The Nourishing Gourmet

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Perfect Instant Pot Black and Brown Rice

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A bowl full of black and brown rice.

Rich in antioxidants, black rice (also known as purple or forbidden rice) adds a light nutty flavor and a wealth of nutrients to this simple dish. It is a striking side dish with subtle flavor, a not-so-subtle color, and many nutrients. 

Black rice is thought to have been reserved for royalty in ancient China, and was also called longevity rice because of its health-promoting properties. It is believed to have been cultivated for thousands of years, making it a traditional food. 

While you can easily cook black rice alone, my family found it more appetizing when mixed and then cooked with brown rice. Because black rice can be expensive, this helps stretch it out. Black rice contains the antioxidant anthocyanin, which gives this dish not only its beautiful color, but is also responsible for potential health benefits such as reducing inflammation, and helping protect against various diseases. It also contains high amounts of lutein and zeaxanthin, which support eye health. In one controlled study for weight loss, they found that women who frequently ate a brown and black rice diet, instead of white rice, lost more weight, although they ate the same amount of calories. 1, 2, 3.

There are various kinds of black rice, some of which I am eager to try, but haven’t been able to find locally or online. Two accessible brands are Lotus Forbidden Black Rice and Lundberg Black Pearl Rice. I’ve had success using both short and long-grain brown rice in this recipe. 

Many of my readers enjoy “soaking” their grains to reduce anti-nutrients, such as phytic acid in grains. Pressure cooking is an excellent form of cooking to reduce anti-nutrients without soaking. It’s our current preferred way to make rice! Feel free to add a soaking period to this recipe, if desired, however. Rice is traditionally rinsed or washed before cooking, and we now know that it also washes away arsenic in rice, so it is recommended for both culinary and health reasons. 

You can use whatever ratio of brown to black rice that you like, including using this recipe to make all black rice, if desired. 

I am feeding a family, so I use the 6-quart Instant Pot.

Serve with:

Perfect Instant Pot Black and Brown Rice

Printable PDF, Serves 4-6 people 

You can make a smaller portion of this dish by keeping the ratios the same in smaller amounts. (For example: ¼ cup black rice, ¾ cup brown rice, 1 cup water or broth, ¼ teaspoon salt.)

  • 1 cup of black rice 
  • 3 cups of brown rice 
  • 4 cups of water or broth 
  • 1 teaspoon salt

Directions:

  1. Rinse rice by placing rice in a fine sieve and rinsing under the faucet until the water runs clear. Or wash the rice by placing rice a large bowl, covering with cold water, and then gently swirling. Pour out the water, and then repeat until the water runs clear and is no longer cloudy. Add drained rice to the instant pot. 
  2. Add water or broth and salt. Secure the lid and then ensure that the steam release valve is in the sealing position. 
  3. Select manual at high pressure and set to 25 minutes. *
  4. Once the cooking time is done, let it naturally release for 10 minutes (natural-release simply means leaving it alone) and then release any remaining pressure by moving the steam release valve to venting position. 

*Many find that 20 minutes is adequate for cooking brown and black rice, but I find that I need the 25 minutes.

The Great Big Holiday Salad

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large salad bowl full of salad and toppings

This holiday-worthy salad is bursting with a variety of flavors and textures with dried cranberries, crunchy pumpkin seeds, fresh apples, crispy sweet potato slices, and roasted Brussels sprouts. Its colorful appearance hints at the wide range of antioxidants and nutrients it brings along with its flavor. Topped with our favorite balsamic vinaigrette, we decided we wanted this salad more often than just special occasions.

I made this for Thanksgiving, and it would make the perfect salad for a Christmas meal as well, but I think we will make it regularly! You can easily turn it into a main dish event by adding another protein (chicken, turkey, crumbled cheese, or even beans)! 

You may find that you have plenty of these ingredients on hand after Thanksgiving, so this could be a great time to try this recipe out.

Notes:

  • You can air fry the vegetables and cut the cooking time in half. 
  • Variation: Use pomegranate seeds instead of dried cranberries
  • Use whatever apple you love to snack on (honeycrisp, pink lady, or gala are some of our favorites) 
  • You can use sprouted pumpkin seeds or soaked and dried ones, if desired

Other Recipes You May Enjoy:

The Great Big Holiday Salad

PDF to print

Ingredients:

  • 2 small (or 1 large/medium) sweet potatoes, peeled and then thinly sliced. 
  • 8 ounces (about a heaping cup) Brussels sprouts
  • 8 cups of lettuce (I like a mixture of chopped romaine and spring mix) 
  • 2 tablespoons fresh thyme (optional) 
  • Salt 
  • 3-4 tablespoons oil or fat of choice (I used extra virgin olive oil) 
  • 1 large apple, cored and thinly sliced 
  • ½ fresh lemon (optional) 
  • ⅓ cup of pumpkin seeds 
  • ½ cup dried cranberries (you can use fruit sweetened, if desired) 
  • 1 recipe balsamic vinaigrette (below)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425. Put parchment paper on a sheet pan. Prepare sweet potatoes by peeling, then cut in half lengthwise (for small sweet potatoes) or cut into quarters for a large sweet potato. Then, thinly slice. Cut thin so that they will get browned and crispy when roasted. Rinse Brussels sprouts, and cut the woody stem off. Cut each Brussels sprout into quarters. Place sprouts on one half of the prepared sheet pan and drizzle with one tablespoon of oil/fat, one tablespoon of the optional fresh thyme, and salt. Toss to evenly coat. If the sprouts aren’t well coated with oil, add a second tablespoon and toss again. Do the same with the sweet potatoes on the other side of the sheet pan with the other 2 tablespoons of oil/fat, salt, and optional fresh thyme. 

2. Put in the middle of the oven and roast until the sweet potatoes are starting to crisp and brown (around 25 minutes). Remove from oven and cool. 

3. While the vegetables are cooking, make the balsamic dressing, and core and cut the apples. If not serving right away, toss apples with lemon juice to prevent browning. 

4. To serve: In a large bowl, place all of your greens, and then add the rest of the toppings. Drizzle with the dressing, toss to coat well, and serve.

Balsamic Vinaigrette 

Ingredients:

  • 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
  • ¾  cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 teaspoons dijon style mustard
  • 1 teaspoon unrefined salt
  • 1-3 garlic cloves, peeled, and finely minced or put through a garlic press

Directions: Put all the ingredients into a mason jar, put the lid on, and shake until well mixed (or, whisk with a small whisk in a bowl).

2 Ingredient Peppermint Bark

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One of my favorite flavor combinations is chocolate and peppermint. This easy, two-ingredient recipe explodes with flavor yet takes just a few minutes to throw together. 

It makes a wonderful last-minute gift or a treat to eat while watching a Christmas movie. 

(Save some candy canes so you can make it again later in the year, as this is delicious any time of year!) 

Because you are only using a couple of ingredients, make sure you pick chocolate that you especially like, as well as flavorful candy canes. 

We’ve made this with super dark chocolate for our family and with smooth milk chocolate for gifting. Enjoy Life is a great, allergen-friendly chocolate. Just use chocolate you like, and it will be good!

There are some delicious candy canes out there. We’ve made it using a more typical candy cane as well as the YumEarth brand (which uses organic ingredients and natural coloring from fruit). 

If you use a dark chocolate, this treat is also lower in sugar, especially in comparison to most Christmas cookies and treats. If you have allergens, such as dairy or gluten, it should be easy to find chocolate and candy canes that meet your needs.

Do you love peppermint and chocolate together? Here are some other recipes: 

Pictures of peppermint bark being made

Peppermint Bark

Ingredients: 

  • 11.5 ounces chocolate chips (dark, super dark, or milk) 
  • 5 regular sized candy canes 

Directions:

  1. Unwrap candy canes and put them between sheets of parchment paper. Using a mallet, crush the candy canes into small pieces. We like there to be some pieces about the size of a large pea, and some of it finer. 
  2. Lay a new piece of parchment paper out on a jelly roll pan. 
  3. Put the chocolate chips into a medium-sized dry microwaveable bowl. Melt using 15 to 30 second intervals, stirring in between, until the chocolate is just melted. *
  4. Using a spatula, scrape the melted chocolate into the center of the parchment paper on the pan, and smooth out to about ¼ inch thickness 
  5. Sprinkle the crushed candy cane evenly over the melted chocolate. Let the chocolate harden (you can put it into the refrigerator or freezer for a faster approach). When hard, break into smaller pieces. Keeps well. 

Recipe Notes:

  • * You can also melt the chocolate by putting it in a double boiler over low heat, and gently stirring it until just melted. 
  •  This method is really so simple, you can use varying amounts of chocolate and candy canes.

Roasted Frozen Broccoli

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This is not only a simple recipe, but it's delicious and kid-friendly too. Yes! Even frozen vegetables can taste good!

We have a problem. If we don’t like how I prepare vegetables, they are pushed around on our plates and barely touched. This is no good, as I believe that vegetables are not only important for our health, but they can also be a delicious part of our daily diet as well. 

So when we made our big move to South Dakota, I faced a new problem. Back in Portland, Oregon, I had a large array of options for vegetables. Here? Not so much. Don’t get me wrong, there are still plenty of stores and some good options, but I found that I was eating less vegetables, they were costing a little more, and I wasn’t getting as good of a variety into our diets. Because of the climate here, we simply don’t have as many local options for produce. 

I needed to change my game plan, and that meant being willing to try more frozen vegetables. I have, admittedly, long eschewed frozen vegetables, and we mainly used them as a stop-gap. But I realized that there were many great frozen vegetables options here and I needed to figure out how to make them a little more delicious. I’m proud to say that we now eat them on a regular basis and all of us love them. Why? 

Can You Roast Frozen Vegetables?

Well, it turns out that you can roast them just like you do fresh vegetables! Why does roasting make fresh and frozen vegetables so much better? For a number of reasons: It helps crisp vegetables while they cook and if you leave them in long enough they will start to caramelize and give you a savory depth of flavor. 

Steamed frozen vegetables can sometimes have a mushy texture once cooked, or be very bland in flavor. I did find that the recipe I used for my cooking like a Roman day, using a spiced wine sauce with frozen broccoli, was really delightful. So you can absolutely have good steamed frozen vegetables. 

However, roasting them is a more fail-safe way for delicious vegetables that takes very little hands-on time. 

It’s also very versatile. We’ve done frozen Brussels sprouts, a carrots, broccoli and cauliflower mix, and both cauliflower and broccoli. The only thing we haven’t really been fans of is the frozen carrots. They were far better when roasted than steamed, but we found we preferred the other vegetables. 

Basic Method for Roasting Frozen Vegetables

Basic Method: Roasting vegetables is very easy. The basis concept is to toss frozen vegetables (don’t defrost) with oil, salt and pepper and roast in a hot oven until they are browned and crispy. I often don’t even set a timer. 

Additions: You can also toss them with dried herbs, fresh garlic before they go in the oven, or toss with a splash of balsamic vinegar and fresh herbs right after they come out of the oven. Or, roast with chopped bacon. This is the type of recipe where knowing the basic method is helpful, and then you can have fun trying a variety of vegetables and herbs and spices. 

But to get you started, here is a basic recipe for Roasted Frozen Broccoli

Roasted Frozen Broccoli

1 package of frozen broccoli (16 oz) 

2-3 tablespoons of oil or melted fat of your choice 

Salt and pepper 

  1. Preheat oven to 425F. I use parchment paper because I use sheet pans that are aluminum, but you can an unlined sheet pan as well. 
  2. Toss broccoli with oil/fat and salt and pepper. Place in oven and cook until browned to desired doneness. (between 15-35 minutes). 

Variation: My favorite variation is adding some sliced fresh onions to the broccoli before it cooks and then tossing with chopped fresh basil and a splash of balsamic vinegar once it’s out of the oven. Fabulous!