Instant Pot rasam rice is comfort in a bowl made in under 15 minutes, all in one-pot. Spicy tangy notes of rasam infused with rice is delicious with a side of potato, okra or eggplant fry.
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Come rainy days and rasam becomes a staple in our household. In most Tamil households, rice plus the basic curries or yogurt is a rice dish in itself. Like Rasam Rice made with the tamarind and tomato soup-y curry, Rasam mixed with rice or Sambar Rice where the tamarind lentil stew, Sambar is mixed with rice.
Same goes with curd rice or yogurt rice, where cooked rice is mixed with yogurt and some tempered seasoning is added to add more flavor to it.
What is rasam?
Rasam is a tangy soup-y almost watery curry made with tamarind pulp, tomatoes, a mix of spices called rasam powder and sometimes cooked lentils too. Sometimes garlic or lemon or pineapple is added to the rasam and it is then called garlic rasam or lemon rasam or pineapple rasam. Basically once you get the basic flavor profile correct, you can go crazy with the add on flavors.
This Tomato Pepper Rasam is my go-to rasam recipe all the time. I do try to switch it up sometimes, but I invariably fall back to this recipe.
Why use an Instant Pot for making rasam rice?
You don’t HAVE to use an Instant Pot for making rasam rice. For lunches and sometimes dinner too, in most Tamil households, rasam is yet another curry that is there to pour over rice to mix and eat.
Rasam rice is loved by many and especially in our generation, most don’t cook a multi course (read, multi curry) meal for every lunch and dinner. Don't get me wrong, it does happen every once in a while. But these days with trying to multitask everything and priority being getting a good wholesome meal on the table, such shortcuts as using the Instant Pot is always appreciated.
I also love using the Instant Pot for making Sambar Rice.
Making rasam rice in the Instant Pot is
- So very easy
- One pot recipe without having to make rasam in one pot and rice in one pot
- Much more flavorful when cooked together than cooked separately ( in my opinion, at least)
- A set it and forget it kind of meal that you can do when getting breakfast ready and is it ready for lunch time.
What size Instant Pot to use for making rasam rice?
I have a 6 qt Instant Pot that I use for all of my cooking and that is what I have used for this recipe. It may be a little too much for a 3qt, so you may want to halve the recipe.
Ingredients for rasam rice
- Rice
- Tamarind
- Sambar powder or rasam powder
- Tomatoes
- Salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Turmeric powder
- Jaggery
- Oil, Mustard seeds, curry leaves and asafetida for the tempered seasoning
How to make rasam rice in the Instant Pot?
- Soak tamarind in warm water and squeeze out the pulp.
- Rinse the rice
- Add the rinsed rice, tamarind pulp, chopped tomatoes, sambar powder, turmeric powder, salt, black pepper, jaggery and enough water into the Instant Pot.
- Close the lid and turn the knob to SEALING
- Set the Instant Pot to MANUAL and adjust time to 7 minutes.
- Let the pressure release naturally. Open the Instant Pot and give the rasam rice a quick stir.
- Heat oil in a separate pan and pop the mustard seeds. Add the curry leaves and asafetida to this.
- Pour this seasoned oil on top of the rasam rice and mix well.
- Garnish with minced cilantro and serve hot.
Serving suggestions
Serve the rasam rice hot with vegetable sides like Beetroot Thoran, Kale Koottu or Instant Pot Carrot and Beans Thoran. Some fried papaddams on the side are also a great combo with piping hot rasam rice.
Pro Tips for making rasam rice in the Instant Pot
- Rasam and rice are usually eaten with more rasam than the rice to have a stew like consistency. To get this when making rasam rice in the Instant Pot, I use more water to cook the rice - a ratio of 1:3 or rice:water
- You can use rasam powder or sambar powder as the spice powder for this recipe. I usually use sambar powder as it tastes like rasam rice in the end and I don't like to have another set of spice powder mix that I have to make and store. Amma always made rasam with sambar powder, so I have also always done that. If you have a favorite rasam powder you use, feel free to use that.
- Adding jaggery to anything sour and spicy rounds up the flavor and this is also something I have picked up from my mom and grandmom.
Instant Pot Rasam Rice
Ingredients
- 2 cups rice I used the variety ponni rice. But you can use any white rice with no strong fragrance to it.
- 1 key lime sized ball tamarind to make 2 cups of pulp / extract from it
- 6 cups water
- 2 tablespoon rasam powder / sambar powder use less if you are worried about the heat and then add more at the end and let it simmer for a few minutes.
- 1 teaspoon jaggery
- 2 medium tomatoes chopped
- ½ teaspoon turmeric powder
- 2 teaspoon crushed black pepper
- salt to taste
- ¼ cup minced cilantro to garnish
- 2 tablespoon oil or ghee
- 5-6 curry leaves
- 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
- ¼ teaspoon asafetida
Instructions
- Soak the tamarind in ½ cup of warm water.
- Rinse the rice well and add it to the Instant Pot.
- Squeeze the pulp out of the tamarind and strain it out. Repeat the process with another ½ cup of warm water. You dont have to soak it this time as the tamarind is already broken down. This is just to get any extra pulp in the tamarind.
- Add the tamarind pulp, rasam powder or sambar powder, jaggery, chopped tomatoes, turmeric powder, black pepper, salt and water to the rice.
- Close the Instant Pot and set the knob on the lid to SEALING.
- Set the Instant Pot to MANUAL mode and adjust time to 7 minutes.
- Once done, wait for pressure to release naturally, move the knob to VENT and open carefully once all the pressure is gone. If you are in a hurry, you can do a quick release by moving the knob to VENT position manually and then open once pressure is completely gone. You can tell when the little pin next to it goes down.
- Heat the ghee or oil in a small saucepan and add the mustard seeds to it. Once they splutter, add the asafetida and curry leaves. Pour this on top of the rasam rice and mix well.
- Garnish with minced cilantro and serve hot.
Notes
- Rasam and rice are usually eaten with more rasam than the rice to have a stew like consistency. To get this when making rasam rice in the Instant Pot, I use more water to cook the rice - a ratio of 1:3 or rice:water
- You can use rasam powder or sambar powder as the spice powder for this recipe. I usually use sambar powder as it tastes like rasam rice in the end and I don't like to have another set of spice powder mix that I have to make and store. Amma always made rasam with sambar powder, so I have also always done that. If you have a favorite rasam powder you use, feel free to use that.
- Adding jaggery to anything sour and spicy rounds up the flavor and this is also something I have picked up from my mom and grandmom.
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