Instant Pot Poha

The most delicious poha recipe, ready in minutes! Poha, a popular Indian breakfast or snack, is made with flattened rice, spices, peanuts, onions, and potatoes. It’s flavorful, filling, and so easy to make!

You are going to love this flavorful spiced poha. My recipe calls for a blend of robust spices, crunchy peanuts, chewy sweet golden raisins, and tangy lemon juice.

Poha is a simple dish to prepare, and we’re making it even simpler with an instant pot! This aloo poha recipe is very hands-off – there’s no need to stand by the stovetop stir-frying potatoes. Let the IP do all the work. You’ll be spooning freshly made poha onto your plate in minutes.

“I have made this poha recipe several times now, and I cannot believe how well it works! If I prep the ingredients the night before, this comes together quickly and easily for a comforting Indian breakfast. Thank you!”

Tej

What is Poha?

Poha is a traditional Indian breakfast or snack made with flattened rice, spices, peanuts, onions, and potatoes. There are many different variations of poha; the poha recipe I’m sharing today is for kanda batata poha, meaning an onion and potato poha.

This popular western Indian dish is eaten all over India for good reason. Poha calls for Indian pantry staples and is a quick dish to make.

The word “poha” refers to both the dish and the flattened rice used to make it. So, we’re making poha (the dish) with poha (flattened rice).

Flattened rice cooks very quickly because it has already been parboiled, flattened, and dried. You might find packages of poha labeled as either “thick poha” or “thin poha” – for this recipe, we want to use thick, or regular, poha. You can find this at your local Indian grocery store or on amazon. Here’s what it looks like:

This type of rice is also used to make other recipes like chivda, or you can add flattened rice when making Idli/Dosa Batter, but typically it’s most commonly used to make the dish I’m sharing here with you today.

How to make this poha recipe:

To make this poha, add a few ingredients – including potatoes – to the instant pot, mix, and pressure cook for 1 minute. The potatoes will cook quickly because they’re small (½ to ¾ inch pieces). You don’t want to have big chunks of potato in poha, so make sure to chop them into small pieces.

After that, add rinsed poha to the pot and mix well. Turn the pot off, put the lid back on, and let the poha sit in the pot – poha cooks very quickly and will cook in the residual steam.

Can I add vegetables to poha?

Some people add green peas, grated carrots, or grated coconut to this. I’m sure any grated vegetable would be fine to add, though I haven’t tried this myself yet. I personally love it with onions and potatoes but I’m sure additional veggies won’t hurt. Still, as always, I suggest trying my recipe as written before making adjustments!

If you’re planning a special weekend brunch, put this poha recipe on your menu. I’m not sure there’s a better tea-time snack than a bowl of poha served with freshly made Masala Chai.

Looking for more brunch or tea time snack ideas?

Instant Pot Poha

Instant Pot Poha

5 from 19 reviews

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Course Appetizer, Breakfast, Snack

Cuisine Indian

Ingredients

 

• ▢ ¼ cup oil
• ▢ 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• ▢ ½ teaspoon mustard seeds
• ▢ ½ cup raw peanuts
• ▢ ⅛ teaspoon hing
• ▢ 15 – 20 curry leaves
• ▢ 1 onion diced
• ▢ 2 green chilis minced
• ▢ ½ pound gold potatoes cut into ½ to ¾ inch pieces

Spices:

• ▢ 1 ½ teaspoon salt
• ▢ 1 teaspoon amchur powder
• ▢ 1 teaspoon coriander powder
• ▢ ½ teaspoon turmeric
• ▢ ½ teaspoon roasted cumin powder
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon black pepper
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon kala namak (black salt)
• ▢ ⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper

• ▢ ½ cup water
• ▢ 2 cups thick poha regular or medium works too
• ▢ ¼ cup golden raisins optional
• ▢ chopped coriander leaves
• ▢ 1 tablespoon lemon juice

Instructions

 

• Press saute, then add oil. Once it heats up, add cumin and mustard seeds. When the cumin starts to brown, add peanuts, hing, and curry leaves and stir-fry for 2 minutes, or until the peanuts are roasted.
• Remove the peanuts and curry leaves from the pot. Set aside for now.
• Add the onions, green chilies, potatoes and stir-fry for a minute, add spices, stir, then add water and mix well.
• Secure the lid, close the pressure valve, and cook for 1 minute at high pressure (the diced potatoes will cook in this amount of time due to their size).
• Quick-release – right after you turn the knob to quick release, rinse the poha, then remove the lid of the instant pot, and add the poha to the pot along with the raisins. Gently mix. Secure the lid and turn off the instant pot. Let the poha steam in residual heat for 10 minutes.
• Remove the lid, add the roasted peanuts, curry leaves back into the pot along with lemon juice, and cilantro and gently mix well.
• Place it in a bowl and serve.

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