Pressure rice cooker with Instant Pot?

[u/SnooRabbits3711]

Hi everyone!

I’m a little bit lost, so I thought I’d ask for your opinions because I’m too deep down the rabbit hole to see things objectively.

I ordered a fancy 6-cup pressure rice cooker to cook all kinds of legumes, pulses, and grains, like chickpeas, red kidney beans, lentils, GABA black rice, red rice, brown rice, white rice, quinoa, millet, buckwheat, you name it.

I only want to use it for cooking these ingredients on their own, not for making complete dishes. I usually cook for two people for two days, so roughly 4 portions of whatever I’m cooking in one batch would be great. It has a roughly 3liter (3 qt) inner pot.
I’ll cook white rice 20% of the time, the rest is all kinds of different rices and legumes.

I started thinking that a lot of these ingredients tend to foam and expand during cooking, so capacity might be limited and it wouldn’t be the best for legumes and pulses.
It also doesn’t have natural pressure release like an IP, which I guess isn’t a huge problem. It has a so-called soft steam release, but it’s not the same as NPR.

So, I’m trying to decide between these:

• Replace it with a 10-cup rice cooker model - tbh, the 6cup capacity would probably be okay for the two of us, but there is no headroom at all.
• Keep the rice cooker and buy a relatively inexpensive pressure cooker, like a 6qt Instant Pot. I’d make all types of rice and more delicate grains and smaller portions in the rice cooker and use the IP for everything else with NPR. There would be a huge extra here - I could cook multiple things at the same time and drastically shorten cooking time. For example, I want to make quite a lot of healthy “buddha bowls”. Only concern is kitchen space here, but I would manage. But two devices feels a little excessive.

What would be a sensible setup in your opinion? Do you think my needs justify both of them?
(my previous post was taken down by mistake so if you commented already, chances are I didn't see it, sorry)

[u/Alarming_Manager_131]

I'd keep the 6-cup and add a cheap Instant Pot if you can spare the counter space. the rice cooker is better at delicate grains and white rice without babysitting foam, and beans/chickpeas love NPR which your rice cooker doesnt really do. me and my boyfriend do buddha bowls a lot and having both means rice or quinoa in one while lentils finish in the IP. if kitchen space is tight though, a 6qt IP alone covers everything you listed, just rinse legumes well and dont fill past half for foamy stuff. the 10-cup upgrade alone still leaves you without good NPR for dried beans.

[u/SnooRabbits3711 → u/Alarming_Manager_131]

Thanks, I had the same logic!
I don’t have a huge kitchen, but I’d store the IP on top of the fridge or a cupboard when not in use, so it’s not a big problem.

[u/Balthierlives]

I find that the cooking time is so short that the foaming etc shouldn’t be an issue.

I can make fully cooked rice in like 5 minutes flat.

Unless you’re experiencing actual issues give it a go using what you have. I feel it will not be a problem with how short the cooking times are

[u/PhaseAutomatic3391 → u/Balthierlives]

The foaming thing is more about legumes releasing starch during the long cook, not so much the rice. chickpeas and kidney beans can get a bit lively, especially if you're doing a big batch without much headroom. if you're already worried about capacity for 4 portions, that 6-cup might be cutting it fine once you factor in the expansion and the max fill line they tell you to respect for anything that bubbles up

[u/SnooRabbits3711 → u/PhaseAutomatic3391]

I’m planning to presoak the legumes, and I heard adding a little oil can help with the foaming. I haven’t tested it yet, but my estimate is that I can make roughly 600g cooked chickpeas in the 6cup one.

[u/SnooRabbits3711 → u/Balthierlives]

Thanks! As far as I understand, foaming is less about cook time and more about pressure release, but you’re right, I’ll test it first. I just wanted some second opinion before I open the package.

[u/ukslim]

It's up to you what you do, but a datapoint is the pot-in-pot method with an Instant Pot.

Put a couple of cm of water in the bottom of the Instant Pot. Boil a mugful of water in a kettle.

Trestle in the Instant Pot, pyrex bowl on top. Mugful of rinsed rice in the bowl, teaspoon of salt, mugful of boiling water, plus a small splash extra.

15 minutes pressure cooking, more for brown, but the great thing is that you can leave it for ages staying warm and it won't deteriorate. I start some rice off, then go to fetch my daughter from school - a trip of unpredictable length.

I guess there's variants of this for the other grains and pulses you want.

[u/Demeter277]

i was using a pressure cooker for both but got a good rice maker and prefer to use it now for rice as it's remarkably consistent and I like the keep warm feature. It does take up to 1.5 hours to fully cook something like a brown rice and lentil mixture though, so much longer.

[u/SnooRabbits3711 → u/Demeter277]

How big is the rice cooker you bought?

[u/Demeter277 → u/SnooRabbits3711]

I got a 3 cup Zojirushi GBC05. When it arrived I was sure it was too small but 2 of the small rice cooker cups of dried rice makes 5 or 6 generous servings once cooked.

[u/SnooRabbits3711 → u/Demeter277]

Same, when I opened the 6 cup Cuckoo, my first thought was, oh, this is really small. But everyone says it is more than it looks. So even if I can only fill it halfway or to the 4-cup mark for legumes, it should be enough.

[u/Boozeburger]

I have a 6 quart instant pot that I actually prefer over my rice cooker (for things like Jerra rice) but having a rice cooker and an instant pot makes making dinner easy and quick.