Instant Pot Ham and Beans

This is our easy Instant Pot ham and beans recipe you can make in a Ninja Foodi too. It’s a healthy meal, great with leftover ham, celery, onions and carrots to tender. No soaking required to cook Great Northern beans this way!

I wanted to use our leftover ham from smoking it the other night and thought I’d attempt to cook some pressure cooker ham and beans! Using dry Northern beans and a few other simple ingredients it came out great. Just another easy Instant Pot recipes.

You could use any brand you might have at home to make this. I have them all and Crockpot Express, Mealthy and the Ninja Foodi recipes all basically work the same for pressure cooking except with the latter you need to use the lid that is not attached.

Typically I will think of this dish when I have quite a bit of leftover ham to use up. I hate wasting food so I like to have options. You can transform it into something totally different, healthy, using dried beans from scratch. My kids even love this one.

Ingredient Notes

You could use different varieties of dry beans to make this if you preferred but we like the texture of these the best. Like if you wanted to make Pressure Cooker Pinto Beans soup you could use that variety, most legumes cook for the same amount of time so the recipe below would still work well.

Almost always we will use leftover ham after cooking a Ninja Foodi ham or Instant Pot ham for the holidays. You could use a smoked ham hock and add in with the beans

As for the vegetables you would want to use those that hold up to a longer cook time. I like to peel carrots and cut into dials. You could alternatively just use a handful of bagged baby carrots. Celery is an easy one to add texture and flavor to the broth too. And white and yellow onions are just a given when I cook, no matter what I make.

As for the necessary liquid I prefer chicken broth or stock. Water won’t offer much flavor. If you wanted to tame down the sodium you can buy low sodium or use half broth half water.

Of course you can tweak the seasonings but I really like them subtle so you can taste the meat. We make tons of things with it after the holidays like this and our Crockpot ham and potato soup too.

Bay leaves are optional. If you use them just remember they’ll need to be removed at the end of course. Just one of the Instant Pot bean recipes we have shared with you this season.

If you’ve never made a pressure cooker bean soup from scratch it is really quite simple. You can even cook things like Instant Pot black beans from dry that are great inside burritos or taco bowls.

How Long to Cook Ham and Beans in Instant Pot

The chart will help you above. Most take about 30 minutes to cook beans in an Instant Pot so they’re tender. If you like your beans on the softer side though, then aim for a 40 minute cook time. Add additional minutes for super soft.

I share Instant Pot cooking times for beans here so you can see how long other dry beans take too. Really it is no time at all using an Instant Pot, Crock Pot Express or Ninja Foodi! All are in high pressure with a natural release until all the steam is gone.

I gauged the time off the white kidney bean timing for this dish. I made a video of how I make it below which you should watch before beginning.

What is the ratio of beans to water in a pressure cooker?

You are going to want to add 3 times the amount of broth or water to the dry beans after you rinse them. They will absorb a lot of it so more is better. You never want to add more than the fill line in that pot though no matter what you are cooking in it. We added 6 cups to the bag which is just about right.

How can I thicken ham and beans?

You have two main options. You can whisk some broth with cornstarch to make a slurry and pour that in. For a creamier option, pour in a bit of heavy cream instead. Brief step by step directions are below. There is also a printable recipe card at the bottom of this post too.

In case you don’t have an Instant Pot we have instructions for slow cooker ham and beans here as well.

Other bean recipes you’ll love

Once you are familiar with cooking with dry beans you should try these other Instant Pot soup recipes. Most can be made in 15 minutes or less. This one is longer if you choose to make from scratch.

There are really two steps to making something like this or our Black eyed peas and ham in your electric pressure cooker. You first have to get the legumes tender, then release steam, drain, and add ingredients for just the soup in there.

• Pressure cooker chili with dry beans uses a 13 bean mix and is great with baked potatoes
• Instant Pot split pea soup takes just 17 minutes and is great with a ham bone
  • Crockpot baked beans are way easier than you might think to make
• Pinto bean soup is similar to this with a few variations.

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