I recently spoke to a group of vegans, vegetarians and those who want to eat more vegetarian food at Osmosis Day Spa and Sanctuary. I had a great time and got such wonderful questions. One of them was, “Why should I cook my rice (or maybe anything else) in a pressure cooker when I already know how to cook it on the stove top and time isn’t an issue?”
That question made me think, which I have become accustomed to doing well on my feet. Here’s what my answer was and perhaps it will provide yet another reason to purchase a pressure cooker, if you’ve been on the fence about doing so.
Time is not the only consideration, or reason to use the pressure cooker – it is just one reason. Equally as important for me, being the “green” eco-friendly woman that I am, is the energy savings resulting from using a pressure cooker versus cooking on the stove top. Brown rice takes just 22 minutes at pressure. Depending upon how much rice you are cooking at once, and let’s figure that it’s 2 cups so that you’ll have some leftover, it will take about 5 minutes to get the cooker to pressure at high heat and then 22 minutes at lower heat. And about 10 minutes with no heat at all while the pressure drops.If you figure that no matter how you cook your rice you need to boil it first, we can subtract out the initial 5 minutes which might actually take longer on the stove top since you need more liquid than in the pressure cooker. When cooking the rice you have a 50% energy savings.
Different types of brown rice require different cooking times. For instance Lotus Foods brown jasmine rice takes 35 minutes on the stove top so requires only 18 minutes at high in the pressure cooker. I recently taught Lotus Foods co-owner Caryl Levine how to cook that rice in her unused pressure cooker. We used 2 cups of the rice, 1/2 cup red (whole, not split) lentils, a few cloves of garlic and a generous tablespoon of ginger and it made an incredible pot of rice and lentils, which makes cooking rice in the pressure cooker even better than stove top cooking since it’s easy to mix them up.
I use my “magic” formula of adding less liquid for each cup of rice and then add an equal amount of liquid as the lentils so that they’ll rehydrate well. Caryl was impressed, and was thrilled that the dish turned out
so well. What an aromatic and tasty rice that is.
Pressure Cooker Brown Rice and Lentils Recipe
Makes 4 to 6 servings
1 teaspoon olive or other oil (optional)
1 tablespoon finely minced ginger
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups Lotus Foods jasmine rice
1/2 cup whole red, French green or black beluga lentils
2 3/4 cups liquid (broth or water)
salt or tamari, to taste
Heat the pressure cooker over medium heat. Add the oil, if using, and when it’s hot, add the ginger. Saute for 1 minute and then add the garlic and stir. Add the rice and stir once. Add the lentils and liquid. Lock the lid on the pressure cooker and bring to high pressure over high heat for 18 minutes. Lower the heat just enough to maintain high pressure. When the time is up, remove the cooker from the heat and let the pressure come down. Remove the lid, carefully tilting it away from you. Taste and add salt or tamari, if desired.
Moreover, if you add any seasonings, herbs or spices, your rice tastes better than it does on the stove top because the pressure in the cooker infuses flavor into your food.Â
So to answer this question about cooking rice in the pressure cooker, why wouldn’t I do it?
For that I have no answer, while on my feet or not.
I’d love to hear what you think about pressure cooked brown rice. Or cooking brown rice at all.
Jean Ragland says
I decided to play it safe and added 2 extra cups of water. It turned out perfect! Soaked up all the fluids and didn’t burn…..
Craig says
Hi Jill,
I’m loving my pressure cooker but having trouble experimenting on my own. For example, say I want to make a brown rice and whole mung bean veggie dish. How do I work out how much liquid to use and how much of the bean/rice. Say 1.5 cups of each. How do I work out how much liquid if cooking them together? I find myself often in these situations where I want to cook a couple of items together but have no idea how to work it all out. Can you please help? Thank you for your time.
From a fan in Australia 🙂
Jill Nussinow says
Craig,
What I do is use the same ratio as I would if I were cooking the food itself and add the amounts together. For brown rice, I would use 1 1/2 cups liquid for the first cup of rice (and 1 1/2 for the 2nd cup so if I was using another 1/2 cup, I would add half of that or 3/4 cup more for a total of 2 1/4 cups for the rice). For the mung (or other beans) from dry, I use a ratio of 1 cup dry bean to 2 cups liquid. So for 1 1/2 cups of those, I would use 3 cups liquid. The total liquid for that would be 5 1/4 cups.
You have to figure out the liquid for what you are using, as well as the time. I would not likely cook mung beans with rice, unless I wanted mushy mung beans. They don’t take long, only 6 to 8 minutes, while the rice will take 22 minutes at pressure.
I would be more likely to cook millet with mung beans because the times are more similar.
I hope that this helps you. Thanks for being a fan from the other side of the world. I appreciate it.
Lisa says
Tried this recipe tonight, Â it smelled amazing while it was cooking but it turned out burnt and crunchy. Â I will try it again with more liquid.Â
Aaron Patterson says
I have an InstantPot, It does not have high, med, low settings. Â Should I just put it on the “multigrain” setting or the “rice” setting? Â Typically I use multigrain for all brown rices, etc. Â Thanks
Jill Nussinow says
Aaron,
I cook my grains on the high setting, setting the Instant Pot for the times that I recommend in my book. You can use the other presets, if you prefer, but always make sure that the time is correct.
Thank you for asking.
DaveS says
This was my first pressure cooker disaster – I’ve been using my cooker for a few months now and everything has turned out somewhere between great and fantastic. I wanted to try a brown rice recipe & came across this one. I was sceptical about the small amount of water but decided to do it exactly as in the recipe. It came out dry and burnt. It needs 4 cups of water. I have no idea how you managed with just 2 3/4. I used the local varieties of lentils and brown rice – maybe that made the difference?
Jill Nussinow says
I am not sure what to say about this recipe. I would not post one that doesn’t work. Sorry to hear that it didn’t work out for you Dave.