Athena, ever consider pressure cooking the beans, throwing them into your colander, then sauteeing your onion and such in the pressure cooker pot? Saves you a pot. 
That’d work too! Nope, never thought of it, but it’s a good idea.
I recently got a fancy (with buttons, etc) pressure and I’m looking to try it out soon.
About beans and rice, which I really like, I’ve cooked in a soup pot by cooking the beans first and adding the other ingredients as their turn come. For example, I add the rice about 15 minutes or so before the beans are done.
In using a pressure cooker, will it work to stop the cooking before the beans are done and re-starting after adding rice etc?
I prefer the beans and rice cooled together, not beans on top after cooking. This is how my old friend from Puerto Rico cooked it when I was a kid. Pintos, btw.