Instant Pot lentils and brown rice
Earthy lentils and nutty brown rice cooked together with cumin and golden onion in one pot, finished with lemon and parsley, the easiest filling dinner you can set and forget.
- 60 min total
- 15 min hands-on
- Anyone can make this
- Serves 4
- About $1.45 a serving
- 440 calories
- Good the next day
- Vegetarian
- Gluten-free
Dolly says: Make the full amount. It’s just as good for lunch the next day.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 cup lentils, brown or green, rinsed
- 1 cup brown rice, rinsed
- 3 cups vegetable broth
- 1 lemon, halved
- ¼ cup fresh parsley, chopped
- ½ cup plain Greek yogurt (optional)
From your pantry
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1½ tsp ground cumin
- ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp salt
Each serving has about 440 calories, 17 g protein, 75 g carbs and 9 g fat, and costs about $1.45 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No yellow onions? White onions or red onions work.
- No lemons? Limes work.
- No fresh parsley? Cilantro works.
- No plain Greek yogurt? Plain yogurt or sour cream works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Set the Instant Pot to , add the oil and onion, and cook, stirring, 5 to 6 minutes, until at the edges.
Sauté. Sautéing means cooking cut-up food in a little oil or butter over medium to medium-high heat, stirring now and then. It cooks things quickly and browns them lightly without burning.
How you’ll know: You hear a steady, lively sizzle, not a hiss and spit, and the edges start to soften and color.
Golden brown. Golden brown is the color of good toast, somewhere between yellow and light brown. It means the outside is cooked and crisp but not burnt.
How you’ll know: It looks like toast and smells toasty; dark brown with a bitter smell means it went too far.
Timer: 5 min
Stir in the garlic, cumin, coriander and cinnamon and cook 1 minute, . Press Cancel.
Fragrant. Fragrant means cooking until you can clearly smell it, usually garlic or spices, often in about 30 seconds. That’s the moment the flavor is ready, just before it can burn.
How you’ll know: You can smell it from a step back, and garlic is pale gold, not brown.
Add the lentils, rice, broth and salt, and scrape the bottom well so nothing is stuck.
Dolly’s tip: A clean bottom keeps the burn warning away.Lock the lid, set the valve to Sealing and cook on High Pressure for 22 minutes.
Timer: 22 min
Let the pressure come down on its own for 10 minutes, then carefully turn the valve to Venting.
Timer: 10 min
Dolly’s tip: Keep your hand and face away from the valve. The steam is very hot.Fluff with a fork, squeeze in the lemon juice and stir in most of the parsley.
Serve with a spoonful of yogurt, a of olive oil and the rest of the parsley.
Drizzle. Drizzling means pouring a thin, slow stream over the top of something. A thin stream spreads a little flavor a long way.
How you’ll know: You see thin lines across the food, not a puddle collecting underneath.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
