This instant pot sushi rice is a quick and easy way to make perfectly cooked rice packed full of delicious flavor. With only 6 ingredients, less than 10 minutes, and 5 simple steps, it's the best sticky rice for homemade sushi rolls and poke bowls!
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📋 About the Recipe
- Making sushi rice in an instant pot is the best way to ensure perfectly cooked rice every time. It always comes out fluffy, cooked through, and with just the right amount of stickiness.
- It's also a very quick and easy way to make any kind of rice, as your pressure cooker does most of the work for you. You just dump the rice in, let it cook for a few minutes, and in no time, you'll have a delicious side dish ready to go.
- With the addition of toasted sesame seeds, seasoning: rice vinegar, salt, and sugar, and the inherent flavor of good quality sushi rice, this recipe is sure to please, no matter if you eat it alone as a side dish to dinner or as part of your homemade sushi.
🛒 Ingredients
A few notes about the ingredients:
- Sushi rice - a Japanese short to medium-grain rice with a higher starch content than Jasmine or Basmati rice. Because of this, it gets much stickier, making it the best for rolling sushi or making poke bowls. Opt for brands like Nishiki or Botan for authentic flavor and texture.
- Water - the amount of water listed in this recipe will be less than instructed on the package of rice. That is intentional. When cooking with a pressure cooker or instant pot, less water gets evaporated. Therefore, you need to use less water while cooking to prevent the rice from getting mushy.
- Rice vinegar - rice vinegar adds authentic flavor. It is acidic and flavorful. Use plain rice vinegar NOT seasoned rice vinegar.
- Salt, sugar - both the salt and sugar work together to tame the acidic flavor of the rice vinegar. The salt adds a subtle salty quality to the rice, while the sugar is barely noticeable as it is paired with the vinegar.
- Toasted sesame seeds - toasted sesame seeds are optional but they add a great nutty flavor to the rice. Most store-bought sesame seeds do NOT come already toasted. Therefore, you will need to quickly toast them to enhance their flavor before adding them to the rice.
📓 Instructions
1. If your sesame seeds aren't already toasted, pour them into a small dry skillet and toast them over medium-low heat for 3 to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally so they don't burn. Seeds are done toasting when they are fragrant and golden brown. Set them aside.
2. Combine rice and water in the instant pot. Secure the lid, switch the valve to "sealing," and pressure cook on high for 5 minutes. Turn off the keep warm setting.
3. Meanwhile, in a small microwaveable bowl, combine rice vinegar, sugar, and salt. Microwave for 30 seconds, then mix to dissolve. Microwave another 30 seconds and mix again. Set it aside.
4. When the timer beeps, allow the instant pot to naturally release for 10 minutes before carefully switching the valve to "venting" and manually releasing the rest of the pressure.
5. Remove the lid and fluff the rice with a spoon. Pour in the vinegar mixture and sesame seeds (if using) over the rice and mix to fully combine.
6. Serve perfect instant pot sushi rice as the base of a homemade poke bowl, wrapped in homemade sushi, or as a side dish to your favorite protein, like teriyaki salmon.
How to Make Homemade Sushi
1. Prepare everything ahead of wrapping your sushi so you have an assembly line ready to go:
- Slice cucumbers, carrots, peppers, mango, avocado, and scallions, among other vegetables.
- Blanch asparagus or other veggies.
- Cook shrimp, salmon, or tuna, or use raw sushi-grade fish. Tofu, cooked chicken, or smoked salmon are also great options.
- Prepare sauces, like cream cheese, teriyaki sauce, or spicy mayo.
2. Place sushi nori (the dark seaweed wrap) on a bamboo rolling mat with the long side closest to you and the rough side facing up.
3. With a lightly oiled spoon, spread sushi rice in a thin layer on top of the nori so it covers from edge to edge.
4. In a single line at the bottom of the nori/rice, add sauces, meats, and vegetables. Do not overstuff.
5. Using your hands to keep everything together, carefully roll up the bottom of the nori over the vegetables until it touches the middle of the wrap, using the bamboo mat as support.
6. Use the mat to finish rolling the rest of the nori into a log, using the rice on the other half of the nori as the glue to hold it all together.
7. Move the sushi log onto a clean plate or cutting board and use a serrated knife to cut 8 equal sized pieces of sushi.
8. Serve sushi with a small bowl of soy sauce, a drizzle of spicy mayo, and a side of wasabi and pickled ginger.
⁉️ Substitutions and Alterations
Instead of rice vinegar: you can substitute with white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar instead. However, the overall flavor may be slightly different.
Instead of sugar: you can leave out the sugar if you prefer. However, the rice will taste more vinegary and acidic.
Instead of sushi rice: you can substitute with arborio rice as a last resort. However, arborio is more starchy so it may become "chalky" and mushier than if you use sushi rice.
❄️ How to Store
To store: Allow cooked and seasoned instant pot sushi rice to cool completely before scooping into an airtight container. Store in the refrigerator for up to 6 days.
To reheat: The rice may lose some of its stickiness when stored in the refrigerator. You may not be able to use it to roll sushi the next day since the dryness will cause the rolls to fall apart.
However, the leftover rice will still be just as delicious as the base of a shrimp poke bowl or served as a side dish with dinner. Simply drizzle a small amount of water over the rice and heat it up in the microwave until it's soft and warm.
To freeze: Freezing is not recommended.
🔍 FAQs
I have found that it is best to use sushi rice for rolling sushi when it is at room temperature. When the rice is hot, it'll get mushy and rubbery as you spread it on nori, but if it is cold it becomes dry and no longer as sticky.
However, if you're using the rice as a side dish or the base of a poke bowl, you can serve it warm or cold.
Although many instructions online and on the rice package tell you to rinse the rice thoroughly before cooking, I've never done this and my rice still comes out perfectly every time.
For this recipe, you can decide whether or not you want to rinse the extra starches off of the rice. If you do, your rice may be a touch less sticky. While if you choose not to, the rice may become a bit more sticky.
Sushi rice needs vinegar for the extra flavoring. However, if you don't like vinegar, you can choose to leave it off.
If you opt to leave it out, your rice won't be as flavorful and may also be a bit less sticky without it.
💭 One More Tip
Dipping a serving spoon in a cup of water and olive oil is a quick and easy way to prevent the rice from sticking to the spoon.
Fill a drinking cup halfway with water and drizzle in about a tablespoon of olive oil. Before scooping rice, dip the spoon as far as possible in the water-oil mixture.
Use the spoon to scoop sushi rice into a serving bowl or to spread rice onto nori for sushi rolls. The rice will no longer stick to the spoon and any that does will come off much easier.
🍴 Related Recipes
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📖 Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 cups sushi rice SEE NOTES
- 2 ½ cups water
- ¼ cup rice vinegar
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons sesame seeds, optional
Instructions
- If your sesame seeds aren't already toasted: Pour sesame seeds into a small, dry skillet and toast them over medium-low heat for 3 to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally so they don't burn. Seeds are done toasting when they are fragrant and golden brown. Remove from heat and set aside.
- Combine rice and water in the instant pot. Secure the lid, switch the valve to the "sealing" position, and pressure cook on high for 5 minutes. Turn off the keep warm setting.
- Meanwhile, in a small microwaveable bowl, combine rice vinegar, sugar, and salt. Microwave for 30 seconds, then mix to dissolve. Microwave another 30 seconds and mix again. Repeat, if necessary, until sugar and salt are completely dissolved. Set aside.
- When the timer on the instant pot beeps, allow to naturally release for 10 minutes before carefully switching the valve to the "venting" position and manually releasing the rest of the pressure.
- Remove the lid and fluff rice with a fork or spoon. Pour in the vinegar mixture and sesame seeds (if using) and mix to fully coat the rice in the vinegar seasoning.
- Serve instant pot sushi rice as the base of homemade poke bowls or a salmon sushi bake, wrapped in homemade sushi, or as a side dish to your favorite protein, like teriyaki salmon stir fry. This recipe yields about 5 cups of cooked rice.
Notes
- Sushi rice is a Japanese short to medium-grain rice with a higher starch content than Jasmine or Basmati rice. Because of this, it gets much stickier, making it the best rice for rolling sushi or making poke bowls. Opt for brands like Nishiki or Botan for authentic flavor and texture.
- Follow the instructions in the above post to make homemade sushi rolls.
Nutrition
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Anna
Such good sushi rice! It came out with the perfect texture and flavor. So easy to make too!
Alana Lieberman
Love making rice in my instant pot for all those reasons! Thank you!