Yes, you can use your Instant Pot to make sushi rice.
And to be honest, this recipe is the easiest way ever to get a perfect sushi rice each and every time!
The thing I like most about this Instant Pot sushi rice recipe is its infinite versatility.
Once you’ve got the right consistency, this rice can be shaped as you like, which turns a regular family dinner into an adventure.
Also, it works with a wide range of combinations such as salmon, shrimp, avocado, soy sauce, and so on.
So, you’re not just getting a fun-looking meal; you can also create each person’s favorite combination. This is a parent’s dream come true! (A long as your kids like sushi of course....)
Table of Contents
- Why Use Instant Pot?
- Why Do I Need to Rinse the Rice?
- What’s with All the Vinegar?
- Can I use any other type of vinegar instead of the white wine vinegar?
- Can I use any other type of vinegar instead of the rice vinegar?
- Can I use a different type of rice instead of the short-grain Japanese rice?
- How to chill the rice faster?
- Can I freeze the rice?
- More useful tips
- Serving
- How to make sushi rice
- Sushi Recipes
- Instant Pot Sushi Rice
Why Use Instant Pot?
If you ever cooked sushi at home, you know that the secret to this meal stands in the rice. If the rice doesn’t have the right consistency or texture, the whole thing is ruined.
Knowing this and the fact that an Instant Pot takes away the guesswork completely, it becomes the natural choice. If you use a rice cooker, you can’t set everything up as perfectly as you do with the Instant Pot. Also, the IP doesn’t need any checking up while cooking the rice - you just press Start and wait for it to finish.
Why Do I Need to Rinse the Rice?
If you take a look at the Instant Pot sushi rice recipe, you’ll notice I start with rinsing the rice. It’s a step I never skip because water removes the starch that usually sits on the surface of the rice grain and (if not removed) it gives that gummy texture.
In addition, the rice absorbs the water during the rinsing process (which only takes about 15 seconds), which improves the cooking process. The result is fluffy and thoroughly cooked rice that sticks together without being mushy.
Rinsed rice also tastes better (don’t really know why) - it’s almost like restaurant rice!
What’s with All the Vinegar?
I have to admit. I was skeptical at first too. It does look like a lot of acidity for the amount of rice.
However, if you follow this Instant Pot recipe, you won’t regret it!
The vinegar enriches the rice with so much flavor that you will not want to have sushi rice in any other combination from the first moment you taste this.
Quick tip: When you get the rice out of the IP, put it in a glass bowl, and use a wooden spoon to mix the sauce in. The wooden spoon is gentler with the rice’s texture and the glass bowl doesn’t react to the vinegar (which may happen in a metallic bowl).
Also, don’t use a stirring motion when you mix the sauce into the rice - unless you want mushy rice. Instead, use the wooden spoon or spatula to create a folding motion that’s gentle with the rice.
Can I use any other type of vinegar instead of the white wine vinegar?
No, as you will ruin the flavor. I tried once with the apple cider vinegar and believe me, it was terrible.
Can I use any other type of vinegar instead of the rice vinegar?
No.
Can I use a different type of rice instead of the short-grain Japanese rice?
No. This rice is the best for Instant Pot sushi rice, and if you use any other kind like brown rice or basmati rice, you won't get a perfect result.
How to chill the rice faster?
There isn't a magic trick. Just cook the rice 1-2 hours before you plan to make the sushi, and put aside.
To keep the rice from drying out (until it gets cold), put a moist paper towel over the bowl
Can I freeze the rice?
Some people also freeze it but I don’t recommend it. The rice gets weird in taste and texture once it’s unfrozen.
More useful tips
- Dissolve the salt and sugar in the vinegar to ensure the rice will be seasoned evenly;
- Pour the vinegar sauce over the rice as soon as you get it out of the Instant Pot;
Serving
I usually serve this rice in sushi rolls or sushi bowls, depending on my level of patience. Sushi rolls look amazing and are a wonderful way to show off your cooking skills, but they require a bit more care and work.
So, when I don’t want to use the sushi mat, I bust out the bowls and arrange everything as appealing as I can. I like to make these bowls with shrimp (which you can also cook in the Instant Pot), but I’ve also used crab, tuna, salmon or avocado.
If you need more ideas, check out What to Serve With Sushi for 20 delicious recipes.
How to make sushi rice
Gather your ingredients
Rinse the rice before use.
Place the rice and water in Instant Pot.
Lock the lid into place. Select Manual and adjust to LOW pressure. Cook the rice for 8 minutes. Do a quick pressure release.
Stir in the rest of the ingredients. Chill the rice and start make sushi! You can see some ideas bellow.
Sushi Recipes
Instant Pot Sushi Rice
Ingredients
- 1 cup short grain Japanese rice
- 1 ½ cup water
- 2 tablespoon white wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 pinch of salt
Instructions
- Rinse rice under cold water .
- Add water and rice into the Instant Pot.
- Close the lid and cook on LOW pressure for 8 minutes.
- When cooking time ends, do a quick pressure release and open the lid.
- Mix white wine vinegar, rice vinegar, sugar and a pinch of salt in a small bowl.
- Microwave the sauce for 1 minute.
- Transfer the cooked rice in a large bowl and slowly pour the vinegar sauce, while stirring.
- Let it cool completely.
- Start making sushi!
I make sushi rice quite often and have all the gear and knives. There is absolutely no reason to use white-wine vinegar on sushi rice - not the flavor you should try for. Only rice vinegar should be used. You season sushi rice with a mixture of 4 parts rice vinegar, 2 parts sugar, and one part salt. The mixture is known as "Su". The traditional formula is 4:2:1. You can mix this up ahead of time, store it in a jar in the fridge, and pull it out for use as needed. You can mix it as 4 Tbsp vinegar, 2 Tbsp sugar, 1 Tbsp of salt. That's what I do when using 3 cups of uncooked rice (I really like to eat Sushi!). You usually need to heat it (but don't boil it) to dissolve the sugar and salt in the vinegar as you stir it. I'll normally double everything and keep the extra Su in the fridge.
You can buy "seasoned rice vinegar" at your supermarket usually found right next to the normal Rice Vinegar if you don't want to mix it up yourself. Price seems to be close to the unseasoned one.
NOTE*** Different strains of short-grain rice will take different cooking times to be perfect. Even different brands within a strain of short grain rice can do that. I finally got a "normal" rice cooker because it didn't care what strain of rice I was using. Also, after rinsing the rice until it almost runs clear, you need to drip-dry it in a strainer for about 15-minutes. Otherwise the rice will hold too much water and end up mushy.
I will often use Cal-rose rice in my pot-in-pot Instant Pot recipes and it always comes out perfect in the Instant Pot. Cal-rose rice is a medium grain rice that works fine for sushi (advertised as sushi rice) but the short grain rice is easier to form and to work with. Bad part is that short grain Japanese rice is spendy. You can easily spend $40 for a 15-lb. bag of it. I've also used the same strain of rice from Korea and it was a bit less expensive and worked just as well.
I guess that is just my own twist on it but you are absolutely right. Sounds like you know a lot about sushi rice, thank you so much for sharing your expertise!
Followed the recipe to a T and it came out like pure mush. 1 1/2 cups of water is way too much. Try a 1:1 ratio and you should be alright.
Can you use extra rice vinegar instead of white vinegar?
Good question, I recommend following the recipe as written of course, but that could work as well, although I haven't tried it. Let me know how it turns out if you do! 🙂
I recently learned there's a difference between a "rice cup" and a regular cup when measuring rice. Does your recipe use the standard cup? Will most recipes state if using a rice cup for measuring? I'm questioning every recipe I look at now. Really want to try this one this week but I don't want to mess it up 🙁
As long as you use the same cup for all the ingredients (water, rice etc.) you can use any cup you want :]
How do I can double or triple the recipe?
Just double the amount of the ingredients.
Cooking time stays the same (low pressure for 8 minutes).
It is the most flavorful sushi rice I have ever tasted. At first, I thought it was a mistake to have so much vinegar. Almost kinda soupy. But the result was so delicious! I may have to reduce a tad of the sugar. It was perfect, it’s just we want to cut down on sugar.
It was easy and fast. My daughter ate most of it and I had to cook it once more right after. It was so good!
This will be my go to sushi rice recipe. Thank you so much for sharing! I can’t wait to make sushi more often.
Thank you sooo much for this comment 🙂 Glad you like it!!
P-E-R-F-E-C-T recipe!! I think it deserves at least one comment so people will know.
Thank you very much Jane :]