I have 2 Instant Pots now. It is surprising how often I use both on any given day. For instance, I used both to make this Red Beans and Rice recipe. You wouldn't have to have 2 Instant Pots to make this. You could make the rice, remove the cooked rice to a bowl and then make the red beans part of the recipe. Or, you could invest in a 2nd inner pot. That would allow you to simply remove the rice (inner pot and all) and set aside, then cook the 2nd part of the meal in your 2nd inner pot. Or, you could purchase a 2nd Instant Pot like me! :) Ha! Often I have 2 pots of soup going at once. Or I have two separate meals going at once (for a busy week ahead - leftovers!)
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| Red Beans and Rice mixed together |
I am going to copy the recipe below exactly as I found it. Then I will note all the changes I made. :)
Instant Pot Red Beans and Rice
1 medium onion, diced
1 bell pepper, diced
3 celery stalks, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 pound dry red kidney beans
1 tsp salt or more to taste
½ tsp black pepper
¼ tsp white pepper (optional)
1 tsp hot sauce
1 tsp fresh thyme or ½ tsp dried thyme
2 bay leaves
7 cups water
1 pound chicken andouille sausage cut into thin slices
10 cups cooked rice
Add all ingredients, except for sausage and rice, to the Instant Pot. Place the lid on, lock it and close venting seal, and set to manual high pressure for 28 minutes. At the end of 28 minutes, use the quick release method (release the valve). When the Instant Pot is fully depressurized you can remove the lid.
Add the chicken andouille sausage, place the lid on, lock it and close the venting seal. (you may have to wait a minute for the pot to cool enough to get the lid back and sealed. The original poster suggested you could run the lid under some cold water - but be careful if you do that.
Use the manual setting at 15 minutes high pressure and allow the Instant Pot to release pressure naturally this time around. (just let it sit until the pressure is completely released) This can take up to 25 minutes or so.
Remove the lid and stir. You can let the beans sit in the pot for a few minutes to allow the sauce to thicken a bit. Serve the bean mixture over the rice.
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| Red Beans mixture served over the top of the rice (hidden at bottom of bowl) |
Changes I made...
I used a lot of onion, bell pepper, and celery. I also used the following for my seasonings, instead of what was listed in the recipe... all amounts 'to taste'.
garlic powder, onion powder, dried thyme,
Tony Chachere's creole seasoning, a little black pepper, 2 bay leaves, and I used a couple teaspoons of
Better Than Bouillon Vegetable base mixed into the 7 cups water. I didn't have chicken andouille sausage so just used a beef smoked sausage instead. In fact, it was frozen hard and I just laid it on top of the red beans mixture for the first cooking time. When I removed the lid I then sliced up the sausage and put it back in for the 2nd cooking time. I only did NPR for about 15 minutes. Worked perfectly.
As for the rice, I used 1 box of
Zatarain's Dirty Rice plus one cup of Basmati rice. I dumped all the rice, plus the seasoning packet from the dirty rice, into the Instant Pot. I added 3 cups water mixed with a little bit of Better Than Bouillon Vegetable base and a small pat of butter. I cooked the rice on Manual High Pressure for 10 minutes then let pressure release naturally for a few minutes. I decided on the amount of water by reading how much water is required for stovetop preparation (from the rice package label) and the cooking time based loosely off of this chart.
http://instantpot.com/cooking-time/rice-and-grains/
(However I have also read a rule of thumb can be half the cooking time stated on the package label.)
This made a lot! But it was very, very good. I love how the Instant Pot cooks dry beans in a reasonably short amount of time.
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| Rice cooked in the 2nd Instant Pot |
