These Mexican Instant Pot Rice and Beans are flavorful, easy to make, and wonderfully delicious. This dump-and-go recipe is made with brown rice, beans, broth, fire-roasted tomatoes, and spices. A delightful vegan and gluten-free dish for dinner!
Rice recipes in the Instant Pot are quick and easy to prepare. The rice comes out perfectly cooked almost every time we use the Instant Pot. It's also really quick. You can prepare fresh rice dishes practically any night of the week.
If you're looking for a quick dump-and-go meal, this Instant Pot Rice & Beans is ideal.
There will be no stirring or babysitting necessary for this delicious, set-and-forget Mexican Rice & Beans (also often called Spanish rice and beans).
This recipe is hearty and satisfying enough to serve as the main course, but it could also be served as a side dish!
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Why you’ll love this recipe
- Quick and easy to prepare in the Instant Pot
- It is a dump and go recipe.
- It is so versatile - use it as a filling for tacos, burritos, burrito bowls, etc.. Or simply enjoy the rice and beans with your favorite toppings!
Ingredients you'll need
- Brown Rice: This dish is made with fluffy, delicate brown rice. I like to use long grain brown basmati rice.
- Dry black beans: Soak them overnight. It's a protein-rich food.
- Oil: I typically use canola or avocado oil, but you may use other oils if you prefer.
- Vegetable broth or water: I prefer to use vegetable broth in this recipe for extra flavor & richness, but you can substitute water if you don't have any on hand.
- Garlic cloves - mince the garlic with a knife or in a garlic press.
- Spices - you’ll need chili, oregano, salt and cumin powder. You can also replace all of these with taco seasoning and salt.
- Onion and Bell pepper: Adds flavor, and extra nutrition to this dish.
- Fresh jalapeño- To make it less hot, remove the jalapeno seeds and rib. OR skip the jalapeno entirely.
- Fire roasted tomatoes: Use canned fire roasted tomatoes.
- Lime juice
- Cilantro: For garnish
Let's make brown rice and beans
- This is the best part - Just add all the ingredients to your pressure cooker in this order: oil, jalapeño, onion, garlic, rice, beans, bell pepper, spices broth and mix well.
- Now add tomatoes. At this point, do not stir the pot!
- Close lid with vent in sealing position. Set on pressure cook mode for 22 minutes at high pressure.
- When the pressure cooker beeps, let the pressure release naturally for 5 mins.
- Open the lid. Add lime juice and garnish with chopped cilantro leaves.
Serve with any of the toppings you like!
Topping Ideas
Toppings such as cilantro, shredded lettuce, pico de gallo, sour cream, or sliced avocado tastes great with this rice and beans recipe.
Pro-Tips
Using canned beans & white rice: You can make this dish with canned beans. I recommend to pair them with white rice, as the cooking time will reduce for canned beans. Pressure cook for 4 minutes on high pressure and reduce broth/water to 1 ¼ cup.
Which beans? You can use any of pinto, kidney or black beans in tbhis recipe. The cooking time for dry beans will remain the same.
Rice: I highly recommend to wash the rice in cold water. This helps to reduce the starch and make the rice fully.
Seasoning: You may also eliminate the chili powder, cumin, and oregano and substitute 1 tablespoon taco seasoning instead.
Tomatoes: You can use salsa in place of fire roasted tomatoes. Whenever you add in the fire roasted tomatoes/salsa, do not stir the pot. This helps to avoid the a burn warning in the instant pot.
Variations
I always find it fascinating to find different versions of a recipe. Beans and Rice are a staple in many countries, which means there are lots of wonderful variations you can make for this recipe -
New Orleans red beans and rice - This version is cooked with red kidney beans and sausage
Cuban beans and rice (Moros y Cristianos) - This Cuban version is made with bacon, black beans and white rice. Here the black beans are first cooked in the instant pot, and then rice added to them and cooked together to give the final dish.
Puerto rican beans and rice (Arroz Con Habichuelas) - This version is made with softrito, sazon Goya spice blend and olives.
Belizean rice and beans - In this version, the rice and beans are cooked in coconut milk.
Jamaican red beans and rice - This is similar to the belizean version cooked with coconut milk.
Common Questions
This dish is best made with long-grain brown rice as we are also using dry black beans.
It is best served right away. However, you can keep it in the refrigerator for up to three days or in the freezer for up to three months.
Yes, you can use salsa instead of Fire roasted tomatoes.
Yes, white rice may be used to make Instant Pot Rice & Beans. Pair white rice with pre-cooked or canned black beans, as white rice cooks in much lesser time. Reduce the amount of water in this recipe to 1 ¼ cup and reduce the cooking time to 4 minutes with 10 minutes NPR.
I am sure you will love this easy beans & rice as much as we did. Here are more Mexican recipes that you might like:
- Mexican Black Beans
- Vegetarian Mexican Casserole with Rice & Beans
- Spanish Rice
- Vegetarian Black Bean Quesadillas
Mexican Instant Pot Rice & Beans
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup Brown Rice uncooked, rinsed, and drained
- ½ cup Dry black beans or pinto beans, rinsed and soaked overnight
- 1 tablespoon Oil
- 1 Jalapeno finely diced, optional
- 1 cup Onion diced
- ¾ cup Red Bell Pepper chopped
- 4 cloves Garlic peeled and minced
- 2 cups Vegetable Broth (or water)
- 1 cup Fire-roasted diced Tomatoes canned
- 1 tablespoon Lime juice
Instructions
- In the Instant pot steel insert, add all of the following ingredients: oil, jalapeño, onion, garlic, rice, beans, bell pepper, spices, and broth, and stir thoroughly.
- Now add tomatoes. At this point, do not stir the pot!
- Close lid with a vent in sealing position. Set on pressure cook mode for 22 minutes at high pressure.
- When the pressure cooker beeps, let the pressure release naturally for 5 mins.
- Open the lid. Add lime juice and garnish with cilantro.
- Serve it with the toppings of your choice - such as shredded lettuce, pico de gallo, sour cream, or sliced avocado.
Video
Notes
Note: Nutrition values are my best estimates. If you rely on them for your diet, use your preferred nutrition calculator.
Erica says
Made this with canned black beans and white rice, as that was what I had in my pantry at the time. I thought it was great, a quick, simple meal with inexpensive ingredients that didn't require a grocery trip on my part. I would definitely make it again.
Piping Pot Curry says
Hi Erica - So good to hear that. Thank you for sharing your experience 🙂
Angie says
Could we add Asafoetida (Hing) to the beans?
Thank you 🙂
Meeta Arora says
Hi Angie - We typically add asafoetida to oil when tempering. So I am not sure if it would be a good addition to this recipe as we are cooking it with a set-and-forget method.
Wait Up says
Made this tonight. I thought 2 tsp salt was too much. Recommend just one and then add later as needed. Otherwise, texture, taste, and ease of preparation were spot on!
Meeta Arora says
Hello - Thanks for sharing your experience. I have made the suggested change in the recipe as well.