Instant pot rice and beans

Instant pot rice and beans made with canned beans! This easy instant pot recipe is simple, super quick and easy to make using a handful of pantry staples ingredients. These beans and rice combo is perfect for a meatless Monday, or a perfect weeknight dinner and a great recipe for meal prep. It is vibrant in colour and utterly delicious.

This recipe is vegetarian, gluten-free, and healthy if eaten in moderation. Let me show you how to make rice and beans together in your instant pot pressure cooker.

Instant pot rice and beans recipe

I talk about how I use my instant pot and pressure king pro pressure cooker to cook beans without soaking them first a lot. I eat beans at least once a week and I love it. I am ever thankful for how convenient it has become with the help of these kitchen gadgets.

When I make rice and beans in my instant pot, I rarely use uncooked beans as it takes at least 20 minutes to cook unless I am using brown rice. Both cooks at the same time of 20 to 25 minutes depending on the type of beans I used.

I mostly cook and eat white basmati rice which takes roughly about 6 minutes active cooking time. That makes it hard to cook both together and so I use canned beans instead.

For todays quick instant pot recipe, you can use any type of cooked beans you have at hand. It would hold it’s shape for the cooking duration required for easy cook white rice.

Why this recipe works

Just as I mentioned above, you can use any canned beans for this. I used a combination of canned taco beans and pinto beans. You can also use red kidney beans (for Caribbean rice and peas with coconut milk) black beans, butter beans, cannelloni beans, red beans, black eyed peas, and the likes.  

This recipe can be customised to suit your taste and needs. In my case, I used canned taco mixed beans as mentioned above and my homemade taco seasoning to build flavour into the overall dish. Use any spices you have in your pantry. Build your own flavour into this rice and beans dish.

It is a great side dish that can be on the table for a taco Tuesday or taco night in general. If you would rather serve this recipe with some protein then check out this instant pot taco meat recipe.

This healthy instant pot rice and beans recipe takes less than 30 minutes to make with an active cooking time of 6 minutes. You can do a quick release after this time but I prefer to do a 5-minute natural pressure release for good measures.

It is a one pot instant pot vegetarian dish that free your hands to do other things while waiting for the beep and countdown for NPR.

Related post: Check my vegetarian and meatless Monday recipes for easy and delicious weeknight dish you will love.

Ingredients

Uncooked easy cook basmati rice

Canned pinto beans

Canned taco mixed beans not to be mistaken for canned refried beans.

Taco seasoning

Vegetable broth

Tomato puree

Red bell pepper

Chopped onion

Chopped fresh garlic cloves

Vegetable oil

Salt to taste

How to make rice and beans together in an instant pot

Rinse the rice under cold water until the water runs clear

Turn on instant pot to sauté and leave until hot, add vegetable oil and heat until hot, add chopped onions and sauté until onion becomes soft, translucent, and fragrant.

Add chopped red bell pepper, chopped garlic and continue to sauté for another 1 minute then press CANCEL to end the sautéing function.

Add broth to the sautéed veggies and deglaze the bottom of the pot if need be. You need to ensure nothing sticks to the bottom of the pot as it may lead to BURN Notice. Then, add the washed rice and stir into the broth mixture.

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Go on and add the taco seasoning, salt, tomato puree, canned taco beans and drained pinto beans.

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Cover the instant pot and turn the valve to the sealing position. Select manual or pressure cook and cook the beans and rice for 6 minutes on high pressure.

After the cooking cycle is completed, leave the pot to natural pressure release for 5 minutes then carefully do a quick release to depressurise the pot.

Open the lid and stir the rice and beans to combine, you can also fluff with a fork. Serve with a fresh squeeze of lime juice for that Mexican vibe and enjoy!

Tips

To make this recipe Jamaican rice and peas recipe, swap the broth for coconut milk and swap the pinto beans for canned red kidney beans.

Use any seasoning you have to make this recipe yours. You can try the seasoning used in making this instant pot Spanish rice, all you need to do is add any canned beans of choice.

If you don’t have canned beans and would still like to make this recipe, use brown rice. Alternatively, cook the beans for 15 minutes in the pressure cooker, then add the rice and cook for another 6 minutes. Remember the reason this is a 6 minutes recipe is because of the canned beans used.

Looking for more instant pot recipes that uses beans or legumes

Check these recipes

Instant pot chili, this uses red kidney beans

Instant pot chickpeas

Instant pot black eyed peas

Instant pot baked beans: recipe on the blog soon, this is a recipe you want to wait for, it is so good you would never go back to buying canned baked beans again.

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