Easy Instant Pot Kheer Recipe - Indian Rice Pudding

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Cooking With Anadi

12K subscribers · rice, nuts and cream simmered with cardamom and saffron

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Got some last-minute guests arriving to your door and you need a satisfying and elegant dessert in a jiffy! Make some kheer with your Instant Pot!

Why Make kheer in the Instant Pot?

As I’ve mentioned earlier, while kheer uses minimal ingredients and in theory it is very easy to make, you need to baby the sauce pan the entire time because a common no-no that happens is the milk burning to your pan! That’s no fun to clean up! It’s never happened to me thankfully but I know it’s a bother. With the Instant Pot, you won’t have to worry about any burning! All the magic happens in the Instant Pot, and you can sit back and relax while your kheer is being prepared.

I had so much fun trying out this recipe! I’ll be honest, this was the first time I’ve ever made a dessert in my Instant Pot. Yes, after three or so years of having my Instant Pot, I’ve finally made a dessert! I discovered a new setting that I’ve never touched - Porridge! So don’t worry about attending to that milk, the Porridge setting will cook up your kheer like a charm! I sat on the couch and watched some TV while it was cooking!

Making kheer in the Instant Pot can also be beneficial if you’re preparing it for a dinner party. Not only do you have a huge pot so you can make as much as necessary, but this will free up a burner on your stove, so that you can cook your other dishes and have the dessert be prepared simultaneously. I think that’s a huge bonus!

Tips for the Best Instant Pot kheer

Kheer is one of the easiest desserts under the sun! It’s a one-pot dessert which makes it super straight forward, and the Instant Pot makes it extremely accessible to all! However, as with anything, there are always little tricks for optimal results in the kitchen! Here are my tips for making the best kheer you’ve ever had right in your Instant Pot:

• The water is added to ensure that the milk doesn’t burn (too much) while cooking.
• We add the sweetener later to ensure everyone can have their Kheer the way they want it!
• Be careful not to scrape the bottom of the Instant Pot. A touch of milk will likely have burnt onto the Instant Pot during pressure cooking.
• Feel free to use any of your favorite dried fruits or nuts for garnish.

Tools Needed

• Instant pot
• Wooden spoon
• Measuring spoons
• Ramekin

Ingredients for Instant Pot Rice Kheer

As discussed, the rice, milk and sweetener are the core ingredients. I wanted to share a more elevated kheer recipe today, so we’ll be adding some really awesome goodies that will give you the best kheer you’ve ever had! Let’s review what we’ll be using in this kheer recipe:

• Rice
• Milk
• Cream
• Honey/Sugar/Stevia/Maple syrup or your favorite sweetener to taste
• Ground green cardamom
• Ghee
• Coconut flakes
• Saffron
• Cashews & pistachios

The sweetener I’ve used in this recipe is honey. As you read on in the recipe, I’m actually not going to add the sweetener with the milk and rice to cook, as is traditionally prepared. Instead, I’ll be adding the honey at the end for garnish. This is to adjust for different individuals’ preferred level of sweetness. If you’re making a large batch of kheer for a party, some people may want their kheer sweeter than others. As a result, you can add as much or as little sweetener when serving the kheer for your guests and yourself! You may completely omit it if you like! The choice is up to you, and adding the sweetener at the end will give you that flexibility.

Many recipes use jaggery for the sweetener, but I don’t believe I can find it where I am. Other sweetener options include coconut sugar, maple syrup, table sugar, agave syrup or Stevia.

For the garnish, I’ll be roasting some cashews and pistachios with some coconut flakes in ghee. Feel free to use any dried fruit or nut you like! Almonds are a great option, or any combination of these three will work! All of these add-ons ultimately help to add texture to the kheer!

How to Make Instant Pot Rice Kheer

Note that the FULL PRINTABLE RECIPE is at the bottom of this post! Keep scrolling to save this for later! Here’s how to make your Instant Pot Rice Kheer:

1. Set the Instant Pot to Saute Mode and add 1 Tbsp ghee. Once hot, add in pistachios, cashews and coconut flakes.
2. Stir and cook until the mixture is aromatic and lightly browned. Set aside and wipe Instant Pot if required.
3. Add the rest of your ghee, followed by the rice. Continue cooking on Saute mode and stir the rice until it is shiny and the ends of the rice grains start to turn translucent.
4. Then add in milk and water, mix well and close the Instant Pot lid. Select Cancel on the Instant Pot, set the Valve to Sealing mode and set the Instant Pot to Porridge Mode. Set the timer to 20 minutes. The ratio of rice to milk to water is 1: 8: 2
5. Once the timer is done, let the pressure release naturally.
6. Stir well and set the Instant Pot to Saute Mode on Low to simmer and adjust the consistency.
7. Add the cream, sweetener of choice and ground green cardamom. Stir well and then add in strands of saffron.
8. Taste and adjust for sweetness, add in sautéed nuts and coconut flakes. Serve hot or chilled!

What Goes Into This Kheer - and What Doesn't

Kheer is about as popular an Indian dessert as it gets, and in the south the same milk-and-rice pudding goes by payasam. The essential ingredients here are short: half a cup of rice, 4 cups of milk, 1 cup water, 2 tablespoons of ghee, a quarter cup of cream, half a teaspoon of cardamom powder, a dozen saffron strands, and a quarter cup each of pistachios and cashews with 2 to 3 tablespoons of coconut flakes.

What is not in it matters just as much. There is no condensed milk - the creamy texture comes from real milk reduced under pressure and finished with cream, not from a tin. There is no fixed cup sugar measurement either; the sweetener goes in to taste at the very end, after the rice has cooked, so you can taste before you commit. There is no salt at all, and there are no golden raisins, although they are a classic addition if you want them - stir them in with the nuts at the end so they plump rather than dissolve. This is also not carrot kheer: no carrots, no khoya and no rose water anywhere in it. Rice, milk, ghee, nuts and saffron are the whole story, and that is where the rich taste and the authentic taste both come from, at 265 calories per serving across 8 servings.

Milk, Ghee and Sweetener Swaps

The milk is the one ingredient worth thinking about. Whole milk is what gives this its body, and it doubles as the swap for the cream if you have none - use whole milk with a splash of butter stirred in. Going the other way, 18% or 35% cream makes it richer still. Low-fat milk will work, but the pudding comes out noticeably thinner, so plan on simmering it a little longer once the pressure is off. Almond milk gives you a dairy-free version, though it will not thicken the same way and the result leans nutty rather than milky.

To substitute ghee, unsalted butter is nearly identical with slightly less of that nutty aroma, and coconut oil keeps things dairy-free while adding a mild sweetness. For the sweetener, sugar, brown sugar, honey or jaggery all work - add a little, stir, taste, add more. The nuts of your choice are equally open: pistachios and cashews are what I use, but toasted pine nuts, blanched almonds or macadamias are all good here, and it is frying them in ghee that matters more than which nut goes in the pot.

Porridge Mode, Natural Release and Why Nothing Sticks to the Bottom of the Pot

The hardest part of stovetop kheer is standing over the pan so the milk does not catch on the bottom of the pot. The Instant Pot takes that job away. Everything starts on Saute mode - a tablespoon of ghee to fry the pistachios, cashews and coconut flakes until they are aromatic and lightly browned, then the rest of the ghee and the rice, stirred until the grains turn shiny and the ends go translucent.

Then in go the 4 cups of milk and the 1 cup water, the lid closes and the valve goes to Sealing. Instead of dialing in a manual high pressure time, press Cancel and select Porridge Mode for 20 minutes. Porridge is the setting built for exactly this job - grains cooking in a lot of liquid - and it treats the milk far more gently than a hard boil would.