Instant Pot Beans & Dashi Recipe 

This recipe combines the soul-warming elements of Japanese konbu dashi with the ease of Instant Pot beans. We’ll be using the Alubia Beans from Primary Beans. Alubia are small and white, similar in shape to navy beans with a creamy texture and firm exteriors. They’re mild flavor lends itself well to the subtle richness of excellent dashi.

To keep this recipe accessible to everyone, we’ll be making a vegan dashi with just konbu and dried shiitake (excluding the typical smoked skipjack tuna flakes). The higher quality seaweed, the tastier and more savory your dashi will be. We carry some of our favorite Japanese konbu and shiitake on the market - perfect for dashi making. 

Equipment you will need: Instantpot, large pot for soaking and simmering dashi, thermometer

Ingredients:

50 grams Konbu

50 grams Dried Shiitake

1 bag Alubia Primary Beans

2 Tbsp Moromi Kelp Shoyu

2 tsp Cabi Yuzu Vinegar

Sesame Oil

Ginger

Kosher Salt

Maldon

1. First we will soak our dashi the night before. Making dashi is closer to steeping tea than boiling broth. Weigh out your shiitake and konbu, place them in a large pot, and cover with 4 quarts of water. Leave overnight.
2. The next day we will bring our dashi ingredients to a bare simmer on medium low heat. Use a thermometer here, you don’t want the temperature to rise above 150 F, or it will begin to taste bitter rather than savory.
3. Once the dashi has been cooking at 150 F for 15 minutes, remove it from the heat and take out the konbu and shiitake. With a sharp knife, cut the konbu into a thin sliver, and the shiitake into slices about a cm thick. We will add 10 grams each of these soaked and chopped dashi ingredients to the beans.
4. Add your beans to the Instant Pot. Add 10 grams of sliced konbu and 10 grams of sliced shiitake. Add about 3 quarts of dashi depending on how much liquid you like in your finished beans. Add 1 Tbsp kosher salt and 2 Tbsp Moromi Kelp Shoyu.
5. Set the Instant Pot to the “pressure cook” setting, set the time to 36 minutes and wait! Let the steam fully release naturally, and your beans will be ready.
6. To serve, scoop some of the bean mixture into a bowl, adding as much bean dashi as you like. Season with maldon, sesame oil, and Cabi yuzu vinegar.
7. Top with thinly sliced ginger and enjoy with rice!