This Instant Pot tomato risotto is the perfect low-effort light lunch or dinner, combining the Mediterranean flavors of tomato, basil, and lemon. It is delicious on its own or topped with grilled chicken, fish, or halloumi.
Cooking risotto in the Instant Pot is so quick and easy these days I never make it any other way! Some of my favorites are mushroom risotto, chicken and pumpkin risotto, and chicken and mushroom risotto.
What do you need?
One of the reasons I love this risotto is that most of the ingredients are pantry staples. This makes it a great recipe for those days when you find the fridge is bare.
There are a few ingredients that are better if you have the fresh version on hand, but almost everything can be substituted if you really need to:
- Onion – use a yellow onion (/brown onion), or red onion. In a pinch you can substitute onion flakes – use approximately 3 tablespoons in place of a medium fresh onion.
- Garlic cloves – you can use crushed garlic from a jar – use one and a half teaspoons.
- Thyme – as always, fresh is best for herbs, but if you don’t have any fresh thyme to hand, then you can substitute dried thyme instead.
- Canned cherry tomatoes – I have used cherry tomatoes for this recipe, though you could use a can of regular chopped tomatoes if you prefer or if that’s all you have to hand.
- Parmesan cheese – use fresh if you have it, but powdered Parmesan works too.
- Baby spinach leaves – you could swap for frozen spinach, or canned spinach. Use half the amount in the recipe, and be sure to add it to the Instant Pot before pressure cooking.
- Fresh basil – as with thyme, it is definitely better to use fresh basil in this risotto if you can, but if you don’t have any, then substitute dried basil.
- Lemon juice – you can use bottled lemon juice, use 1 tbsp in place of 1/2 a lemon.
Top risotto tip: Do not rinse the rice before cooking!
The starch in the rice is what creates the rich and creamy texture of risotto. When you rinse rice before cooking much of this gets removed
Variation: vegan tomato risotto
This tomato risotto converts easily to a vegan risotto:
- Swap out the butter for olive oil (use the same quantity).
- Either leave out the Parmesan cheese, or substitute nutritional yeast or your favorite vegan cheese.
Instant Pot Tomato Risotto
Ingredients
- 1 cup / 200 g Arborio rice
- 1 onion (yellow or brown, finely diced)
- 3 cloves garlic (crushed)
- 1 tablespoon / 14 g butter
- 1 tablespoon / 15 ml olive oil
- 1 teaspoon / 2 g thyme (fresh or dried)
- 14 oz / 400 g cherry tomatoes (1 tin)
- 2 cups / 480 ml water
- 2 vegetable stock cubes
- ¼ cup / 25 g Parmesan cheese (grated)
- 1 cup / 30 g baby spinach leaves
- 10 leaves fresh basil (roughly chopped)
- 3 tablespoon / 45 ml basil pesto
- ½ lemon (juiced)
- salt and pepper (to taste)
Directions
Prepare the risotto
- Set Instant Pot to ‘Sauté’.
- Add the butter and olive oil. When the butter is melted, add the onion and garlic and cook until fragrant (approx 2 minutes).
- Add the rice and stir for 1 minute until coated by the oil in the pan (approx 1 minute).
- Add the cherry tomatoes, thyme and water, and crumble in the stock cubes.
- Stir well to combine, then allow it to come to the boil.
Pressure cook the risotto
- Press ‘Cancel’ to end the Sauté program when the risotto has come to the boil.
- Close and lock the Instant Pot lid. Ensure that the steam release handle valve is set to ‘Sealing’.
- Press the ‘Pressure cook’ button, and set it to pressure cook for 5 minutes.
- When the time is up, use the quick release option to open the Instant Pot (press ‘Cancel’ then carefully turn the steam release handle to the ‘Venting’ position). When the float valve has dropped, open the Instant Pot.
Serve
- Stir through Parmesan, baby spinach leaves, basil pesto, fresh basil, lemon juice and butter, season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is an estimate and provided for informational purposes only.
FAQs & Tips
The best rice for risotto has a short to medium grain and a high starch content. Arborio rice (sometimes labelled ‘risotto rice’) is most often used, but there are other varieties that are excellent for risotto including Carnaroli rice and Vialone Nano.
You can use any rice for a risotto, but regular long-grain rice will often not give a great texture as it does not have a high enough starch content.
Risottos can be very healthy, it really depends on what other ingredients you add. This tomato and basil risotto is quite healthy, but be careful of how much Parmesan cheese you add if you are counting calories.
