Cooking perfect brown rice in the Instant Pot (IP) is an every day thing for me. I usually eat brown rice for lunch, as part of my South Indian meal that includes a vegetable, a dal, a chutney or chutney powder (like Kandi Podi, Sesame Chutney Powder, Homemade Moringa-Curry Leaf Spice Powder and so on). I like my brown rice hot and fluffy, mixed with home-made ghee).
Switching from White Rice to Brown
Years ago when my doctor advised me to switch from white rice to brown, I thought I would go nuts – in fact, I did go nuts for a couple of months trying to get brown rice to that fluffy texture I get from white rice. I tried several pressure cookers and the one that came closest was a small stove-top pressure cooker I had brought over from India. It was a very temperamental little thing, that unfortunately did not always give the same result. Around the time I was trying to cook great brown rice, my sister suggested that I try Hand Pound Brown Rice from 24-Mantra. This has been my go-to brown rice, for over 5 years now.
How To Cook Perfect Instant Pot Brown Rice
After I purchased my first Instant Pot in 2015, I finally got rid of my tiny stovetop pressure cooker. I cook my lentils and brown rice in the IP – I use the Instant Pot Duo. I always use a pot-in-pot method. That way, I don’t have to wash the IP container each time I cook rice or dal. It is important to wash and soak brown rice for at least an hour before cooking. The other important thing is the water to rice ratio. I had experimented with this several times before I settled for a quantity of water that is twice that of rice and then about 1/10th cup more, to give it that fluffy texture.
Brown rice is a rich source of fiber and contains high levels of magnesium. It can help control weight, blood sugar, and also improve heart health.
Check out some of our delicious and nutritious one-pot meals with brown rice:
- Brown Rice Matar (Peas) Pulao
- Savory Brown Rice Pongal
- Brown Rice Vegetable Pulao
- South Indian Brown Rice Khichdi
- Brown Jeera (Cumin) Rice
- Mexican Rice
- Bisi Bele Bath
- Egg Tomato Spicy Rice
- Pulihora | Puliogare with Brown Rice
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How To Cook Perfect Instant Pot Brown Rice
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1/2 Cup Brown Rice - Hand Pound Sona Masuri Brown Rice
- 1.5 Cups Filtered water
Instructions
- Wash brown rice and drain water 2-3 times until the water runs clear. Now add 1.5 cups of filtered water to the washed rice.
- To the Instant Pot container, add 3/4 cup of water and set the rice pot in the container.
- Close lid and set IP on 'porridge' mode - 22 minutes. Taking around 5 minutes for pressure build and about 13 minutes for pressure release, your total cook time is about 40 minutes.
- Allow for natural release and remove lid. Perfect brown rice is ready.
- Serve hot with ghee, vegetable, dal and chutney powder.
Notes
Nutrition