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Instant Pot Wild Rice Pilaf with Mushrooms is a warm and hearty side dish with tender rice and loads of flavor. Cook this ahead of time in your Instant Pot to serve with a meal fit for your holiday table or as a weeknight dinner side!

Why you'll love this recipe

I've found that the best way to manage prepping holiday meals are by making dishes in advance, and utilizing your slow cooker and Instant Pot. That's right, no need for a rice cooker on the countertop or taking over valuable space on your stove top!

This is the perfect rice recipe. It goes with almost anything and it's easy to make.

This gluten free recipe does both things! You can make this rice pilaf a day or two ahead of time, then simply reheat and serve.

What is rice pilaf?

You may be thinking, "what the heck is pilaf," anyway?

Pilaf is a rice side dish cooked with broth, seasonings and vegetables. It often has a chewier texture than white rice and a pleasant, nutty flavor.

A wild rice blend full of whole grains and made with white and brown rice, red rice and wild rice is what we're using to make this side dish.

Another interesting fact, not mentioned in the Merriam Webster...It makes the house smell downright delicious!

Ingredients in wild rice pilaf

extra virgin olive oil - to saute our veggies
carrots - these will be grated. You can grate them with the fine setting on your grater if you're attempting to hide vegetables from your family. The grocery store also has pre-shredded carrots if you're looking for the easiest option!
red onion
celery
mushrooms - you can use baby portobello mushrooms, white mushrooms...your choice
minced garlic - I used the jarred stuff that I store in my refrigerator. Don't judge.
salt and black pepper
wild rice blend, rinsed well - No fancy type of rice blend needed. I bought mine at our Aldi grocery store. You can use the leftover in my Creamy Wild Rice and Mushroom Soup.
chicken or vegetable broth
dried rosemary
dried parsley
slivered almonds, toasted (optional)

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instant pot wild rice pilaf with mushrooms

How to Make Instant Pot Wild Rice Pilaf

The holidays are such a great time to utilize your programmable pressure cooker, aka Instant Pot and you'll find this is the perfect side dish to make all season long.

Here's how it's going down.

STEP 1: Saute your vegetables

Insert your inner pot into the cooker. Turn your Instant Pot onto saute and add the olive oil. Then add the carrots, onion, celery, mushrooms, and garlic.

Add a touch of salt and pepper. Not a ton, just a touch.

Stir for about five minutes until the veggies soften.

STEP 2: Add the rice and other ingredients

Add the wild rice (give it a rinse first), broth, and rosemary and stir to combine. Season with additional salt and black pepper, just a touch.

I'm gonna break in here with a little farm girl fact. Bear with me.

Fancy recipes probably call for fresh rosemary and parsley, but in my neck of the woods, I don't have these at the ready.

What I DO always have in my stocked pantry are dried herbs and spices. So we're keeping things simple and using those.

No flavor is compromised in this shortcut, and you keep a little extra in your pocketbook. It's a win! Moving on....

STEP 3: Cook the mixture

Add the lid and set the pressure valve to “seal.” Select the “Manual” or pressure cook setting on the high setting and set cooking time to 15 minutes.

When the rice is done cooking, allow the pressure to do a natural pressure release for 10 minutes, and then do a quick release for any remaining pressure.

Turn the unit off and let sit for 5 additional minutes. Remove lid and fluff the rice with a fork while stirring in one tablespoon parsley and the toasted almonds, if desired.

We save the toasted almonds for super fancy dinner night, but you make this pilaf however you want!

Tips

I make this in my 6 quart Instant Pot and cook it for 15 minutes. You could also double the recipe and it will still fit in your pot.

If an electric pressure cooker, aka Instant Pots have you baffled, no worries, friend! I've got you covered in my Instant Pot Basics 101 overview.

If you love wild rice, you'll want to check out my Wild Rice Soup, too!

You could substitute vegetable broth or water for the cooking liquid, though I recommend something with flavoring of some kind, which the stock or broth provides.

More modifications are in the recipe card below.

What to serve with wild rice pilaf

This is delicious as a side for grilled pork chops, pork tenderloin with apples, rosemary beef tenderloin for special occasions or any my Instant Pot Chicken recipe for a weeknight meal.

I hope you'll give my wild rice mushroom pilaf a try! It's a great pairing with my pork roast and sauerkraut recipe, too.

FAQS

How should I store leftovers?

Leftovers can keep in an airtight container in your fridge for 3-4 days.

Other Instant Pot side dishes you'll love:

Other rice dishes for you:

Cranberry Rice Pilaf

Instant Pot Wild Rice Pilaf

Deanne Frieders

Instant Pot Wild Rice Pilaf with Mushrooms is a warm and hearty side dish. Cook this ahead of time in your Instant Pot to serve with a holiday meal or as a weeknight dinner side!

4.59 from 36 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 20

time to come to pressure and NPR 15

Total Time 55

Course Side Dish Recipes

Cuisine American

Servings servings

Calories 266 kcal

Ingredients

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 large carrots finely grated
½ medium red onion diced fine
2 large stalks celery diced fine
8 oz. mushrooms sliced
2 teaspoon minced garlic
salt and black pepper to taste
1 cup wild rice blend rinsed well
2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
2 teaspoon dried parsley
⅓ cup slivered almonds toasted  (optional)

Instructions

Add olive oil to Instant Pot® and select the Sauté function. Set to high and once the display reads “hot,” add carrots, red onion, celery, mushrooms, and minced garlic. Season with salt and black pepper, to taste, and cook, stirring continually, until the veggies soften and the mushrooms start to release their liquid, approximately 5 minutes. Turn unit off.
Add wild rice, broth, and rosemary and stir to combine. Season with additional salt and black pepper, if desired.
Add the lid and set the pressure valve to “seal.” Select the “Manual” cooking option on the high setting and set cook time to 15 minutes. When done cooking, allow the pressure to release naturally for 10 minutes, and then do a quick release for any remaining pressure. Turn the unit off and let sit for 5 additional minutes.
Remove lid and fluff the rice with a fork while stirring in one tablespoon parsley and the toasted almonds, if desired.

Notes

Tip: To make this vegetarian, substitute vegetable broth for the chicken broth.

I use dried herbs because that's usually what I have, but you can of course substitute fresh herbs.

Nutrition

Serving: 1gramsCalories: 266kcalCarbohydrates: 39gProtein: 11gFat: 9gSaturated Fat: 1gSodium: 460mgFiber: 5gSugar: 5g

This Farm Girl Cooks is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and other nutritional values are important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories and other nutritional values can vary quite a bit depending on which brands were used.

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Shared on Meal Plan Monday

Comments

Jackie

September 13, 2020 at 5:41 pm

I followed the recipe very closely with no modifications made and the rice had a significant amount of leftover fluid.

Erika

August 20, 2020 at 6:46 pm

The flavor was good, but it came out soupy. I followed directions. Not sure what the issue was.

Jaunnette

February 05, 2024 at 9:34 am

I followed the quantities and cooking directions, got overcooked rice that was still pretty wet. I'll stick to rice pilaf on the stovetop next time, this was far too mushy for me. Tasted good though.

kim

March 23, 2020 at 2:17 pm

Love this recipe! Such a tasty and easy side dish. I will definitely be making this one again!

Kelly Anthony

March 23, 2020 at 1:47 pm

This wild rice pilaf will be a great side dish with any protein making it the perfect meal for any day of the week.

Toni

March 23, 2020 at 1:42 pm

I love how tasty and easy this is to make!! Quickly became a favorite at my house!

Diana Reis

March 23, 2020 at 1:07 pm

Thank you for the Instant Pot instructions. It's so much faster than on the stove top and fool proof. No chewy rice in this house.

Nancy

December 06, 2019 at 11:15 pm

If one did not have an Instant Pot, could you just bake it in the Oven or crockpot?

cyndy

November 30, 2019 at 7:33 pm

What a great recipe for my IP - and such a time saver. And, gluten free is a total bonus!

Candice

November 30, 2019 at 6:52 pm

I took you up on the advice to make this ahead for thanksgiving... THANK YOU! It was delicious, and freed up so much time for everything else I was cooking. Great post, great advice, great recipe!

Sapana

November 30, 2019 at 6:40 pm

So flavorful and easy to make -- I cooked a batch for the week!

Krissy Allori

November 30, 2019 at 6:39 pm

This is so good and was so easy to make. I made it as a side dish for Thanksgiving this year and it was a hit.

Anita

November 30, 2019 at 6:00 pm

What a great way to prepare wild rice pilaf in an instant pot. This is awesome for an easy lunch with some grocery bought rotisserie chicken. 🙂