Easy Instant Pot Red Beans And Rice (GF)
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.
Folks, Sundays are made for relaxing and enjoying a nice big bowl of comfort food. Today, I’m bringing you the affordable and hearty Instant Pot Red Beans and Rice recipe.
It’s just as tasty as the traditional Louisiana Creole recipes you’ll find cooking away on the stovetops of New Orleans and southern families, but it doesn’t require as long of a cooking time and is relatively easy!!! This is one of those southern food recipes everyone should try at least once.
Traditionally, Red Beans and Rice is made on Monday nights, using the leftovers from Sunday evening’s feast. It’s a great way to make sure everyone enjoys a nice hearty meal together and even gets a nice helping of vegetables without even realizing it.
I love how this Southern staple now gets its smoky flavor and taste comes from Louisiana Andouille and Creole Seasoning.
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 you will absolutely looooove it:
- It is super affordable and is made entirely of everyday store cupboard staples.
- Immensely adaptable. There are virtually limitless ways you can adapt and vary the flavors to suit your tastes and mood. Folks, this is one delicious recipe that will never be boring.
- It is easy to double the recipe to feed a crowd.
- Prep-ahead Ease. Cook and keep them in the fridge or freezer till needed.
Instant Pot Red Beans And Rice
KITCHEN TOOLS, UTENSILS & APPLIANCES NEEDED
This post contains affiliate links. For more information, check out my disclosure.
Here are some of the items you will need to make this recipe.- 8 qt Instant Pot.
- I use and love the 8 qt, extra Instant Pot Insert & sealing ring.
- 3 qt Instant Pot or 6 qt Instant Pot depending on family size.
- Handy spatula. A knife and cutting board.
- These awesome measuring jugs or cups.
- Measuring teaspoons.
- Sea Salt Flakes <= amazing salt that makes your food taste good.
- Try my favorite spice kit for different flavours on your recipes.
- Bowls with covers.
- For storing your leftover food.
So folks, are you ready to learn just how easy it is to make Instant Pot Red Beans and Rice? Gather up your ingredients and I will show you just how easy it is to adapt such a tasty recipe to be created in the Instant Pot!
How to Make Instant Pot Red Beans and Rice
Note –> full ingredients and instructions further down in the recipe card.
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 Red Beans:
- Turn sauté mode on and once hot, add the olive oil.
- Once the oil is simmering, add the sliced Louisiana Andouille 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.
Red Beans and Rice Instant Pot Tips
- 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.
Can You Freeze This?
Absolutely, you can freeze this Red Beans Instant Pot recipe. That’s why it’s so great to make this recipe ahead and it is a great meal prep solution. Here’s how:
- Make sure the Red Beans and Rice is completely cooled.
- Add to an airtight meal prep container or ziploc bag and label.
- Place the bag or container flat in the freezer.
- Your Instant Pot Beans and Rice can be kept frozen for up to 3 months.
We recommend breaking it down into appropriate serving size portions for what you think you might want to reheat later. It’s easier and more efficient to reheat smaller portions in the microwave and stovetop of this recipe than to try and reheat the entire batch at once.
Recipe Variations
- Substitute the meat. If you don’t have andouille sausage on hand, you can sub it out for another 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.
- You can use different beans. If cooking this recipe the traditional way, this recipe calls for the small red beans. These aren’t always available so we created this recipe to use red kidney beans, which are just as tasty. In fact, many recipes for this use red kidney beans.
- Thin it if you prefer. If the red beans and rice mixture is too thick in consistency for you, you can add a splash of stock or broth, whatever you have on hand.
- Or thicken it. If it is too thin for you, you can thicken it by mashing some of the beans up. If you really like a thick dish, you may want to consider grabbing a mixer and mixing it all up briefly. This will mash more of the beans together and make everything stick together more.
Serving Suggestions
More Southern Recipes
- Creole Seasoning.
- Instant Pot Jambalaya.
- Hoppin John.
- Red Potato Salad.
- Candied Sweet Potatoes.
- Shrimp Creole.
- Creole Sauce.
More Instant Pot Recipes
If you like Instant Pot Red Beans and Rice, then you’ll want to check out these other quick, easy and delicious Instant Pot recipes:
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.