Instant Pot Quinoa is the best quinoa you’ve ever tried! Make it a Quinoa Bowl with egg, avocado and veggies and you have a full and well balanced meal in less than 30 minutes.
I am IN LOVE with my Instant Pot. Who knew this could be a thing. I really am though. At first I couldn’t understand the hype around the Instant Pot. I mean, it’s just a fancy pot, right? Once I got one I understood.
Cooking sweet potatoes in it won me over! It’s simply so amazing to be able to leave it completely unattended. I can go about doing other stuff while food is cooking. I don’t have to keep and eye on it.
No need to increase and decrease heat to avoid stuff from boiling over. I don’t need to even be in the kitchen for it to do its work. Like how awesome is that?
How to make Instant Pot Quinoa
It’s super duper easy to make Quinoa in the Instant Pot and it tastes so much better than made in a regular pot. FOR REALZ!! I’m half Peruvian. I’ve eaten quinoa since I was a baby. It was probably one of my first foods. Never did it occur to me there could still be a way to prepare quinoa that I didn’t know yet. There is ALWAYS a new way ;)
If you are one of the people that don’t like quinoa because it’s always kinda mushy, try making it in the Instant Pot! It’s not mushy AT.ALL!
Since the instant pot doesn’t let the steam release you need less water and less water means less mush. You basically need just the perfect amount of water to cook it. You don’t have to account for water that evaporates during the cooking process.
Fry the quinoa for a couple minutes before cooking with chopped onion and crushed garlic and OMG you end up with the best quinoa you’ve tried in your life. I’m serious!
Step by step instructions on how to make quinoa in the Instant Pot
So here the steps one by one:
> Heat Instant Pot by hitting the “Sauté” button.
> Once hot (the display will conveniently say “hot”), add a splash of oil, chopped onion and crushed garlic. Sauté for a minute or until onion starts to become translucent.
> Add quinoa and a bit of sea salt and fry for a good 3-5 minutes while constantly stirring.
> Add the same amount of water as you added quinoa (1-1 ratio). Put on the lid on, make sure the venting knob is set to “sealing” and press on cancel to reprogram.
> Press on the “Manual” button and set to 1 minute (make sure it’s also set on high pressure by pressing the “Pressure” button if necessary and set a timer on your phone for 21 minutes.
> Once your phone alarm goes off, the pressure should have all be released naturally and you can remove the lid and you have perfectly cooked quinoa.
The Instant Pot needs 5 minutes to build up pressure and then the quinoa should cook 1 minute under high pressure and 15 minutes under natural pressure release. Basically “remaining” pressure and heat. Thus 21 minutes in total.
Instant Pot Quinoa Bowl with Egg
That best part about making a Quinoa Bowl with Egg using an Instant Pot: you can cook the quinoa and egg in one go, in one pot, at the same time. Woot woot!
The egg comes out PERFECTLY hard-boiled. The quinoa doesn’t even really have to be fluffed up with a fork because it’s not mushy and doesn’t stick into a big ball. And the 21 minutes you are leaving the pot unattended can be used to chop up some veggies, wash the chopping board and knife, clean up your kitchen, prepare a nice dressing, set the table and scroll through Facebook :P
Instant Pot Quinoa Bowl with Tahini Dressing
A quinoa bowl is not a quinoa bowl without a fancy dressing! This fancy dressing has only 4 ingredients and I’d say any well stocked pantry has all the ingredients on hand :)
Tahini, lemon juice, honey and flavorless oil. That’s it. You don’t need salt because the quinoa has it already. Shake or whisk and you’re done.
This dressing tastes great on any kind of bowl food by the way.
If you are more of a creamy kinda dressing person I totally recommend this Homemade Ranch Dressing Recipe for this quinoa bowl. Soooo yummy!
Instant Pot Quinoa Bowl with Veggies
You can add absolutely ANY veggies you like to your quinoa bowl. I love to add raw veggies but steamed or roasted veggies are great, too. Just choose your 3 or 4 favorite and prepare whichever way you wish. Add on top and voilá you end up with the most amazing Instant Pot Quinoa Bowl ever.
One veggie, well technically fruit, you can’t miss is avocado. It’s the only one I suggest you definitely add. It makes the quinoa bowl super duper creamy. It also provides healthy fat for your healthy diet. Avocados are always a good idea :)
Use a melon baller to form pretty balls and “beautify” your quinoa bowl.
Instant Pot Quinoa Bowl
Ingredients
- 1 small onion
- 1 clove garlic
- 2/3 cup quinoa - (1 Instant Pot cup)
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 2/3 cup water - (1 Instant Pot cup)
- 2 large eggs
- 2 small carrots
- 1/4 cucumber
- 12 grape tomatoes
- 1 ripe avocado
- 1 Tbsp tahini
- 1 Tbsp honey
- 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 3 Tbsp avocado oil - (or any other flavorless oil)
- 3 leaves parsley or cilantro - OPTIONAL, just for decoration if you have on hand
Instructions
- Remove the Instant Pot's lid and press on sauté. It takes about 2 minutes for it to heat up. In the meantime you can peel and chop the onion and peel and crush the garlic. If you think you need more than 2 minutes to do that, then peel and chop the onion ahead of time, before pressing "sauté".
- Once Instant Pot indicates it's "hot" add about a tablespoon of avocado oil or any other flavorless cooking oil. Add chopped onion and crushed garlic and sauté while constantly stirring until the onion becomes translucent.
- Add quinoa and sea salt and fry/toast for a good 3-5 minutes while constantly stirring.
- Add water, give it a quick stir, add 2 eggs if it's a bowl for 1 and 4 eggs it it's bowls for 2, and immediately put on lid and seal. Make sure the venting knob is set to sealing. Press "cancel" and then "manual" and set the Instant Pot to 1 minute on high pressure.
- Set your phone's alarm (or any other you have on hand) to 21 minutes.
- While quinoa and eggs are cooking, peel and slice carrot into fine stripes. Wash and slice cucumber into fine stripes. Wash and quarter grape tomatoes. And prepare dressing by adding tahini, honey, lemon juice and avocado oil in a sealable container and shake.
- Once your phone's alarm went off after the 21 minutes, open the instant pot, remove the eggs and let cold water from the tab run over them until they are cold enough for your to touch and peel.
- Spoon quinoa into bowl(s), add sliced carrots, cucumbers, quartered tomatoes and halved boiled eggs. Add half an avocado per bowl in any shape you desire. I love scooping out balls with my melon baller to make it look pretty. Drizzle as much Tahini Dressing over it as you wish and DIG IN!
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Christina says
Delicious recipe enjoyed by the whole family – thank you!!
Lorena says
Thank you for taking the time to come back and commenting and rating. It means the world to me!
Gilda says
Hi,
Do you have any quinoa and rice combo dishes and or recipes?
Thanks,
Lorena says
You mean a rice blend containing quinoa? I have a whole post about how to cook rice in the instant pot and it includes a rice blend: https://greenhealthycooking.com/instant-pot-rice I hope this helps.
Therese says
Just got an Instant Pot. Question, when you cook the eggs with the quinoa, do you place them in a separate bowl or just put them right in with the quinoa and liquid?
Lorena says
I put them right in. In the video you can see how exactly :)
Laney says
Hi! Excited to try this. If I wanted to double the quinoa (for 4 people) is it 2 cups quinoa and 2 cups water and same cooking time?
Thanks!
Lorena says
Hi Laney, yes, it’s all the same. Same ratio and same time :)
Amber Konz says
Thanks so much for the recipe! I just bought an instant pot and am going to make this tomorrow. AND the dressing looks divine.
Quick question, the nutritional info at the end, is that the calorie amount for 1 quinoa bowl with all the fixins and dressing, or the entire pot of quinoa? TIA!
Lorena says
Hi Amber, wheeeee, so exited for you. The Instant Pot is sooo amazing. The calories are “per serving”. The whole recipe is for 2 people and the calories shown are for 1/2 the recipe basically.
Jennifer Cashman says
Do you have any fav brands of quinoa, or are they all the same?
Carolyn says
I’ve never cooked quinoa, but I’ve read that it needs to be rinsed first. Should I rinse it before frying?
Lorena says
Hi Carolyn, it doesn’t have to be rinsed. Peruvians don’t rinse it. You can of course do it but it’s not necessary at all. In this specific recipe you wouldn’t be able to toast the quinoa if you rinsed it and toasted + cooked quinoa is soooo tasty :) Apparently there are people that feel quinoa tastes bitter if not rinsed. I never feel it’s bitter at all but I grew up eating quinoa so maybe I’m simply used to it??
Elle says
I’ve never rinsed and never found it bitter.
Lucia says
This recipe is good, I don\t have a clue what instant pot is but used the method of frying onion with garlic on some oil and then frying the quinoa before adding watter and cooking it for roughly 15-20min lid on and then off.
And the quinoa was cooked very well, the dressing is lovely but I loved down the honey amount as I knew I would prefer the sauce a bit tangy from lemon.
Thank you for a nice and quick recipe. :)
Lorena says
You are very welcome Lucia :) An Instant Pot is an electric pressure cooker.