These thick, creamy and spicy Cajun kidney beans (no soak!) are a true comfort food. This full-flavored crowd pleasing Instant Pot vegan red beans and rice recipe is vegetarian and plant-based (no meat).

bowl of vegan red beans and rice with cornbread

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Growing up in Texas with Louisiana next door, we were exposed to a variety of cajun dishes. Spicy red kidney beans and rice are easy to make vegetarian, require no soaking and are just as delicious.

🎙 What people say about this recipe

Flavorful Hearty Recipe! Completely appreciate the detailed directions for the Instant Pot! Excellent!

- Amanda

🧄 Very useful ingredient notes

We're going to let the aromatic vegetables, herbs and spices shine in this vegetarian red beans and rice recipe. To amp up the flavor we are going to load up on onion, celery, fresh parsley, garlic and creole spices.

Dried red kidney beans - I like the Camellia brand, because they always turn out so good! But use any brand of dried dark red kidney beans you have access to.
Rice - Long grain white rice, basmati rice or jasmine rice are all good with this dish. Either white or brown rice would work well with this vegan red beans and rice recipe. Since the kidney beans will take over an hour to cook in the Instant Pot, you would have the time to cook the heartier brown rice on the stove simultaneously, if you want, since that normally takes about 45 minutes. But, a white jasmine or basmati rice would also be delicious. White rice normally takes about 20 minutes to cook on the stovetop.
Parsley - You can use dried parsley in a pinch for this recipe. Instead of 1 cup of chopped fresh parsley, you could substitute 2 tablespoons dried parsley.
Garlic - Also, with the garlic, you could substitute the 10 cloves for 1 tablespoon granulated garlic or garlic powder, but fresh is better.
Creole seasoning - Tony Chachere's or Slap Ya Mama cajun salt are the ones we use most often. If you're trying to limit your salt, use this no-salt cajun seasoning recipe instead of the Tony Chachere's.

🔪 Instructions

We're making these plant-based, vegan red kidney beans in a pressure cooker, specifically the Instant Pot.

The beans don't need to soak ahead of time, so you can go from start to finish in under 2 hours, most of that being hands-off time.

Step 1: We'll start with sautéing the aromatics in the Instant Pot on the "Sauté" setting. Then add in the beans, water and spices. Cover it, turn the valve to "Sealing" and set the Instant Pot to the "Beans" (or High Pressure) setting for 60 minutes. Allow the pressure to naturally release for 20 minutes. Then, open the lid.

Pot of white rice, cooked in dutch oven with rice paddle resting inside

Step 2: For this red beans and rice recipe, we'll make the rice separately on the stove, since we're making our beans from scratch. Use your preferred method of cooking the rice while the beans cook. I cook mine in a dutch oven on the stove, 1.5 cups of water to 1 cup of rice. I bring the salted water to a boil first, then add my rinsed rice. Bring back to a boil, stir, cover and cook on a very low heat for 20 minutes.

Step 3: Once the beans are done in the Instant Pot, you can turn on the sauté feature for a few minutes to thicken the sauce. Make sure to stir and scrape the bottom of the pan regularly to prevent it from burning. Crush some of the beans against the side of the pot to make them extra creamy and thick.

Step 4: This is what the cooked red beans look like.

getting a spoonful out of a bowl of vegan red beans and rice with cornbread

How long will it last in the refrigerator or freezer?

Cooked red beans and rice can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 5 days and in the freezer for up to 3 months.

It can be stored separately (rice in one container and beans in another) or mixed together.

Are kidney beans safe to eat?

Yes, they are. However, they must be cooked at high heat and boil for at least 10 minutes during the cooking process.

Here's some information from Iowa State University about the dangers of improperly cooking kidney beans:

Did you know that eating raw kidney beans can be toxic? According to the FDA, eating as few as 4-5 uncooked kidney beans can cause severe nausea, vomiting and diarrhea in 1-3 hours after ingestion. Uncooked kidney beans have an unusually high concentration of a chemical called phytohaemagglutinin that is destroyed when the beans are properly cooked by boiling. Apparently, cooking in a slow cooker may actually make the beans more dangerous because low temperature cooking increases the toxicity. Other beans contain this chemical, but in much smaller amounts. The bottom line – be sure to cook kidney beans by boiling.
Iowa State University

Cooking kidney beans in a pressure cooker like the Instant Pot raises the temperature very high and removes this risk.

So, while you can safely cook kidney beans on the stove, as well, using your pressure cooker or Instant Pot gives peace of mind in this case, for sure.