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Instant Pot Black-Eyed Peas are so delicious, and they are a fast cooking bean! Don’t even bother soaking them, just season them with great ingredients, and have a fortuitous bowl of good-luck-bringing, pressure cooked black-eyed peas. Don’t forget the collard greens, this recipe has them as a tasty option! Make pressure cooker black eyed peas and Steam in the New Year!
Originally published 12/29/2017
Instant Pot Black-Eyed Peas
A long held tradition in the Southern United States is eating black-eyed peas and collard greens on New Year’s Day for good luck. The more black-eyed peas you eat, the more luck you will have.
The peas (actually beans) swell when cooked, so they symbolize prosperity; the greens symbolize money; the pork, because pigs root forward when foraging, represents positive motion (according to Wikipedia).
This tradition is very popular, and black-eyed peas appear in recipes such as Cowboy Caviar in Texas, to Hoppin’ John in Alabama, to Peas with Ham up in North Carolina (according to Southern Living).
The Black-Eyed Peas are usually cooked with some kind of pork, for flavor, and though I was told that a good Southerner does not cook collard greens with the black-eyed peas, I did anyway. I’m from Seattle (Mom from the South).
This Instant Pot Black-Eyed Peas recipe is fast cooking, for a dry beans recipe, so it makes sense, and tastes great, to cook the collards with the beans. However, if you do not like that method, I have a fabulous Instant Pot Collard Greens recipe that you can make separately!
If you like a more traditional version of black-eyed peas, try my Southern Black-Eyed Peas recipe
Instant Pot Black Eyed Peas with Collard Greens (or without) are a delicious meal to enjoy any time of the year!
This has been a fun and also challenging year for me, and I’m curious to see what the next year will bring!
I want to thank you all for reading my blog posts, trying my recipes, and supporting Simply Happy Foodie in this first couple of years of being an official food recipe blog. If you ever have ideas or requests, please reach out to me. You can find me on Facebook, Pinterest, or leave me a comment here.
Happy New Year!
Southern Instant Pot Black Eyed Peas
Instant Pot Collard Greens
Instant Pot Ham Hock and Bean Soup
Instant Pot Red Beans and Rice with Sausage
Instant Pot Baked Potatoes
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If you make this amazing pressure cooker black-eyed peas recipe, please leave a comment with a star rating below. I’d love to know how you liked it!
Instant Pot Black-Eyed Peas
Ingredients
- 1 Tbsp Olive Oil
- 1 small Onion, chopped
- 2 Celery Ribs (Stalks), diced
- 1 Bell Pepper, red or green
- 2 small Bay Leaves
- 2 sprigs Fresh Thyme, or 1/2 tsp dried
- 3 tsp Smoked Paprika
- ½ tsp Black Pepper
- 1 tsp Coarse Salt, or 3/4 tsp table salt
- 4 cloves Garlic, pressed or minced
- 1 Jalapeño Pepper, seeded and diced small
- 3 ½ cups Chicken Broth, low sodium
- 2 tsp Balsamic Vinegar
- 1-2 slices Bacon, chopped
- 1 small Ham Hock (or meaty ham bone)
- 1 ¼ cups Black-Eyed Peas, dry*
- 2 cups Collard Greens, (optional) chopped in 2" pieces
Instructions
- Turn the pressure cooker on to the Sauté function. When the display reads Hot, add the oil.
- Add the onion, celery, and bell pepper, and bay leaves. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion starts to turn translucent.
- Add the thyme, smoked paprika, pepper, and salt. Stir.
- Add the garlic and jalapeño. Cook for about 30 seconds, stirring frequently.
- Add the broth, balsamic vinegar, bacon, and ham hock.
- Stir in the black-eyed peas, and collard greens, if using.
- Place the lid on the pressure cooker, locking it in place. Set the steam release knob to the Sealing position. Cancel the Sauté function.
- Press the Pressure Cook/Manual button (or dial) and use the + or - button (or dial) to select 17 minutes (for firmer beans choose 14 minutes). High Pressure.
- When the cooking cycle has ended and the pot beeps, let it sit undisturbed for 15 minutes (15 minute Natural Release), then turn the steam release knob to the Venting position to release the remaining steam/pressure.
- When the pin in the lid drops down, open it and give the contents a stir. Discard bay leaves and ham hock (the ham hock won't be tender, it is for flavor, but if you can get some meat off of it, add it to the pot!).
- Serve over rice for a Hoppin' John, or as is. Enjoy with cornbread to sop up that yummy broth! Happy New Year! Or, any time of year!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Holy Cow is this an amazing recipe! Hands down the BEST black eyed peas and collard greens I’ve ever had, and I’m a born and raised Texas 😉
I made this New Years Eve for my friends and I and it was a huge hit, and so easy to make.
I accidentally got pre-soaked beans and had already poured all the liquids in when I realized it, so I just put about 1 3/4 cup beans in to try and level it out and it still turned out amazing. I cooked it on high for 11 minutes because I was not wanting my beans to turn to mush, and it all turned out amazing! Next time if I get pre-soaked beans again I may skillet cook the bacon first because it wasn’t as cooked as I wanted, but I like really cooked bacon so that’s a personal preference. Anyways, I love this recipe, my two year old who’s been super picky with food recently LOVED IT, he kept asking for more, so this will be a new staple dish in our family. I’m currently reheating leftovers and am going to try it with rice (we had it with cornbread last night).
Make this recipe, you won’t regret it.
Thank you for posting this for us! <3
I’ve got the instant pot running now and I can’t wait to see how flavorful these beans are! I love black-eyed peas for New Years, but my wife has never been a fan of them because they are usually very bland. I’ll update in a comment when they are done with how she likes them.
I forgot to rinse beans first. Hopefully the Great Value 1lb bag of beans (roughly doubled recipe) were pre-rinsed…. 😀
Great flavor in these beans! My wife said they were “palatable” which I take as a complement because normally she despises black-eyed peas. I doubled the recipe this time, but next time I probably won’t double the salt and paprika — those flavors seemed very strong in this batch.
This recipe sounds great, but, I don’t have an instant pot. How could I adjust this recipe to cook in crock pot? Thanks. Linda
Use the times from this recipe: Slow Cooker Black Eyed Peas
Hi Sandy,
The BEP recipe sounds amazing. Do you have any tips on how to have the flavor and depth with out the meat? Vegetarian household. Thanks in advance?
Maybe some liquid smoke or smoked paprika would add some nice flavor.
Five Stars and Five more!
I have made this recipe many times and it is always amazing.Can you use fresh black eyed peas?
This looks yummy! I need to double this recipe for a crowd at Thanksgiving. Do you double the salt and liquid? If so, what type of course salt did you use, kosher or sea salt?
Hi Pollie, yes, double the liquid, and only add half again as much salt (Kosher). That way you can add more after cooking, if needed.
These are not like mama used to make!!! When I was a kid, I dreaded the nights when my mother would make black-eyed peas…with not much seasoning and usually undercooked. If my mother had made them this way I would have gladly eaten them! Fantastic recipe! I followed this to the letter and it was great. Everyone in the family loved it. Thank you!!!
PS…I can’t seem to get the stars to work, but I would definitely rate this recipe with 5*
That’s so great, Catherine! Thank you. Looks like the stars worked, thanks again! I’m so happy you liked these.
A year and a half later, and I’m still making this fantastic recipe. Definitely a family favorite now! One of the things that makes this recipe nice is that it uses ingredients that I usually have on hand. I often use coarsely chopped kale in place of collard greens. Thank you again, and Happy New Year!
I’m pleased to know this! Happy New Year!
Not sure if the stars are working, but this recipe is fabulous and deserves 5. I did end up making quite a few substitutions/changes because of missing ingredients, but I imagine this would be spectacular as is. The biggest change I made was to make this vegetarian – I omitted the ham hock and bacon and switched veggie broth for the chicken. To help account for the changes I added a bit of extra celery, added about a tsp of liquid smoke and a 1/2 TBL spoon of adobo chillis in sauce (and skipped the jalepenos) – if any one is curious about how to make this vegetarian.
That’s great to know, Nicole! Those are great substitutions and it sounds like the recipe was still pretty close to the original flavor profile! Thank you for your review!
I had collards in my garden and fresh Black eyed peas in the fridge. This turned out great. I used a bit of liquid smoke because I don’t eat land animals. Cooked up some vegan sausage in a cast iron skillet and then stirred in my cooked rice and served the peas ( I used extra peas so it wasn’t so soupy as suggested by above) over the sausage rice mixture. I also made some bread. Wonderful easy weeknight dinner.
My first time eating black eyed peas – and it’s a winner, thank you! Made 1# dry black eyes peas w 8 cups stock. Also used 1# bacon, left-over Cmas ham-bone, and 8 jalapeños for a nice kick. Delicious, but will cut salt next time cuz I added the extra bacon. The kale wouldn’t fit in the IP since I made a double batch, so I roasted it for 10 minutes and then stirred in at the end. Really really easy and tasty!
Hi Dee! Wow, that sounds like a wonderful adaptation!
Delicious and oh so easy! Love the flavor – added some ham pieces and included the collards. It could have used more collards in my opinion. Thanks for the recipe!