Instant Pot Tomato Rice Recipe – South Indian Style Tomato Rice Pilaf/Pulao Recipe Using Instant Pot

This instant pot tomato rice is a very easy instant pot yellow rice recipe using fresh tomatoes, spices and white basmati rice prepared in South Indian style.

This recipe works for a 6 quart instant pot duo or lux, not recommended for smaller sized instant pots since the recipe uses 2.5 cups of rice.

This instant pot tomato rice is vegetarian as well as vegan instant pot rice recipe, but you may also use ghee or butter instead of coconut oil if you do not want to keep it vegan.

The instant pot tomato rice or yellow rice using fresh tomatoes, turmeric powder and other spices is delicious, aromatic and flavor like a rice pilaf as this is made with exotic spices and the preparation using instant pot makes this rice even more flavorful and delicious, not to mention how easy and quick it is to make this dish using the instant pot.

Since I used 6 quart instant pot to make this tomato rice, I could make quite a lot of servings (about 6 servings here) easily and quickly.

You can use a 6 quart instant pot or higher versions to make this amount of tomato rice easily which is enough for dinner for a family of four and you will even have leftovers for the next day.

The amount of rice used here is 2.5 cups which is quite a large size enough for multiple servings, so you can even use this recipe to make rice for small gatherings, family dinners, potluck etc.

If you wish to make a smaller serving, you can adjust the amounts of ingredients accordingly and cook for the same amount of time following the instructions of this recipe.

More instant pot recipes in this blog:

• Instant pot broccoli recipe
• instant pot pasta soup recipe
• instant pot spaghetti noodles recipe
• instant pot eggplant curry recipe
• instant pot rice pudding recipe

So here is how you can make this quick, easy and delicious tomato rice following this easy instant pot tomato rice recipe.

Easy instant pot tomato rice recipe below

Instant pot tomato rice recipe, How to make instant pot tomato rice/tomato rice pilaf South Indian style recipe

This instant pot tomato rice recipe without onions makes a delicious, quick South Indian style tomato rice pilaf/pulao made using instant pot which is perfect for an easy delicious vegetarian lunch or dinner.

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Course: Main Course, Side Dish

Cuisine: Indian

Keyword: instant pot tomato rice

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

pressure build up & release time: 25 minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes

Servings: 8

Calories: 252kcal

Author: Recipe Garden

Ingredients

• 2.5 cups white basmati rice
• 5 medium sized tomatoes
• 4 cups water
• 1 teaspoon salt adjust as needed
• 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
• ½ teaspoon red chili powder
• ½ teaspoon cumin seeds powder
• 2 tablespoons ginger garlic paste
• 3 green chilies
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil

Whole spices

• 2 cardamom pods
• 2 cloves
• 2 small cinnamon sticks
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 star anise

For garnishing (optional)

• 2 tablespoons cilantro leaves chopped

Instructions

• Wash and chop the tomatoes in small pieces, keep the chopped tomatoes aside.
• Wash the rice very well and keep this aside separately from the tomatoes.
• Add the oil to the inner pot of instant pot, press the saute function, set it low and add the oil.
• When the oil is hot, add the whole spices - cardamom pods, cloves, cinnamon sticks, bay leaves and star anise and lightly fry for about 1 minute.
• Once the spices are lightly fried, add the ginger garlic paste and green chilies, stir well and fry for about a minute.
• Add the chopped tomatoes also to the pot and saute for another 1 to 2 minutes. (Once the tomatoes are sauteed, in case the pot gets very hot and things start sticking, you can always press the 'keep warm' button which will immediately cancels the saute function so you do not have to worry)
• Add the rice also to the pot, stir well using a good spatula and saute for another 1 minute (if needed you may add a little more oil or butter or ghee).
• Add enough salt and also all the remaining spices to the pot - turmeric powder, red chili powder and cumin seeds powder, stir well and saute for about a minute (you may also add a little coriander powder and garam masala powder if you wish to have more masala flavor for the rice, but this is not necessary).
• Add the water, stir everything well and press the 'keep warm/cancel' button.
• Close the instant pot with lid in sealing position, press the manual button and cook in high pressure for 5 minutes of time.
• Once the cooking is done for five minutes (which probably will start after a few minutes of time as the instant pot needs to build up enough pressure and so you have to wait until its ready), the instant pot will beep and you can press the 'keep warm' button. Wait for another few minutes until the pressure is naturally released or you may do a careful manual release after an NPR (natural pressure release) of about 15 minutes.
• Once the pressure is all released, you can carefully open the lid by turning the lid to venting position.
• Stir the prepared rice using a good quality spatula and top with cilantro leaves if you wish. Serve the delicious tomato rice with any curry, side dishes, fresh yogurt or raitha as you like.

Notes

If you are not serving the rice right away, make sure to stir the rice using a good quality spatula in between while the rice is still warm (for a few times in few minutes time interval), so as to keep the rice fluffy and avoid it getting sticky over time.

If you wish, you can also add some chopped cilantro leaves to the pot while you add the rice, which will make it even more flavorful.

As I made this tomato rice quickly, I didn't add any onions. If you wish, you may also chop an onion finely and saute it in the instant pot (after you fry the whole spices) using the saute option until the onions are lightly browned and then follow the remaining instructions as mentioned in the recipe.

Nutrition

Calories: 252kcal | Carbohydrates: 48g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 4g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Sodium: 359mg | Potassium: 78mg | Fiber: 1g | Vitamin A: 45IU | Vitamin C: 2.1mg | Calcium: 24mg | Iron: 0.8mg

Hope you found this post on delicious and easy instant pot tomato rice recipe helpful in making easy, delicious rice for lunch or dinner.

If you love tomato rice, try this simple tomato rice with bell peppers, easy mint tomato rice recipe without onions, masala tomato rice etc (they are not instant pot recipes though).