Instant Pot Tomato Rice and Beans
Rice and beans made in the Instant Pot and you can come back to a hearty meal packed full of savoury tomato flavour.
Servings: 4 -6 servings
Ingredients
- 1 cup 250 mL jasmine rice, dry (uncooked)
- 1 tbsp 15 mL vegetable oil
- 1 small onion diced
- 2 ribs celery finely diced
- 3 cloves garlic finely minced
- 1/4 cup 60 mL tomato paste
- 1 tsp 5 mL chili powder
- 1.5 tbsp 22.5 mL vegetable broth paste (I used Better than Bouillon, you could also use 2 bouillon cubes)
- 1 cup 250 mL water
- 1 can 19 fl oz pinto beans, drained and rinsed
Toppings:
- Avocado sliced (I use about 1/4 avocado for each serving)
- Lime wedges for each serving
Instructions
- Rinse and drain your rice until the water runs clear. It should take about 2-3 passes of water. Drain well in a fine mesh sieve and set aside.
- On Sauté mode, cook the diced onion and celery until the onion is translucent is the celery is no longer has a bite (unless you want it to)
- Add the minced garlic and sauté until fragrant (about a minute)
- Add the tomato paste and chili powder and sauté for about 2-3 minutes. If you find the paste starts sticking to the bottom, add the rice and stir well to coat the rice in the paste, then quickly add the water and vegetable broth paste.
- Stir well until the broth paste is fully dissolved, and level out the rice so its evenly coated by the water. Turn off the Instant Pot.
- Then add the rinsed and drained pinto beans and carefully spread out over the rice, but keep the rice submerged.
- Turn the Instant Pot on manual high pressure for 8 minutes, switch the vent to Sealing.
- Once it finishes cooking, let the pressure naturally release for about 10-12 minutes, then open up and enjoy with avocado and squeeze a wedge of lime on top!
RICE COOKER INSTRUCTIONS:
- The difference between the Instant Pot and Rice Cooker ingredients is that there's more water used for the Rice Cooker method. As for the method, you need to caramelize the aromatics before adding to the rice cooker.
- I'm using a Cuckoo rice cooker (which kind of pressurizes the pot), but if you have one with just a loose lid that rests on top, increase the water to 1.5 cups water (375 mL).
- Rinse and drain your rice until the water runs clear. It should take about 2-3 passes of water. Drain well in a fine mesh sieve and set aside.
- Cook the aromatics on the stove: In a medium pot over medium heat, caramelize onion and celery until the celery is almost as soft as you would like it before it goes in the rice cooker (it won't really cook enough to get mushy in there with the rice)
- Add the garlic, tomato paste, and chili powder, and cook for another few minutes to bloom the spice and caramelize some of the tomato paste.
- Turn off the heat, then add 1.5 tbsp vegetable broth paste and 300 mL of water (about 1 cup + just under 1/4 cup) Mix well to evenly dissolve the tomato paste and broth paste, then transfer to the rice cooker pot and mix in the rice to evenly submerge.
- Add the pinto beans on top, then hit Cook (I just use the regular white rice setting, which is about 50 min). If you only have a cook/keep warm type rice cooker, DO NOT OPEN the lid once it flips to Keep Warm, let it steam through for another 20-30 minutes.
- Then open up, and enjoy with avocado and lime juice.