I generally pre-soak dried beans before cooking them, even with the Instant Pot, because I find it leads to a more evenly cooked set of beans. Milk Street though recently posted a Instant Pot Black Beans recipe that does not require a pre-soak, so I decided to try it to see if it would result in a good, weeknight-only bean dish.
I've made a modified, quartered amount recipe twice so far, and have been pretty satisfied with the result. The beans are nicely salted, and have a mildly acidic tang from the tomato and onion that cooked down into the bean broth.
The modifications I have made to the recipe are to use a regular tomato in place of the cherry / grape tomatoes, and rather than use a head of garlic with the top third severed, I've used the peeled, whole cloves of approx. 1/4 a head.
The one modification I do not recommend you make is reducing the cooking time, even if you are halving or quartering the recipe as I did. The beans need a full 35 minutes to cook, as I learned from my first effort to cook at 32 minutes. You can serve these beans as a standalone side or incorporate into meals how you desire. Below is how I used these beans in loaded vegetable tostadas. Enjoy!
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