Pressure Cooker Forbidden Black Rice
Forbidden black rice is a superfood. It has more antioxidants than blueberries with less sugar and more fiber. It has the nutty flavor of brown rice, but retains more of its nutrient-rich outer shell than brown rice.
According to legend, black rice was grown only for the emperors of ancient China and was called forbidden rice, because it was off limits to the general public. I bought my rice at the bulk food section at Winco, so it’s no longer off limits to the masses. I recently had a reader ask me about the cook time for black rice, so I decided to give it a try.
Making Forbidden Black Rice in an Instant Pot
The cook time for black rice is the same as brown rice in the pressure cooker. If you like the nutty flavor and chewy texture of brown rice, you’ll like black rice. I really enjoyed it, like the added healthy benefits, and it definitely adds drama to the plate.
You can easily half or double (and triple) this recipe without changing the cook time. Plus, in the Instant pot there is no need to soak forbidden rice.
I served my forbidden rice with an easy orange chicken (I’ll post the recipe on Barbara Bakes on Friday) and steamed broccoli. I’ve also got a Black Rice Pudding recipe in the works.
Have you tried black rice yet?
Forbidden Black Rice
Ingredients
- 2 cup black rice
- 2 3/4 cups water
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions
Combine the rice, water, oil and salt in the pressure cooker pot. Lock the lid in place and select High Pressure and 22 minutes cook time. When beep sounds turn off pressure cooker and use a natural pressure release for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes release any remaining pressure with a quick pressure release.
When valve drops, carefully remove lid tilting it away from you. Fluff rice with a fork.
More rice recipes you might like:
Saffron Almond Rice Pilaf
Quick Coconut Rice
Chipotle’s Cilantro Lime Rice
Lemon Rice
The best, easiest recipe! Thank you so much! Came out PERFECT!!
That’s great to hear – thanks Anne!
Thanks for this recipe, I am excited to try it! Is it necessary to use salt and oil in this recipe? I am trying to limit my salt and oil intake. This will be my first time making Forbidden Rice in my Instant Pot! Excited!
Hi Samantha – you can omit them if you prefer. Enjoy!
I was worried that it was not enough water but it was absolutely perfect thank you you nailed it
That’s great – thanks Lo!
I’m just learning to use a pressure cooker. Can the recipe be halved?
Hi Sylvia – yes, this recipe can be halved with no change in the cook time. Enjoy!
Not only was this my first time cooking black rice, but my first time using my Instant Pot. Happy to say it turned out absolutely perfect. Only thing I did differently was used fat free chicken broth instead of water and therefore didn’t add any salt. Couldn’t have been easier or turned out any better. Fantastic. Check my link for video proof!
That’s awesome – thanks for sharing. Have fun with your new IP.
Yay!!! I’m so glad I found the cook time for the forbidden rice. I love to mix it with some steel cut oatmeal and top with fresh fruit and a delicious maple creme. Now I don’t have to wait!! Only 22 mins!! Can’t wait to try this!!
What a delicious way to serve it – thanks for sharing Beth!
Thanks for a great recipe! I used your recipe with an Instant Pot and made a few adjustments. I used 1 cup forbidden rice, 1 cup brown rice, 2 2/3 cup water. I also added a teaspoon of garlic, 1 finely diced shallot, and added 1 teaspoon of chicken flavor Better than Bouillon. I added the teaspoon salt and olive oil as listed. 24 minutes on high pressure, then natural release. Absolutely delicious. I plan to use some of the left overs to make forbidden rice cakes like the ones served with chicken in the Pinnacle Grill on Holland America Lines. This was my first trial for forbidden rice in the Instant Pot. Great method!
I finally got my pressure cooker out for my black rice. It turned out perfectly!
Do you soak your black rice before cooking with this recipe?
Hi Jeff – no I didn’t.
Bought black rice on a whim yesterday and checked your site to see if by chance you had cooking time listed. Voila, there was the black rice recipe. I cut the recipe in half and made a pot. It was a late evening snack that we ate with a little ghee on it. Delicious and how nice to know it has healthy benefits as well – it may be hyperbole, but the package calls it a superfood. I thought it was less “heavy” tasting than brown rice and we liked it better. The package noted how dramatic it would look with bright veggies. Wouldn’t it look gorgeous with some carrots, tomatoes, yellow or orange bell peppers and perhaps broccoli? I like Edwina’s idea of serving it with chicken curry as well.
I’m reading some of the notes from people who had problems with black rice and the Instant Pot and I’m wondering why there was a problem. Brand could matter I suppose. I didn’t use anything fancy or expensive – Hinode brand from the supermarket. Over time, rice can lose its moisture not to mention become rancid. I’m wondering if one of these folks was using old rice. Except for halving the recipe I followed Barbara’s instructions to the “T” and had perfect results. If one is expecting it to be like white rice she might be disappointed. It does have more of a “tooth” than white rice – similar to brown rice as Barbara notes. For some recipes measuring exact quantities isn’t an issue, but for rice it makes a difference. That could be the issue. One mistake I sometimes make is forgetting to move the lever from venting to pressure and it’s “on” for a few minutes before I realize it. That could make a real difference when cooking rice. I’m wondering if one of those having difficulty forgot to add the oil. Failing to wait for 10 minutes of natural pressure release could be the difference between not fully cooked and perfectly cooked rice as Barbara noted. My last thought is that the silicone ring wasn’t perfectly seated and thus some moisture was lost in the cooking. If none of these things are the issue, I’d contact Instant Pot customer service. There might be a problem with the Instant Pot.
Thanks! So glad your rice turned out perfectly. Thanks for sharing your insight. Really great points.
I had a Black Forbidden Rice cooked with Coconut Milk at Roy’s Restaurant.
I got hold of Lotus Black Forbidden Rice and a can of Coconut milk, so i tried to cook with my Instant Pot.
I didn’t see your site yet, so i cooked like my normal Japanese rice, manual cook of 4 min but natural release in 12 min instead of 15 ~ 18 min (which is my regular timing with Japanese rice). When i opened, it still had oily liquid around, so i closed up and cooked 2 more min…
The result was Coconut milk was absorded but the rice had some chewiness still… but it was tasty.
So, my question. Using Coconut milk + bit of water (i used 1 cup of rice : 2 cups of liquid, meaning one can of Coconut milk + water to make total 2 cups, would you still cook 22 min with 10 min natural release?
Hi Yumi – yes, I would cook it for 22 minutes, but you may need to add more water since the coconut milk was absorbed with the shorter cook time.
Thank you, Barbara for your reply.
How much water do you recommend to add? With 1 cup of rice and a can of Coconut milk, i only added not even 1/4 cup water…
Maybe try adding an additional 1/4 cup of water.
OK, i’ll try. Thank you very much.
My first time hearing about black rice was only a few months ago. Naturally I had to try it, if for nothing more than to see the color pop on the plate! I made a coconut chicken curry with yellow curry paste and served it with a scoop of black rice in the center. Not only did it look beautiful, but I was pleasantly surprised at the taste. Honestly, I don’t know what I was expecting other than to be surprised. But the rice was, as you said, similar to brown rice in texture and flavor. I will definitely keep this “in rotation” — my family’s way of saying let’s do this one again. Trust me on this: it’s delicious!!!
Hi Edwina – that sounds like a fabulous meal. Did you make chicken curry in the pressure cooker?
Mmm! Delicious, not like others similar, one of the simplest recipes I ever found. I use Redmond 4500 multicooker for cooking and that meal is impressive! In my opinion all the people should try it!
Hi Barbara! I’m a newbie to pressure cooking! and wanted to try this rice? but even though I followed the recipe precisely! the rice wasn’t done, not even close to fluffy. I had cooked ribs in it before (it being an instant pot 60duo), and I poured out the juice but didn’t clean the pot thinking it wouldn’t hurt to have a little flavor. Do you have any ideas about that? Thanks in advance!
Hi Laura – welcome to pressure cooking. I’m looking forward to getting my hands on the new Instant Pot. I don’t think not cleaning the pot was the problem. Brown rice and black rice don’t ever really get fluffy like white rice, even fully cooked they will be slightly chewy. If the rice was hard however, then something else was the problem. Did you let it natural pressure release at the end of the cooking time?
I had the same problem with my new Instant Pot for each of my trials with basmati and then black rice. Both times the rice wasn’t done and it was scored to the bottom. Really discouraging because I bought the Instant Pot Duo because it was and all-in-one. Any suggestions?
Hi Rebecca – In the Instant Pot, you shouldn’t be having problems with rice scorching on the bottom. The Instant Pot should only have a evaporation rate of 2% for every 10 minutes.
Here’s how to test your evaporation rate:
– staring with a “cold cooker” take out the liner, place on scale and fill with 1000g of tap water
– insert in cooker and set to pressure cook at “high pressure” (or equivalent) for 10 minutes
– start stop watch from the time you hit “start” and “stop” when the pressure cooker has reached pressure. Write down the time.
– let it pressure cook for 10 minutes, when finished stop keep-warm cycle and un-plug and wait for natural release (15-20 minutes, you need to listen for it) – do not open the valve at all.
– when the lid un-locks, remove and shake lid condensation into the inner pot, then carefully remove and pour water into zeroed-out bowl on scale. Write down the weight.
Also, make sure your dials are in the proper position and that your gasket is properly installed. Hope that helps. 🙂
How would you cook this in a rice cooker???
Hi Jennifer – I would follow the recipe for brown rice that came with your rice cooker. It has a similar texture. Enjoy!
I have a stove top pressure cooker. Do I need to do anything differently for this? TIA
Shara you shouldn’t need to make any changes cooking it on the stovetop if you’ve had good luck cooking other kinds of rice in your stovetop pressure cooker.
Are you using a stove top pressure cooker for this recipe or electric. I have the Fagor electric pressure cooker plus (6qt. capacity). I have some black rice sitting in my cupboard and was just thinking there has to be a pressure cooker recipe for it. I just recently got my pressure cooker and I am still figuring it out!
Hi Wendy – I use a 6 quart Cuisinart and a Instant Pot electric pressure cookers. https://www.pressurecookingtoday.com/faq/ Have fun!