Instant Pot Yellow Rice

Large silver spoon holding a scoop of yellow rice.

This Instant Pot yellow rice is bright, flavorful, and made with fresh lemon, turmeric, and fluffy jasmine or basmati rice. It's the perfect side dish for Mexican-inspired meals, Mediterranean recipes, and grain bowls.

Course Side Dish

Cuisine American

Keyword instant pot lemon turmeric rice, instant pot yellow rice, pressure cooker yellow rice, turmeric lemon jasmine rice

Prep Time 4

Cook Time 12

Pressure Cooker (up to pressure, natural release) 5

Total Time 21

Servings servings

Calories 178kcal

Author Samantha Rowland

Equipment

Pressure cooker

Ingredients

olive oil spray
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cup water
2 medium lemons, zested and juiced
2 teaspoons ground turmeric
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1.5 teaspoons sea salt
2 cups brown jasmine rice (rinsed)**

Instructions

Finely chop the onion. Turn the instant pot on Saute mode, when preheated, spray with olive oil (or add about 1/2 tablespoon olive oil) and add the chopped onions. Cook 2-3 minutes, stirring regularly.
1 medium onion, chopped, olive oil spray
Once the onion has started to turn translucent, turn off the saute function and while it's still hot, add about 1/2 cup of the water. Scrape down the pot to dislodge any of the brown bits from cooking the onion. These will trigger a burn notice if not removed.
I recommend a wooden spoon for this.
Zest the lemon into the instant pot, then add the lemon juice, turmeric, garlic powder and salt. Stir well (use a stainless steel spoon to ensure it doesn't stain from the turmeric).
2 medium lemons, zested and juiced, 2 teaspoons ground turmeric, 2 teaspoons garlic powder, 1.5 teaspoons sea salt
Rinse the rice well in a mesh strainer. Add the rinsed rice and the rest of the water (2.5 cups) to the instant pot. Stir well. Place lid on the instant pot and make sure it's set to sealing.
2 cups brown jasmine rice (rinsed)**
Cook on high pressure for 7 minutes.
Note: If using white jasmine rice, only cook 3 minutes high pressure.
Manually release pressure. After all pressure has been released, carefully remove the lid and fluff the rice with a fork (it will look wet when you first take the lid off).

Video

Notes

**To use white jasmine rice you will need:

2 cups white jasmine rice
2.5 cups of water
Use the rest of the ingredients as written.

When cooking the white jasmine rice, cook for 3 minutes at high pressure.

Tips:

Rinse the rice well. This helps remove excess starch so the rice cooks up fluffy instead of sticky.
Zest the lemon before juicing it. It's much easier to zest a whole lemon than one that's already been cut.
Fluff the rice with a fork after cooking. It may look a little wet when you first open the Instant Pot, but a quick fluff is all it needs.

Storage:

Fridge: Store leftovers in the fridge (in a glass container to avoid staining plastic) for up to 5 days.
Freezer: Store leftovers in the freezer for up to 3 months. You may want to store this rice in 1 or 2 cup portions so you can easily get a serving or two at a time. I love my Souper Cubes for this! Once frozen, transfer from a Souper Cube into a freezer safe bag for up to 3 months.

Nutrition