Easy Instant Pot Red Beans And Rice
Looking for the perfect Sunday afternoon meal to cook? Then get ready to make traditional Louisiana Creole Instant Pot Red Beans and Rice. You’ll be amazed at the ease of this affordable hearty comfort food recipe. The best bit is that no pre-soaking of beans is required.
This Instant Pot Red Beans and Rice is suitable for Gluten-Free diets. Post includes Weight Watchers points as well.
This affordable, hearty Instant Pot Red Beans and Rice recipe is a family favorite. I love how the rice, beans and smoky flavor Andouille, all come together for a lick-your-plate clean weeknight dinner that never disappoints. Just like Southern Fried Pork Chops And Gravy.
Traditionally, Red Beans and Rice is made on Monday nights, with leftovers from Sunday evening’s feast. It’s a great way to for everyone to enjoy a nice hearty meal with vegetables. It’s just as tasty as the traditional Louisiana Creole recipes you’ll find cooking away on the stovetops of New Orleans, without as long of a cooking time.
Table of Contents
Why You Will Love It
The great thing about this recipe is that it is frugal and beyond easy to make. And here are just some of the reasons I and you will absolutely looooove it:
- Super affordable budget-friendly – made entirely of inexpensive everyday store cupboard staples. I will show you just how easy it is to adapt for the Instant Pot!
- Perfect comfort food – This smoky rice and beans has everyone wanting seconds. Equally popular on cold nights and warm summer days with a cozy hug in every bite.
- Scalable – This will feed a family, but I can simply double or triple the recipe for a crowd. It really is that simple to scale it up as long as you have the right sized Instant Pot.
- Prep-ahead Ease. I cook and keep it in the refrigerator or freezer till needed.
Ingredient Notes
In this easy recipe, we’ll combine beans, rice, veggies, and andouille sausage into a delicious main dish. Follow my tips on each ingredient for the best results.
For the rice:
- basmati rice – I really prefer long grain white basmati for this. You can use brown rice but that will impact the cook time.
- Water + olive oil + salt – to complete the rice
For the red beans:
- Trinity veggies – The trinity of bell pepper, celery stalks and onions is a key part of cajun cooking. Vary pepper colours and add more or less of the veggies.
- Dried red beans – I interchange between small red beans, kidney beans and black beans depending on what I have. Please do NOT used canned beans in this recipe.
- Seasonings – this recipes gets flavor from a combination of salt, black pepper, smoked paprika, Creole seasoning or Cajun seasoning, dried thyme, bay leaves and garlic. Experiment like me, add more or less to your taste.
- Water – I prefer to use water but you can add half water and half vegetable broth.
- Louisiana Andouille sausage – This is a must for me. It adds flavor and extra fat. You can sub it for other leftover meat like chorizo, ham, tasso ham, smoked turkey, chicken or other types of sausage. This will obviously change the flavor of things, but it is still a delicious comfort, belly-filling meal.
Handy Tip: Use Good Kitchen Tools!
For the best tools to help make your recipe even easier and more successful, check out my collection of the Best Instant Pot Tools on Amazon.
How to Make Instant Pot Red Beans and Rice
Use the video as visual guide to help you make this. Get the complete ingredients list and instructions from the recipe card below.
Cook The Rice – Rinse, drain and cook the rice using the pot in pot method (see full method in recipe card below) on High for 5 minutes and perform a 10 minutes Natural Pressure Release. Manually release any remaining pressure and then open the lid and set aside so rice cools.
Cook The Red Beans:
- Brown the sausage. Use the sauté mode to brown the sausages (in batches if needed) in some oil and set aside on a plate.
- Saute the veggies – Saute the onion and then garlic.
- Add the rest of the ingredients (minus the rice) – Add the sausage and the rest of the ingredients to the Instant Pot.
- Pressure cook – Cook on Manual / High Pressure for 35 minutes, followed by a Natural Pressure Release, which should take up to 25 minutes.
- Serve – Serve the bean mixture over cooked rice with fresh chopped parsley.
Bintu’s Tips And Variations
I really love switching things up in the kitchen. Here are some tips for easier cooking and variations for you to try if you want something a little different
- Cooking time does not include time to come up to pressure or for pressure to release.
- Do NOT use a quick pressure release as this does NOT give the beans enough time to cook fully and you’ll wind up with crunchy beans.
- If the beans aren’t soft or tender enough for you after cooking initially and using a natural pressure release, close, secure and seal the lid and cook for 10-15 minutes extra.
- If you’re looking to keep this recipe vegetarian, just omit the sausage.
- Feel free to grab your cutting board and knife, cut up the veggies and meat ahead of time, and store in a mixing bowl till needed.
- Thin or thicken it – if is too thick in consistency for you, you can add a splash of stock or broth. If too thin, thicken it by mashing some of the beans and rice after cooking and mixing them back in.
Storage
I love that this recipe is a great meal prep solution.
- Storage – leftovers can be kept in an airtight container inside the fridge for up to 4 days.
- Freeze – freeze cool rice in an air tight container for up to 2 months. I recommend breaking it down into appropriate serving size portions. It’s easier and more efficient to reheat smaller portions than to try and reheat the entire batch at once.
- Reheat – thaw overnight in the refrigerator and reheat on the stove top or in the microwave till warmed through.
Serving Suggestions
I love that this recipe is a meal in itself. However you can make it part of a bigger meal alongside Cajun Shrimp as well as this Cajun Shrimp Salad or even this crispy Cajun Air Fryer Fish.
Other treats on the table can include Skillet Cornbread, as well as this Scalloped Corn and this Red Potato Salad and lastly this easy Air Fryer Pork Chops.
More Recipes You Might Like
If you like this, then you’ll want to check out these other quick, easy and delicious recipes:
- Creole Seasoning.
- Instant Pot Jambalaya.
- Hoppin John.
- Candied Sweet Potatoes.
- Shrimp Creole.
- Creole Sauce.
- Instant Pot Chicken and Potatoes.
- Instant Pot Chicken and Rice.
- Instant Pot Corn Chowder with Sweet Potato
Weight Watchers Points
There are 10 Blue Plan SmartPoints in one serving of this.
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Instant Pot Red Beans and Rice
Ingredients
For the rice:
- 2 cups (390g) basmati rice
- 2 cups (500ml) water
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
For the red beans:
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 medium onion diced
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 green bell pepper diced
- 1 red bell pepper diced
- 2 celery stalks diced
- 1 lb (454g) dry red kidney beans
- 1 teaspoon salt or more to taste
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1-2 teaspoon Creole seasoning Cajun seasoning
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- 2 bay leaves
- 7 cups (1750ml) water
- 1 lb (454g) andouille sausage cut into thin slices
Instructions
To cook the rice:
- Start by rinsing and draining the rice.
- Add 2 cups of water to the Instant Pot inner pot.
- Add the rice, salt and 2 cups of water to an Instant Pot safe dish and stir to combine.
- Add a long-legged trivet to the Instant Pot. Place the dish with the rice on top of the trivet. Cover the dish with aluminum foil and use a fork to poke a few holes to allow for slight ventilation.
- Close the lid and pressure cook on High for 5 mins and perform a 10 min Natural Pressure Release. Manually release any remaining pressure and then open the lid.
- Remove the dish with the rice, set aside and let cool while still covered for 10 mins
To cook the beans:
- Turn Sauté mode on, once hot, add the olive oil.
- Once the oil is simmering, add the sliced sausage and saute for a few mins, until golden brown. If needed, cook in batches. Remove sausages and put them on a plate.
- Next, add the onion and saute for 1 min.
- Add minced garlic and cook for another 30 secs, stirring with your spatula.
- Add the sausage and the rest of the ingredients to the Instant Pot.
- Cover the Instant Pot with the lid, lock it and cook on High Pressure for 35 mins.
- Once done cooking, perform a Natural Pressure Release, which should take about 25 mins.
- Serve the bean mixture over cooked rice with fresh chopped parsley.
Video
Notes
- Cooking time does not include time to come up to pressure or for pressure to release.
- If you’re looking to keep this Red Beans and Rice Instant Pot recipe Vegetarian, just omit the sausage.
- If the beans aren’t soft or tender enough for you after cooking initially and using a natural pressure release, close, secure and seal the lid and cook again for 10-15 mins extra.
- Do NOT use a quick pressure release as this does NOT give the beans enough time to cook fully and you’ll wind up with crunchy beans.
- Feel free to grab your cutting board and knife, cut up the veggies and meat ahead of time, and store in a mixing bowl till needed.
Ingredients for rice include olive oil, which is not mentioned again in the cooking instructions for the rice. Do you use olive oil with the rice or not?
This sounds so tasty and hearty too! Will definitely try it this weekend.