Tips on cooking lentils and beans with a pressure cooker

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Tips on cooking lentils and beans with a pressure cooker

Postby jin » Tue Oct 04, 2016 7:26 pm

I'm trying to cook lentils and beans without using oil but it's been difficult because of the foaming. The lentil always get caught on the valve. I have a instant pressure cooker, it cooks everything just fine. The alternative is to get a slow cooker but I prefer the speed of the pressure cooker :(!. Help! :crybaby: :crybaby:

Also any advice on seasoning lentils and beans? I'm trying to avoid SOS (salt oil and sguar). =) Thanks!
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Re: Tips on cooking lentils and beans with a pressure cooker

Postby Partly Cloudy » Wed Oct 05, 2016 7:43 am

Hello and welcome,

I've been pressure-cooking beans and whole grains for a number of years and just love it.

But when I cook lentils I always had much better results using a regular pot on the stovetop. You may want consider to trying that instead.

I find I can better control the doneness and texture and think it's worth the 15-20 minutes it takes to cook lentils this way. (It's really not that much more time than in my pressure cooker, when I take into account the time it takes to bring up the pressure and do a natural release at the end of cooking).

I cook all kinds of lentils constantly (brown, red, black, French, yellow) and find this works best for me.

Not the answer you were maybe looking for, but I hope it helps a little anyway!
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Re: Tips on cooking lentils and beans with a pressure cooker

Postby roundcoconut » Wed Oct 05, 2016 9:08 am

Hmmm, I"m not sure why you're having the issues you're having. I cook lentils and beans all the time!

Mostly, I think you've gotta get the attitude that you're going to figure out a way, and make things happen. Maybe that means, you're going to get into an easy habit of putting a couple of kitchen towels down before you cook your beans or lentils. Because foam isn't deadly, right? It's just messy!

Or, maybe you're going to experiment with only filling the pressure cooker half as full as you're currently filling it?

Or, maybe you're going to use the natural release, if it is the case that you are spewing foam after the cooking is already done?

Any which way, it seems to me that people who are hell-bent on working it out, will work it out. And so I'd encourage you to become one of these people, who is hell-bent.

Side note, but I live at elevation (7,000 ft), and use my Instant-Pot endlessly without oil and without foaming, so I DO think it is possible for you too!
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Re: Tips on cooking lentils and beans with a pressure cooker

Postby roundcoconut » Wed Oct 05, 2016 9:19 am

Re seasoning lentils and beans:

1. chili powder (by which I mean the seasoning blend for chili the stew, rather than "chili powder" meaning straight cayenne or whatever), and/or
2. cumin, or
3. italian seasoning (good with lentils, not beans)

Generally, food tastes good to people who are hungry, with only minimal seasoning. And if you're finding that your beans and lentils DON'T taste good without oil or salt, then you probably aren't hungry. Don't eat for an hour. Drink some water. Repeat.

Generally, people who require their food to be highly stimulating and hyper palatable, seem to stay stuck in the pleasure trap -- always passively overconsuming. For some people, it is enough to have a vegan diet that helps animals, but does not help their own health, and so they are content to stay in the pleasure trap.

Whether that's enough for you, is really up to you. But I think there is wonderful health gains available to people (no matter what their scale weight) who genuinely want to get out of the unnatural world of SOS-laden food. So if you're game, please give your body ample time to adjust to your new choices.

I DO eat SOS-free, and do not regret it, and would not go back. So perhaps you will have the same results???
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Re: Tips on cooking lentils and beans with a pressure cooker

Postby rice22 » Wed Apr 12, 2017 8:38 am

roundcoconut wrote:Re seasoning lentils and beans:

1. chili powder (by which I mean the seasoning blend for chili the stew, rather than "chili powder" meaning straight cayenne or whatever), and/or
2. cumin, or
3. italian seasoning (good with lentils, not beans)

Generally, food tastes good to people who are hungry, with only minimal seasoning. And if you're finding that your beans and lentils DON'T taste good without oil or salt, then you probably aren't hungry. Don't eat for an hour. Drink some water. Repeat.

Generally, people who require their food to be highly stimulating and hyper palatable, seem to stay stuck in the pleasure trap -- always passively overconsuming. For some people, it is enough to have a vegan diet that helps animals, but does not help their own health, and so they are content to stay in the pleasure trap.

Whether that's enough for you, is really up to you. But I think there is wonderful health gains available to people (no matter what their scale weight) who genuinely want to get out of the unnatural world of SOS-laden food. So if you're game, please give your body ample time to adjust to your new choices.

I DO eat SOS-free, and do not regret it, and would not go back. So perhaps you will have the same results???


Like they say nothing seasons like hunger. :)
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Re: Tips on cooking lentils and beans with a pressure cooker

Postby rice22 » Wed Apr 12, 2017 9:10 am

jin wrote:I'm trying to cook lentils and beans without using oil but it's been difficult because of the foaming. The lentil always get caught on the valve. I have a instant pressure cooker, it cooks everything just fine. The alternative is to get a slow cooker but I prefer the speed of the pressure cooker :(!. Help! :crybaby: :crybaby:

Also any advice on seasoning lentils and beans? I'm trying to avoid SOS (salt oil and sguar). =) Thanks!


Do you have a stove top? They cook under 30 min in a regular pot with boiling water even without soaking first.

Here is a Middle Eastern dish without the meat. Cook your lentils. Boil rice. When you get to the steam the rice part, put in a layer or two of lentils. Add cinnamon and raisins or dates to give it some sweetness. I don't care for them but turmeric and saffron go with it! edited: I forgot the onions!
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Re: Tips on cooking lentils and beans with a pressure cooker

Postby Bougainvillea » Wed Aug 30, 2017 5:32 pm

I know this is an old thread, but in case anyone doesn't know this - if you have hard water, you lentils may not soften. I found this out the hard way - so to speak. If you aren't sure if your water is hard, which means it has a lot of minerals in it, apparently, water that is hard will suds up easily. The water district where I live in San Jose, CA, actually adds minerals to the water so it will suds nicely when you're showering or washing dishes.

I have found that distilled water works best to soften and even sprout lentils. I put lentils into a pot to soak, cover them with distilled water so there is an inch of water higher than the beans, and I add about 1/2 tsp of salt. I soak mine overnight. If you want them to sprout it might take longer, although sometimes my lentils will start to sprout in the pan after soaking overnight and most of the next day in distilled water with a little salt.

If you do this, they will cook super fast. So, if you want to be able to come home after work and cook up some lentils really fast, soak them overnight in distilled water, and when you come home, they'll cook amazingly fast. So fast, you need to keep an eye on them or they'll just fall apart.

As to seasoning, I really like them with just salt. But, instead of salt, I would use curry spices: turmeric, garlic, ginger, cumin and some hot sauce. I prefer to spice my own "curry" by using these spices so I can change it up and make it hotter or not depending on my mood - instead of buying pre-mixed curry powder or paste.

I'm no cooking expert by any means and am just learning. But, these are a couple things I've learned. I am trusting Dr. McDougall, though, that sprinkling some salt on top of my food won't kill me :-)
Off meds/animal products 8/13/17, oil-free since 8/29/17
BP WAY down right away. In 3 months: Cholesterol down 26pts, Triglycerides down 27pts. Next 3 mos way back up ???
61 yrs, 5'5" tall
Starting weight 8/13/17 : 204 lbs As of 2/14/18: 186 lbs
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