Can fresh (frozen) beans be added directly to stew?

Question

I am making a pressure cooker stew and have frozen butter beans that I would like to add. Since I generally use dried beans, my typical process would be to soak the beans overnight, cook them separately and then add them to the stew at the end.

With the fresh beans it seems reasonable to just add the frozen beans directly to the stew after cooking the stew, then pressure cook the whole thing together for 10 minutes.

Having never cooked frozen beans before:

1. Do fresh beans absorb a significant amount of water during cooking? If I add 1 lb of frozen beans, how much extra water should I add?
2. I pressure cook the stew for ~45 minutes. If I added the beans at the beginning would they be mush by the end?

Answer 1

It worked phenomenally!

I quick-released my stew ~5 minutes earlier than usual, added the frozen beans (no extra water needed- the beans were just covered by the liquid) pressure cooked on high for 7 minutes then allowed to release naturally.

The beans were buttery but totally intact. Would recommend.

Answer 2

I see instructions for pressure cooked frozen butter beans, which call for 4 minutes at high pressure, followed by about 10 minutes of natural pressure release. So, I would certainly add them at the end. Fresh beans (or frozen) don't absorb a lot of liquid, and you can certainly add more liquid to thin afterward.