Instant pot rice pilaf brings a simple, flavorful side dish to your dinner table using pantry staples. This elevated rice pilaf recipe combines basmati rice and orzo with aromatics, herbs, and vegetable broth. It’s easy enough for a weeknight meal, yet fancy enough to serve for holidays and special occasions.
How To Make This Recipe
To upgrade our basic rice to a fancy pilaf, we only need a few extra ingredients. Our recipe calls for a blend of basmati rice and orzo. We always rinse our basmati rice to remove any extra starch. In this dish, our aromatics include olive oil, onion, and garlic. We’re also bringing herbs and spice to the table with paprika, parsley, salt, and black pepper. Finally, our vegetable broth adds another layer of flavor to round out the dish.
While we’re offering a basic rice pilaf template, we occasionally like to play around with additional mix-ins. These can include veggies such as peas, diced carrots, or sautéed mushrooms. We’ve also been known to top our pilaf with slivered almonds or toasted pecans. That said, playing around with actual rice types will impact the ratio of water to rice.
We gather our ingredients.
Cook Aromatics With Rice
We begin by turning our Instant Pot on to “Saute” mode on the low setting. Then, we add our olive oil. Once our olive oil is warm, we add our onion and garlic and stir regularly until softened.
Sauté aromatics on low.
Next, we mix in our rice and orzo. By briefly toasting our grains, we bring a richer flavor to the dish. We continue cooking for a minute or so, while stirring, to combine our ingredients.
Bring Up Pressure
Next, we turn off “Saute” mode. We add our vegetable broth along with the paprika, salt, and black pepper and give it a quick stir. When we opt to use dried parsley, we add that now as well. We then secure the lid and switch the valve over to “Sealing”.
Add spices and broth to the pot.
Once our lid is secure, we select “Manual” mode at high pressure for 3 minutes and let the Instant Pot roll. Once our rice pilaf is done pressure cooking, we allow the pressure to come down naturally. A natural release can up to 15 minute, so we budget our time accordingly.
Ready To Serve
Once the Instant Pot releases all pressure, we open the lid and stir in the fresh parsley, if using. Then, we let the rice rest briefly before serving to help firm up those grains and infuse that fresh parsley flavor. Before serving, we fluff the pilaf with a fork.
Fluff rice pilaf with a fork.
We like to serve our pilaf warm. Yet, this dish is also quite good at room temperature. Store cooled rice pilaf in a tightly covered container in the refrigerator for up to 3 or 4 days. Now, let’s go enjoy our instant pot rice pilaf!
Enjoy your instant pot rice pilaf!
More savory sides:
Recipe Card for Instant Pot Rice Pilaf
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Instant Pot Rice Pilaf
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil extra virgin
- 1 small onion finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1/3 cup orzo
- 1 cup basmati rice rinsed and drained
- 1 1/2 cup vegetable broth
- 1/4 teaspoon paprika
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 tablespoon fresh minced parsley or 1 teaspoon dried parsley
Instructions
- Turn Instant Pot on SAUTE mode set to low. Add the olive oil. When it’s hot, add the onion and garlic. Cook, stirring, until softened (about 5 minutes).
- Then, add the orzo and rice cook for one minute while stirring to combine ingredients.
- Turn off SAUTE mode. Add vegetable broth along with the paprika, salt, and pepper. If using dried parsley, add that now as well.
- Place the lid on. Make sure valve is switched to sealing. Turn SAUTE off and select MANUAL mode (high pressure) for 3 minutes. Once cooked, allow the pressure to come down naturally. This will take anywhere from 12-15 minutes.
- Open the lid and stir in the fresh parsley, if using. Let the rice sit for a few minutes before serving. Fluff the pilaf with a fork, and serve warm or at room temperature.
