Instant Pot Jeera Rice

Name: Instant Pot Jeera Rice
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 20 min
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon oil (or ghee , 15 ml); 1 bay leaf; 1 green chili (sliced); 3 cloves; 3 whole green cardamom; 1 teaspoon cumin seeds; 1 cup basmati rice (200 grams/7.05 oz); 1.25 cups water (300 ml/10 oz); 1/2 teaspoon salt (or to tase)

By Manali Singh

4.87 from 22 votes

Aug 30, 2018, Updated Dec 29, 2021

Basmati rice tempered with whole cumin seeds! Jeera rice is a popular Indian rice dish which pairs beautifully with any curry or dal. It's so easy to make it in the Instant Pot! Vegan & gluten-free.

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Simple & flavorful Instant Pot Jeera Rice!

Basmati rice flavored with whole cumin seeds makes the perfect accompaniment to Indian meals.

If you love all the Instant Pot vegetarian/vegan recipes that I share on the blog, please join me on this Facebook Group – Instant Pot Vegetarian Recipes. The group shares/features vegetarian instant pot recipes and ideas from all around the web!

I always thought adding cumin to rice was a very natural thing. That’s because I always saw mom adding it all the time to pulao and biryani.

In fact whenever we had guests over, she would always make a simple jeera rice (cumin rice) to go along with the various dals and curries.

However when I grew up and started cooking myself, I realized that it is a very Indian thing to add cumin to rice and it’s not like a widely known/acceptable phenomenon.

I once made vegetable pulao for dinner for one of our American friends here and they were so surprised with the addition of cumin to rice. They had no idea it was even possible! And all my life I thought it was the most natural things to do!

Isn’t it amazing how our thoughts about certain things are so different? We just assume that what we grow up with to be absolutely normal!

Anyway if you have never added cumin to your rice, you really need to. Jeera Rice or Cumin Rice is a very popular rice side dish in India. You would almost always find it on the menu of your favorite Indian restaurants too.

How to Make Jeera Rice

For jeera rice, we add a tempering of cumin seeds to the basmati rice before cooking it. The toasted cumin seeds make the simple rice pop up and infuse it with so much flavor and aroma.

I also add some other whole spices like cloves, cardamom, and bay leaf to make it more fragrant.

Typically, onions are not used in jeera rice. But if you want, you can always add some chopped onion to the rice.

It’s extremely easy to make jeera rice in the Instant Pot. Simply saute the spices until fragrant, then add the rice, water and let it cook.

Yup that simple and makes such a great side dish.

This Instant Pot Jeera Rice

✓ super easy to make in the instant pot

✓ infused with flavors of cumin and other whole spices

✓ is vegan and gluten-free

✓ pairs well with any dal or curry

✓ is the perfect restaurant style jeera rice, where each grain of rice is well separated

I love jeera rice but the only time I do not like it is when it’s all mushy. To make sure all the grains of rice are nicely separated, it is important to use the right quantity of water.

For this Instant Pot Jeera Rice recipe, I have used rice to water ratio of 1:1.25 and it worked perfectly well. I have previously used 1:1.5 rice to water ratio as well and that works well too but for that perfectly separated grains, go with the quantity mentioned in the recipe.

Jeera Rice is the perfect accompaniment to any Indian meal. I like to serve it with chole or butter paneer. Yum!

Method

Wash the rice 4-5 times until the water turns clear. Drain and set it aside.

1- Press the saute button of the Instant Pot. Once it displays hot, add oil (or ghee) to it. Then add the bay leaf, sliced green chili, cloves, green cardamom and cumin seeds. Let the cumin seeds splutter.

2- Then add the rinsed basmati rice to the pot. Stir the rice with the spices for 30 seconds. Then add water, salt and stir.

3- Close the pot with its lid and press the manual/pressure cook button. Cook on high pressure for 5 minutes with the pressure valve in the sealing position.

4- Let the pressure release naturally for 2 minutes and then do a quick pressure release by manually moving the pressure valve from the sealing to the venting position.

Open the pot and fluff the rice with a fork.

Serve jeera rice with any curry of choice. It also goes very well with spinach dal!

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