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This creamy, easy Instant Pot Wild Rice w/ Mushrooms can be made easily in your pressure cooker. Enjoy this hearty, filling meal as a simple side dish, or even as the main course.
WHY YOU’LL LOVE THIS Instant pot Wild Rice:
- It’s easy to make! This dish takes a total of 50 minutes, but the majority of that time, it’s cooking away on its own, in the Instant Pot. You will only spend about 10-15 of prep time and the the rest of the work will be done for you!
- It’s healthy. Not only is this meal vegan, gluten-free AND oil-free, but it’s also packed full of nutritious ingredients like wild rice, onions, cashews, mushrooms, and a variety of spices. You’ll be feeling good after eating this meal.
- It’s packed with amazing flavors. With the fantastic combination of mushrooms and wild rice, this dish is creamy, cheesy and comforting, with a nutty, earthy, full-bodied flavor.
What You’ll Need:
Ingredients Notes:
- Wild Rice: For this recipe, we use a wild rice blend, which is a mix of wild rice and regular rice. With rice blends, the wild rice flavor is a little more subtle, but delicious.
- Mushrooms: This recipe is PACKED with a delicious mushroom flavor. For this recipe, we generally use white button or baby bella, but feel free to use a mix of different types of mushrooms for a different flavor profile. And if you are not a mushroom fan, you can easily swap them out with another vegetable, such as chopped red bell pepper or zucchini.
- Thyme: Fresh thyme is recommended for this recipe, but dried works too. Or you can swap out or add additional spices like oregano, rosemary, or sage.
- Spanish Paprika: This type of paprika is smoked and has a deep, earthy/woodsy flavor. Please note that if you use regular paprika, it will change the flavor profile of this dish.
- Nutritional Yeast: This wonderful ingredient will add a nutty, cheesy, creamy flavor so it’s recommended not to omit. You can buy it at many speciality stores like Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s, or purchase on Amazon.
- Sea Salt: You can add regular sea salt to this dish, either while cooking (as directed) or after cooking so you can adjust the saltiness level to your taste. We highly recommend adding some Fleur de Sel French salt to the pot after the wild rice is done cooking. It brings out the flavors of the dish nicely!
STEP-BY-STEP RECIPE INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Sauté veggies.
To begin, set your Instant Pot to the Sauté function. Add the unsalted vegetable broth, garlic, onions and mushrooms to the pot. Sauté for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions are translucent and soft (STEP 1). Then turn the Instant Pot OFF.
2. Add Ingredients & Pressure Cook:
Next add the water, rice, Spanish paprika, salt, black pepper, and thyme to the pot. Stir well (STEP 2).
Step 2: Add the water, rice, and all spices. Stir well.
Replace the lid and set the Instant Pot to the Manual/Pressure Cook setting for 22 minutes, making sure the knob on the top of the lid is set to the “Sealing” position. The pressure cooker will begin building pressure.
3. Make Cashew Cheese.
Meanwhile, as the Instant Pot cooks- in a high powdered blender, add the raw cashews and nutritional yeast (STEP 3). Process for 10-20 seconds until fine (powder-like consistency) (STEP 4).
STEP 4: Process for 10-20 seconds until fine (powder-like consistency).
4. Add Cashew Cheese and Stir.
Once the Instant Pot is done cooking (and the time has elapsed), release the pressure naturally (which takes about 10-15 minutes of waiting). When ready, open the lid, add the cashew mix and almond milk and stir well. Add salt and pepper to taste.
STEP 6: Stir well.
Storage Instructions:
Keep this dish in an airtight container in the fridge for up 5-6 days. Makes roughly 4 (1-cup) servings.
Expert Tips & FAQ’s:
For nut-free, you can make without the cashews. It’s still really good: just not as creamy. To do this, add the nutritional yeast alone with the almond milk.
First, contrary to popular belief, wild rice is not a rice at all (!), but actually the seeds of a tall aquatic grass. And the good news is, it’s high in magnesium, protein (in fact, it has the most protein of any rice), and also contains a lot of fiber, folate, manganese, zinc and iron. This type of rice is also the easiest ‘rice’ for our bodies to digest, making it healthier than white rice and even brown rice.
Related Recipes:
Looking for more Instant Pot recipes? Try one of these:
- Instant Pot White Bean and Corn Soup
- Instant Pot Mushroom Risotto
- Lentil Keema (with Instant Pot option)
- Instant Pot Collard Greens
- Crushed Lentil Soup (with Instant Pot option)
- Instant Pot Chana Masala
Do you have leftover wild rice? Try this Mediterranean Wild Rice with Pine Nut Cheese!
If you make this Instant Pot Wild Rice with Mushrooms recipe, please let us know! Leave a comment, rate it, and tag your photo with #veggie__chick on Instagram. We love to see our recipes being made in YOUR kitchen!
Instant Pot Wild Rice w/ Mushrooms (Easy, Vegan, GF)
Pin RateEquipment
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup unsalted vegetable broth
- 4 garlic cloves - minced
- 1 medium yellow onion - finely diced
- 8 ounces mushrooms - thinly sliced (cremini, white button or baby bella)
- 1 3/4 cups water
- 1 1/2 cups wild rice blend - combination of black and basmati rice
- 1 teaspoon Spanish smoked paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme - or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme flakes
- 1/2 cup raw cashews - for nut-free see notes
- 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
Instructions
- Set Instant Pot to the Sauté function. Add the vegetable broth, garlic, onions and mushrooms. Sauté for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until onions are translucent and soft. Turn the Instant Pot OFF.
- Add the water, rice, Spanish paprika, salt, black pepper, and thyme. Stir well. Replace the lid, then set the Instant Pot to Manual/Pressure Cook (at high pressure) for 22 minutes. *Make sure the Instant Pot is set to the "Sealing" position.
- Meanwhile, to a dry high-powdered blender, add the raw cashews and nutritional yeast. Process until fine (powder-like consistency). Transfer to a small bowl.
- Once the Instant Pot is done cooking (the time has elapsed), let the pressure release naturally (which takes about 15-20 minutes of waiting). When ready, open the lid, add the cashew powder and unsweetened almond milk and stir well. Add additional salt and pepper to taste. Keep this dish in an airtight container in the fridge for up 5-6 days. Makes roughly 4 (1-cup) servings.
Video
Notes
- For this recipe, we generally use white button or baby bella mushrooms, but feel free to use a mix of different types of mushrooms for a different flavor profile. And if you are not a mushroom fan, you can easily swap them out with another vegetable, such as chopped red bell pepper or zucchini.
- We recommend adding a bit of Fleur de Sel French salt to the pot after the wild rice is done cooking. It brings out the flavors of the dish nicely!
- If the dish is too thick for your liking, add additional unsweetened almond milk in 1/4 cup increments.
- This dish is really easy to experiment with/adjust flavors. Swap out or add additional spices like oregano, rosemary, or sage. You can also add a bit of lemon juice to the final dish (with the cashews). Or even a dash of cayenne pepper.
- For nut–free, you can make without the cashews. It’s still really good: just not as creamy. To do this, add the nutritional yeast alone with the almond milk.
Nutrition
Update Notes: This post was originally published in October 2018, but was republished in November of 2019 with tips and FAQs.
Kristen Delaune says
Can you freeze it?
Christin McKamey says
Hi Kristen, yes this can be frozen (once cooked). =)
Karen Brown says
Could you make this in a slow cooker? We don’t have an Instant Pot. I would like to use the same ingredients, but I don’t know how to go about the cooking part with a slow cooker.
Christin McKamey says
Hi Karen, I’m not sure, haven’t tried this recipe in the slow cooker. =) I’m sure you could give it a shot though! My guess is it would probably take 2 1/2 to 3 hours (on low) to cook the rice. Let us know if you try it! =)
Lionel Shaul says
This dish is both delicious and simple to make. What more can you ask for! I do not own a powder blender so instead, borrowing a technique from other vegan cooking blogs, I soaked the 1/2 cup of cashews in 2 cups of water and placed in the fridge for about 8 hours. Then blended the cashews, nutritional yeast and almond milk in a regular blender until smooth. I also added about another 1/2 cup of water to get the desired consistency for the rice.
Christin McKamey says
Yay, awesome, I’m glad you loved it Lionel! And I think I might actually make it tonight for dinner! =) Thanks again.
Crystal says
This sounds delicious, my question is can regular yeast be used or do I have to purchase your certain kind? Can it be skipped if not? Thanks so much for this amazing idea 🤗
Christin McKamey says
Hi Crystal, thanks! To answer your question, no regular yeast would not work. Nutritional yeast is a deactivated yeast and you can find on Amazon, Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s and beyond. =) It’s delicious! And gives a ‘cheesy’ flavor. You can certainly skip it if you don’t have it on hand, but I’d recommend giving it a try if possible! =) Here’s a link to nutritional yeast on Amazon.
Harmony says
Looks great! I’m going to try it with brown basmati and wild rice. Thanks for sharing!
Christin McKamey says
Yay, I hope you enjoy it Harmony! It’s one of my favorites. =)
Harmony says
It was delicious! I added a pinch of saffron. Yum!
Christin McKamey says
So glad to hear that! =)
Bruce says
Made this for Thanksgiving dinner. That was a huge hit even for my non vegan family members. I will definitely make it for my weekly meal plan!
Christin McKamey says
Yay thanks Bruce! I’m really happy to hear your family loved it! =)
Donna Doucet says
Can Farro be substituted for wild rice mix
Christin McKamey says
Hi Donna, since wild rice and farro are different in terms of texture and cooking time, I think it would affect the timing of the recipe so I can’t say for certain. If you try it, please let me know! =)