Salmon and Rice with Vegetables (Instant Pot)

instantpot-salmonvegetablefriedrice This Instant Pot Salmon and Rice makes for an amazing quick and healthy weeknight meal. Tender, juicy, flaky salmon with garlic butter sauce and a slightly flavour induced rice cooked all together in the same pot but separately are what delicious quick dinner dreams are made of.

Salmon:
1 lb salmon (made into 2 fillets, cleaned and scales removed)
½ Tbsp. garlic, minced or finely grated
½ Tbsp. red chili flakes
1 Tbsp. Italian parsley, roughly chopped
1 Tbsp. lemon or lime juice, freshly squeezed
2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
4 Tbsp. butter, chilled and cut into squares
4 slices lemon
kosher or sea salt
aluminum foil, for making packets

Rice:
1 cup white Basmati rice, washed (or any long grain white rice except Jasmine)
1/3 cup onion, roughly chopped (white or yellow but not sweet onion)
1/3 cup red bell pepper, finely chopped
1/3 cup green bell pepper, finely chopped
1/3 cup orange bell pepper, finely chopped
1/3 cup yellow bell pepper, finely chopped
¼ cup celery, finely chopped
2½ Tbsp. basil pesto
1 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
kosher or sea salt

Water for Rice:
1¼ cup water (286 mL)

Garnish:
lemon juice, freshly squeezed

Prepare the Salmon:
Begin by washing the salmon and removing the scales if you prefer eating the fish skin. Pat the salmon fillets completely dry with the help of kitchen towels.

Lay the salmon fillets skin side down on individual aluminum foil sheets large enough to make individual salmon foil packets.

Sprinkle salt on top of the fish fillets, drizzle olive oil, lemon juice, sprinkle chili flakes according to your liking, sprinkle chopped Italian parsley, top the fillets with butter squares (2 squares on each fillet) and finally the lemon slices (2 slices on each fillet).

Now, wrap around the aluminum foil and secure the ends tightly so that there are no gaps. While you make a foil packets with the fish inside make sure to leave some space for uniform steaming of the fish. DO NOT Wrap around the fish tightly. Make a foil packet with enough hollow space inside sealing the ends of the packets so that the salmon juices and the butter sauce won't leak out from the packet. Arrange the salmon foil packets on the steamer basket.

Prepare the Rice:
Set the Instant Pot on SAUTÉ and keep it on NORMAL.

Add oil and when the oil becomes moderately hot add the chopped onion and sauté for just 1 minute.

Next, add the other veggies and sauté for 2 more minutes.

In the meantime, rinse the rice very well several times until you see clear water running through. This is VERY IMPORTANT and helps discard the surface starch from the rice making it extremely fluffy when cooked. You will not have gooey sticky rice ever. Drain the excess water from the rice after rinsing it.

Now, add the rinsed rice back to the pot and mix it gently with the veggies using a rubber or wooden spatula. The wet and soft rice grains won't break.

Add water or stock, salt and the red pesto. Give everything a good mix gently and de-glaze the pot very well at this point so that there are absolutely no bits and crumbs stuck at the bottom of the pot. The rice is ready to be pressure cooked.

Pressure Cook Instant Pot Salmon and Rice:
CANCEL the SAUTÉ mode.

Carefully place the steamer basket on top of the rice inside the steel pot of the Instant Pot. Press down the basket a bit so that it's position is all secure.

Close the lid of the Instant Pot. Seal the Valve.

Press the PRESSURE COOK button and set it for 5 minutes on HIGH.

When the cooking cycle is over the Instant Pot will begin to beep. Wait for 10 minutes Natural Pressure Release and than release the rest of the pressure manually.

Open the lid of the Instant Pot and carefully lift out the steamer basket. It can be hot. Use kitchen mittens or towel.

Now fluff the cooked rice gently with the help of a fork. This is will allow the hot steam to escape quickly and prevent the rice from getting over cooked with the residual heat.

Open the foil packets carefully and make sure not to drain the fish juices and drippings.

Plate the rice and gently place the salmon fillet on top of the rice, pour the drippings from the foil packet on top of the salmon and serve immediately.

Plate the rice and serve the salmon on top of the rice. Drizzle the drippings from the foil packet on top of the salmon. Squeeze some more lemon juice on top of the fish and rice.

Cook's Notes:

Seal the foil packets very well so that they don't leak.
Yes, you can eat salmon skin. it's really tasty. Do remove the scales.
The chili flakes add a subtle kick to the flaky salmon however, if you do not enjoy spicy food do skip it.
You can sub the chopped Italian Parsley with dill.