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Cooking Quinoa Instant Pot Method

Quinoa Instant Pot method is so incredibly easy and cooks up this beautiful healthy grain with no fuss. Here’s how to make perfectly fluffy quinoa in your instant pot.

Cooked Quinoa On A Fork

Quinoa instant pot recipe makes perfectly cooked quinoa. Every time. Pressure cooking is a great way to avoid pot watching while you are free to attend other meal prep tasks in the kitchen…or put your feet up for a few minutes. 🙂

Instant Pot Quinoa In A Bowl

More Ways to Use Your Instant Pot:

Looking for more ways to save time in the kitchen and cook from scratch?

Try our Instant Pot Greek Yogurt and Instant pot Hard Boiled Eggs. Learn how to make Instant pot pinto beans (similar for all dried beans) for soups, stews and chilis.

Use your instant pot to make life in the kitchen easier, healthier and cheaper.

Even bone broth can be made in a fraction of the time boiling bones on the stove takes with this handy kitchen tool.

Find ALL of our instant pot recipes in our Instant pot Section.

Instant Pot Quinoa Recipe:

Quinoa Instant Pot Method

NOTE: ALL colors of quinoa cook exactly the same in this recipe. We used a color blend so you can see perfect quinoa of every type.

White quinoa, red and black are all the same to the instant pot. They are all very good for you too with a ton of protein and a great fiber content.

Choose your favorite color or blend them together for a lively side dish.

Instant Pot Quinoa

Ingredients and Tools

Cooking quinoa is not difficult even on the stove top but it needs watching and will burn if over cooked or be crunchy if not cooked properly.

Cooking Quinoa With Instant Pot Method Tools And Ingredients

Using the instant pot for cooking quinoa is failsafe and quick. So quick in fact you really need to cook it while you are working in the kitchen.

It just takes one minute of cooking time and ten minutes to natural release. Quick release and serve!

Instant Pot Timer
  • Quinoa
  • water
  • cooking oil
  • instant pot (or any electric pressure cooker)
  • Fine mesh strainer
  • running water for rinsing

Rinsing Quinoa:

Rinsing Quinoa

Quinoa in its natural state is coated with Saponin. Saponins are safe to eat but can add a bitter or soapy flavor you may not appreciate in your cooked grain.

  • Rinse quinoa in a fine mesh strainer to wash off the dust and saponin coating.
  • Pour the quinoa in your strainer and set it under running water for several minutes.
  • Agitate the strainer under the water to help quicken this process.

Quinoa is often pre rinsed these days so you can skip the rinse step. If you do NOT rinse the quinoa add another 1/2 Cup water to the pot.

More ideas…

  1. You can replace the water in this recipe with your favorite vegetable or meat broth for added flavor. It will cook exactly the same.
  2. Feel free to add in diced onions, peppers, pease or corn (or other small vegetables) into the instant pot to make this recipe complement your entreé.
  3. If you are planning a quinoa rice blend I suggest you follow our Brown rice quinoa blend stove top recipe. Rice takes a LOT longer to cook than quinoa so you need a different method.

Your Printable Recipe Card:

Below find your Printable Recipe card. The process pictures are for your education in this recipe. They will not print. That is to save you paper and ink. Enjoy!

At the bottom of the recipe card is our video recipe demonstration.

Instant Pot Quinoa
Yield: 4 Cups Quinoa

Quinoa Instant Pot Recipe

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 1 minute
Additional Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 16 minutes

Quinoa Instant Pot method is so incredibly easy and cooks up this beautiful healthy grain with no fuss. Here's how to make perfectly fluffy quinoa in your instant pot.

Ingredients

  • 1 Cup Quinoa (any color or quinoa blend)
  • 1 1/2 Cups water
  • Cooking oil (as needed)

Instructions

  1. Rinse quinoa in a fine mesh strainer under running water to wash off the bitter outer layer of saponin.Rinsing Quinoa
  2. Spray (or coat by hand) the bottom and sides on your instant pot cooking pot with cooking oil.
  3. Pour the wet rinsed and drained quinoa into the oiled cooking pot.
  4. Add water.
  5. Lock down the lid and set the pot to manual pressure for one minute.Instant Pot TimerNatural release the pot for 10 minutes.Instant Pot Natural Release
  6. Then quick release.Quick Release Instant Pot
  7. Serve.Instant Pot Quinoa

Notes

Any type or color of quinoa or blend of colors can be cooked with this method.

Rinsing Quinoa:

Quinoa in its natural state is coated with Saponin. Saponins are safe to eat but can add a bitter or soapy flavor you may not appreciate in your cooked grain.

  • Rinse quinoa in a fine mesh strainer to wash off the dust and saponin coating.
  • Pour the quinoa in your strainer and set it under running water for several minutes.
  • Agitate the strainer under the water to help quicken this process.

Quinoa is often pre rinsed these days so you can skip the rinse step. If you do NOT rinse the quinoa add another 1/4 Cup water to the pot.

More ideas...

  1. You can replace the water in this recipe with your favorite vegetable or meat broth for added flavor. It will cook exactly the same.
  2. Feel free to add in diced onions, peppers, peas or corn (or other small vegetables) into the instant pot to make this recipe complement your entreé.
  3. If you are planning a brown quinoa rice blend I suggest you follow our Brown rice quinoa blend stove top recipe. Rice takes a LOT longer to cook than quinoa so you need a different method.

Nutrition Information

Yield

4

Serving Size

1

Amount Per Serving Calories 86Total Fat 4gSaturated Fat 0gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 4gCholesterol 0mgSodium 7mgCarbohydrates 10gFiber 1gSugar 0gProtein 2g

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How To Cook Quinoa In Your Instant Pot-Pin Image
Quinoa Instant Pot method is so incredibly easy and cooks up this beautiful healthy grain with no fuss. Here’s how to make perfectly fluffy quinoa in your instant pot.

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