How to Cook Quinoa Perfectly in the Instant Pot
If you’ve ever wondered how to cook quinoa in the Instant Pot, prepare for your life to be changed! Perfect, fluffy, tender quinoa in minutes – this is the only way I cook quinoa anymore, and it is easy as can be!
Cooking fluffy, perfect quinoa in the Instant Pot has pretty much made that indispensable machine worth it in my opinion.
I’ve had a 6-quart Instant Pot for several years now and I easily use it at least 3X a week just for rice or quinoa. Making quinoa on the stovetop isn’t exactly rocket science-y hard, but the hands off approach in the Instant Pot and resulting fluffier-than-fluffy quinoa has been revolutionary for me.
How We Eat Quinoa
I serve quinoa almost anytime I make any meal with a gravy or topping. You know, stroganoffs and stir fry recipes and stuff like that. It’s high in protein and honestly just really nutty and wholesome and delicious. Here are a few favorite meals that always see quinoa served alongside around here:
Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff
Easy Korean Beef
Asian Style Meatballs with Sweet Chili Sauce
Also, I make quinoa weekly just for this whole wheat quinoa bread (the most amazingly soft whole wheat bread you’ll ever have and our go-to sandwich, toast, and everything bread). And these little quinoa patties happen almost anytime I have leftover quinoa. And we cannot, absolutely cannot, forget about this amazing gluten-free chocolate cake that uses cooked quinoa as the base.
Because quinoa can seem intimidating (and even a little weird) if you aren’t used to it, I wanted to show you how I make quinoa perfectly every time in the Instant Pot. I think it’ll make quinoa believers out of just about anyone.
Even though many quinoas nowadays come prerinsed, I always give the quinoa another rinse in a fine mesh strainer under cool water just to be safe to get rid of the natural coating on quinoa which has a bitter flavor. Dump the rinsed and lightly drained quinoa into the insert of an Instant Pot that’s been coated lightly with nonstick cooking spray.
For every cup of quinoa, I add 1 1/4 cups water and about 1/2 teaspoon coarse, kosher salt. I like this ratio of quinoa to water for a perfectly fluffy cooked quinoa. Feel free to experiment with different water/broth amounts if you like softer (or crunchier) quinoa.
Give the quinoa a quick stir and then cook on high pressure for three minutes. A lot of Instant Pot quinoa recipes call for cooking it for zero or one minutes, but I like a slightly softer quinoa without a lot of crunch. Three minutes is perfect! It’s not mushy or watery…just perfectly soft with a very slight al dente bite to it.
At the end of cooking time, quick release the pressure and carefully remove the lid. Don’t worry, many, many (many!) times I’ve walked away and let the quinoa naturally release and even stay warm for a long time in the Instant Pot and it is still perfect.
Of course it’s a bit softer that way, but still wonderful. I always let it naturally release when I’m using it in bread but prefer to quick release if serving it with a main dish.
Most, if not all, of the water should be absorbed. If it hasn’t, you might want to cook it for another minute (but I’ve never had that happen). Fluff the quinoa with a spoon and use as desired!
There are a million ways to enjoy quinoa, but in my opinion, there’s only one way to cook it. And that’s in the Instant Pot! It is fluffy, soft, quinoa perfection, and I can’t bring myself to make it any other way now.
Because I reference cooked quinoa in lots of recipes, this little “how to cook quinoa in the Instant Pot” is a perfect placeholder recipe for those kinds of recipes. If you haven’t given quinoa a go in the Instant Pot, I urge you to try it! I don’t know that it necessarily saves time from the stovetop method, but being able to set it and forget it is straight up heaven sent.
This recipe can easily be doubled or tripled depending on the size of your Instant Pot (rule of thumb is not to exceed the halfway mark with liquid/quinoa).
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Four Years Ago: Quinoa Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Granola Cookies
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How to Cook Quinoa Perfectly in the Instant Pot
Ingredients
- 1 cup uncooked quinoa
- 1 ¼ cup water or broth
- ½ teaspoon salt, use less if adding broth instead of water
Instructions
- Lightly grease the insert of a 6-quart Instant Pot with nonstick cooking spray.
- Rinse the quinoa in a fine mesh strainer with cool water and drain. Dump the quinoa into the bottom of the Instant Pot. Add the water and salt and give the quinoa a quick stir.
- Secure the lid on the Instant Pot, set the valve to seal, and cook on high pressure for 3 minutes (select the manual or pressure cook button and dial up or down to 3).
- When the cooking time has finished, quick release the pressure. Fluff the quinoa with a spoon and use immediately or refrigerate to serve later.
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe
This works perfectly every time! Thanks, Mel.
This is the only way I cook quinoa now! Thank you!!!
Would you use this same method and ratio for the quinoa in your quinoa chocolate cake? Or would you add more water and have it be a mushier texture?
I think for that cake, I’d use a bit more water so the quinoa is super soft.
Perfect and so easy – I left mine to natural release because I like it a little softer. Thank you!
In quick releasing the pressure, the quinoa didn’t even come out of its seed. I let my IP naturally release for 10min to fully cook the quinoa. But the way the directions are written, is fine, it just tastes more like al dente couscous.
I followed those instructions and it wasn’t enough water. The instant pot turned off and it said “burn”.
So easy and fabulous results! Thanks Mel!
This is coming out with the liquid not fully evaporated – what should I change?
You can cut the liquid down a bit or let it sit, covered, to let the liquid absorb into the quinoa (is the quinoa fluffy and tender)?
Mine is mushy! What am I doing wrong? Followed the recipe precisely twice and got mush. Sigh……
Hey Katie – try decreasing the time to just 1 minute. What brand of quinoa are you using out of curiosity?
Just made this, forgot to put in the cooking spray. No problem at all, it came right out,, nothing stuck to the bottom. Works super! Tastes great.
Thanks, Mary!
Hi Mel! I saw your note that you could double or triple this recipe depending on the size of the Instant Pot — do you think I could safely double the recipe using a 6 quart Instant Pot? Thank you!
Yes! For sure!
Do you have a favorite brand quinoa, Mel? Aldi’s, anybody’s OK?,
I’ve used so many brands over the years, but lately I’ve been getting it at Costco. I’m going out on a limb to say most brands are created equal as long as you rinse it first.
Hi Mel! Is using the non-stick cooking spray really important? Will it stick to the pot otherwise? My husband really doesn’t like using the cooking spray, so I thought I’d ask how essential it is to the success of this quinoa.
You can probably get by without it, Ann! I find it helps avoid any overly browned/burned spots on the bottom.
I would imagine you could also just put a little canola oil in the pot and smear it around either with your fingers or a bit of paper towel.
Thank you for sharing this! I noticed in the bread recipe that you use 1 cup quinoa and 2.25 cups of water and that recipe states to include any excess quinoa water with the bread. Since this quinoa uses less water, do you add extra water to the bread?
Good question! For the bread recipe, I follow the amounts given in that specific recipe (1 cup quinoa to 2 1/4 cups water) because I really like a super soft quinoa for that bread (it would be too soft to eat with a meal, in my opinion, but it’s perfect for the texture of the bread).
Thank you!!
I used to think that quinoa was “meh”; fine but not amazing. Not something I’d ever eat by itself just because. And then I cooked it in the IP using your recipe. Life-changing. I can’t count the number of people I’ve told to do this. It’s a completely different (and much better!) texture than stove-top-cooked. Thanks, Mel, for upping my quinoa game!
Thanks for giving me the idea to do this post, Alicia! Appreciate you so much!
Don’t forget the best use of quinoa ever- your gluten free chocolate cake! That cake is my party trick; everybody raves over it and can’t believe it’s gf. And once I tell them the secret ingredient (besides love), they’re shocked, astounded, befuddled and like all good party tricks, I’m asked to bring it again and again. I’m looking forward to using my ip to make that recipe even faster and more foolproof. Thanks Mel!
I agree, that cake is AMAZING! It’s actually my favorite chocolate cake!
Yes! Thanks for reminding me, Julie. HOW COULD I FORGET?? I just added it to the post because it really is lifechanging.
Amen to the cake review — it’s incredible!