Rice with vegetables is a simple and healthy recipe prepared in the Instant Pot. A tasteful and aromatic rice dish, extremely easy to prepare. Instant Pot is the perfect tool for this recipe as well especially for those who have a small kitchen with reduced storage space. By preparing this pilaf in the electric pot, you will get rice with great taste without any additional taste enhancers. Vegetables used for this recipe can be fresh or frozen. You can use whatever vegetables you love most, it can be carrots, peas, peppers, corn, mushrooms, cauliflower, broccoli, pumpkin or beans. If i missed your most preferable vegetables, you can still use it for this recipe.
Why use instant pot for rice and vegetable recipe?
Many people make rice and vegetables dishes but not all of them are delicious. Many complain that the rice is boring, without full taste and aroma. That’s why people tend to resort to dusts like taste enhancers. Don’t do that anymore! You will see how easy it is to make a rice with natural and healthy vegetables in a maximum of 30 minutes with the help of the instant pot! It will preserve all natural tastes of the vegetables that the rice will absorb and the result is astonishing. If you use a clear vegetable stock or meat stock instead of water it is even better! It is said that cooking under pressure is the healthiest form of cooking. In addition, the pot inside is stainless steel, which is the least toxic material to cook in.
Just throw in all ingredients, season it and set the “pilaf” program. You job is done here, the rest is taken care by the Instant pot.
In addition, it is a meat free recipe and is perfect if you are a vegetarian. If you simply wish to reduce meat consumption from your diet, this recipe is a great find. The good part is that this recipe of rice and vegetables can be consumed warm as well as cold.
What type of rice to use for rice with vegetables
For the rice with vegetables or meat, you need a long, sharp grain of rice, which after boiling will remain grain by grain. This is called pilaf.
There is a very clear difference between pilaf and risotto – both as a type of rice used and as a preparation technique. These two types, often being confused and packed into the same recipe. The reader remains puzzled, not understanding what rice should be used, how it should be prepared and why a meal comes out bad in the end.
For vegetables and rice you can use whatever rice you want. It is not pretentious and you can prepare it both with long grain rice (it would be preferable) but also with round grain. I used some round grain rice. As the technique is not complicated to perform and does not require increased attention.
For risotto recipes, I strongly recommend the Italian short-grain types such as Carnaroli, Arborio, Nano or Baldo. This kind of rice will not absorb liquid to saturation because of high content of starch, thing that will result in a sticky, consistent risotto. This is how you get the al dente effect. Also, it is very important to know when making risotto, do not wash nor rinse the rice, never. The starch thin layer of the rice is responsible for making the risotto viscous and creamy. The risotto effect is obtained by the starch exactly. You don’t want to wash that off. By washing off the starch that covers the surface of the rice grains you are exposed to getting a different result than the wanted one.
What vegetables to use for the rice and vegetables recipe?
Vegetables for this recipe are carrots, parsley or celery, green, white or red onion, garlic, red pepper, green peas, green beans, pumpkin, cauliflower or broccoli bouquets, mushrooms, corn and beans. It is not wrong even if you make a mix of fresh vegetables and frozen vegetables. But it matters the order in which they land in the pot – the strongest at the beginning and the most fragile at the end.
From the quantity below you get a rice cooker with enough vegetables for 6 – 8 servings. It can be reheated in the oven or microwave the next day.
How to cook rice and vegetables with Instant pot?
Drop the ingredients in, put the lid on, set the cooking time and let it cook! When it starts cooking the pot emits an audible signal. When it finishes cooking it emits a more insistent audible signal. Then, the pot automatically preserves the food warm. If you don’t want that function, you can deactivate it by simply pressing a button at the beginning of cooking.
Not having to worry about mixing the food, burning it or overcooking. You can do your job, wash the baby, tighten the laundry, or simply relax. The hot food will be prepared for you while you don’t even think about it.
Moreover, Instant pot can be programmed to cook when you are not at home or at night, during your sleep. Put all the ingredients in it in the morning, and set it to start cooking an hour before you get home.
How to serve Rice and Vegetables?
This super easy and fast dish can be served alone or it can be a side dish to any meat or fish. Rice and vegetables is a very good partner to meat dishes such as baked turkey, roasted duck or baked salmon. By adding this simple recipe to a hearty dish, your table will suddenly transform into family dinner full with delicious food. Also, if talking about big family meals, a green salad is definitely worthy your time to fresh up the food content. You can consider a light and easy to prepare arugula salad.
Instant Pot Delicious Rice&Veggies
Equipment
- instant pot
Ingredients
- 1 cup rice
- 2 cups frozen vegetabes
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 pinch pepper
- 2 cups water or stock
Instructions
- Put the rice in the instant pot
- Add the frozen cubed/chopped vegetables
- pour the olive oil
- season with salt and pepper
- pour water or stock
- set "pilaf" program on Instant pot
- press "start" button
- Wait 30 minutes until it beeps
4 comments
Wow! I absolutely loved how this turned out. Doubled the recipe and made curry sauce was on the stove. My 8 yr old asked to have this all week. Thank you
you are so welcome!
I don’t have a Pilaf setting. Did you mean Rice setting?
Yes, that’s right! 🙂