This Vegan Instant Pot Teriyaki Fried rice is packed with colorful veggies, sesame seeds and a sweet and salty teriyaki sauce. It makes a delicious Asian one-pot dinner! An easy Japanese restaurant-style fried rice that is ready in 20 minutes making it family-friendly for busy weeknight dinners.

Recipe Snapshot

  • Prep time: 5 minutes
  • Cook time: 15 minutes
  • Total time: 30 minutes
  • Yield: 4
  • Category: Main Course
  • Cuisine: Japanese

Ingredients

For the Teriyaki Sauce-

  • 1/4 cup soy sauce (or use tamari to make it gluten-Free)
  • 3 tbsp maple syrup
  • 1.5-2 tbsp Brown sugar or regular sugar
  • 2 tsp minced fresh ginger
  • 2 tsp minced fresh garlic
  • 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
  • 1 tsp molasses
  • 2 tsp cornstarch
  • 2 tsp sesame seeds
  • 2 tbsp water

For the Fried Rice

  • 1.5 cups white rice (washed and soaked for 15 minutes, I use basmati)
  • 2 cups veggies (such as zucchini, stir fry mix, peppers, carrots, peas, etc)
  • 7 oz of extra firm tofu (pressed and cubed into small pieces. You can also use 1 cup of slightly mashed chickpeas instead.)
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp pepper flakes
  • chopped green onion for garnish

Method

  1. Mix the soy sauce, maple syrup, sugar, ginger, garlic, vinegar, molasses and water, until well combined. Reserve half of the sauce. Add the sesame seeds to one half of the sauce, and add cornstarch to the other half of the sauce.
  2. In an instant pot, select sauté then add 2 tsp of oil. Once the oil is hot, add in the tofu and cook until it is golden on some sides.
  3. Switch off sauté. drain the rice and add it to the instant pot. Add in the vegetables, salt, pepper, and half of the teriyaki sauce that has sesame seeds. Add 1.5 cups of water, and mix really well.
  4. Close the lid, select pressure cook for 5 minutes at high pressure. Let the pressure release naturally for 8 minutes. Then carefully quick release, then open the lid.
  5. Meanwhile, mix the teriyaki sauce that has cornstarch in it so that the cornstarch that has settled will mix in again. Then heat that mixture in a microwave or in a skillet until the sauce thickens a little bit.
  6. Remove the fried rice from the instant pot into a large bowl and fluff it. Then drizzle the thickened teriyaki sauce all over, but don't completely mix it so that there are swirls of some concentrated teriyaki sauce all over in the fried rice. You can also serve half of that sauce on the side instead of mixing all up, for people who want that extra punch of the teriyaki sauce, while eating the fried rice.
  7. Top it with Green Onions, and more sesame seeds, and serve.

Kiyaan Singh’s Kitchen Note

Keep this recipe as a working base: cook once as written, then adjust spice, texture, and serving style for your own table.