just add the beans with fresh water to about 2-3 inches above the beans along with the specified instant pot ingredients and let that come to a boil and reduce to a rolling simmer for about 1 1/2 hours or until the beans are softened (this can differ based on how old the beans are, but with soaking I find it only takes me an hour and 15-30 minutes to cook them through). Saute the onions as specified and then add them along with the remaining ingredients to the pot of beans and feel free to lightly mash some of the beans if you want the beans to be a little thicker. 🙂