Bell pepper rice or capsicum rice in an instant pot is one of the quickest meals you can prepare in minutes when you want to pack something for lunch or eat a home-cooked meal for dinner.
It is the weekend and before we go out grocery shopping all I need to make something quick for our lunch so that we won’t end up buying some junk food. This is a choice I and my husband made after a few times we went shopping grocery at the wrong time and ended up buying some junk to feed our hunger.
I had few Costco mini bell peppers lying in the fridge and made a quick spice powder with chana dal, coriander seeds, and red chilies.
In India, bell pepper rice is called capsicum rice or kudaimilagai sadam.
Now let us see how to make this capsicum rice recipe in instant pot
Wash the basmati rice in running water a couple of times and soak the basmati rice in a bowl with enough water. Let it soak for 15 minutes maximum.
In the meantime, we will chop one onion and a few bell peppers and keep it ready.
Next let us prepare a quick masala with coriander seeds, chana dal, and red chilies. Add oil in a pan add red chilies, chana dal, coriander seeds and roast it medium flame till they turn golden brown. Please don’t over roast it.
Once the spice cools down grind it into a fine powder. You can make this powder ahead and store it in a jar and use it in various Indian curry recipes.
you can make a small batch of this spice powder and have it handy and can sprinkle this spice powder at the end when you make Indian curry recipes.
Turn on the saute mode in instant pot. Once the pot displays hot, add 2 tablespoon of oil of your choice and add the whole spices -bay leaf, cinnamon sticks, cloves, and cardamom seeds. Saute for a minute and add the chopped onions.
Cook onion for a couple of minutes.If you want you can add ginger garlic paste at this stage.
Add the mini bell peppers and saute few seconds and add soaked rice without any water, turmeric powder, chili powder, and salt.
Now for 2 cups of rice add 2.5 to 3 cups of water maximum and change the mode to manual/pressure cook for 6 minutes with knobs in sealing position. Do a quick release.
Open the lid and wait for 5 minutes before you mix all together. Use a fork and mix the rice gently and add the spice powder
Our easy sweet bell pepper rice in instant pot is ready to serve. Today I’m serving this with tomato raita.
Some capsicum rice variations you can try
- No time to make the spice powder use the garam masala instead.
- You can even make this capsicum rice instant pot without onion it will taste divine with the spice powder we made.
- Use the bell pepper and make the bell pepper fried rice with the recipe below.
- You can add tomato and make capsicum tomato rice with the same recipe just adjust the water quantity alone since tomato will add little water by itself.
bell pepper rice – capsicum rice instant pot
Ingredients
Roasting and grinding
- 1 tsp oil
- 2 tbsp coriander seeds
- 3 numbers dried red chilies adjust according to your spice level
- tbsp chana dal
Bell pepper rice in instant pot
- 2 tbsp oil
- 2 numbers cinnamon small stick
- 2 numbers bay leaf
- 3 numbers clove
- 2 numbers cardamom seeds
- 2 cups basmati rice
- 2.5-3 cups water
- 1 number onion
- 8-10 numbers mini bell peppers
- salt to taste
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp chili powder
Instructions
-
Wash the basmati rice in running water a couple of times and soak the basmati rice in a bowl with enough water. Let it soak for 15 minutes maximum.
-
While the rice soaking,we will chop one onion and a few bell peppers and keep it ready.
-
Now let us prepare a quick masala with coriander seeds, chana dal, and red chilies. Add oil in a pan add red chilies, chana dal, coriander seeds and roast it medium flame till they turn golden brown. Please don't over roast it.
-
Once the spice cools down grind it into a fine powder. You can make this powder ahead and store it in a jar and use it in various Indian curry recipes.
-
Turn on the saute mode in instant pot. Once the pot displays hot, add 2 tablespoons of oil of your choice and add the whole spices -bay leaf, cinnamon sticks, cloves, and cardamom seeds. Saute for a minute and add the chopped onions.
-
Cook onion for a couple of minutes.If you want you can add ginger garlic paste at this stage.
-
Add the mini bell peppers and saute few seconds and add soaked rice without any water, turmeric powder, chili powder, and salt.
-
Now for 2 cups of rice add 2.5 to 3 cups of water maximum and change the mode to manual/pressure cook for 6 minutes with knobs in sealing position. Do a quick release.
-
Open the lid and wait for 5 minutes before you mix all together. Use a fork and mix the rice gently and add the spice powder
-
Our easy sweet bell pepper rice in instant pot is ready to serve. Today I'm serving this with tomato raita.
Recipe Notes
- You can make a small batch of this spice powder and sprinkle at the end of some vegetable Indian curry recipes.
- You can use any bell pepper for this recipe.