Just look at that gorgeous dark purple color! Let's mix whole grain brown rice and black forbidden rice with white short-grain rice in the Instant Pot to make a big batch of multigrain purple sticky rice for sushi, rice bowls or just about anything else.

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My husband and oldest son aren't huge fans of brown rice on its own. But, if I mix it in with white sushi rice and purple rice, they enjoy it.

So, I've been making this pretty often when we want to have poke bowls or sushi, to get extra whole grains in our life.

🧄 Ingredient notes

three bags of rice (white sushi, black and brown rice)

White short-grain sushi rice - For sticky rice to make sushi or poke bowls, you want to look for a short-grain sushi rice, like the Kokuho Rose brand pictured above. This type of rice cooks up sticky and starchy and holds your sushi rolls together.
Brown rice (short or medium grain) - We're using a short-grain or medium-grain brown rice for this recipe, since we want it to be sticky rice. So, save your long-grain brown rice (like jasmine or basmati varieties) for other times where you want the grains to be fluffy and separated.
Black rice - Also called forbidden rice, this black rice is whole grain and, when cooked, turns dark purple. The one cup of black rice in this recipe will turn everything that striking color.
Seasoned rice vinegar (optional) - if you're going to make sushi rolls with this rice, then you'll also need seasoned rice vinegar to give it that "sushi rice flavor", which is rice vinegar that's already been mixed with salt and sugar. It will say "sushi vinegar" or "seasoned rice vinegar" or "vinegar for sushi" on it. Check the ingredients to make sure it's cane sugar, not other added sweeteners, like high-fructose corn syrup.

🔪 Instructions

Here's how to make multigrain purple sushi rice in the Instant Pot, step-by-step!

Process step 1 - add all three varieties of rice to IP insert and rinse them

Step 1: Add all three types of rice to the Instant Pot insert.

Process step 2 rinsing rice and water turning purple

Step 2: Rinse rice under cold water, swishing it around with your hand. The water should start turning purple. Carefully, drain away most of the water. Repeat 1-2 times. Drain away as much water as you can.

Step 3: Put the Instant Pot insert back into the Instant Pot. Pour in 5 cups of fresh water and stir in the salt.

Process step 4 - set Instant Pot for 20 minutes on Multigrain setting

Step 4: Cover the Instant Pot and set the valve to "Sealing". Press "Multigrain" button and set the cook time to 20 minutes.
When the Instant Pot is done cooking, let the pressure naturally release for 10 minutes. Then, quick release and open the lid. Fluff and the rice is ready to serve in rice bowls or store in the fridge or freezer!

white bowl of dark purple sushi rice with cucumber, edamame, carrot, seaweed snacks and sesame seeds

purple sushi multigrain rice in green chopsticks over bowl

Expert Tips

To increase the number of different grains, feel free to mix in small amounts of whole grains you have on hand, like barley, quinoa or oats. But, the majority of the the volume should be short-grain sushi rice, if you want it to be sticky rice.

🥡 Make ahead and storage tips

Store the cooked rice in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. We keep it in a large container and heat up portions of it, as needed, to make poke bowls, stir-fry rice bowls or even fried rice.

You can also freeze the cooked multigrain purple rice in an airtight container.

🗺 Cultural influences

white bowl of cooked purple multigrain sushi rice

This recipe is inspired by Korean and Japanese culture!

You can buy pre-packaged dry multigrain rice, which has different varieties of rice and other whole grains mixed together. It usually has black rice mixed in, also. So, when you make it it'll have a lovely purple color to it.

Check-out Maangchi for an authentic Korean multigrain rice recipe.

See About for more information on my cultural influences and how I attribute recipes.

💜 More recipes you'll love

If you love this recipe, check out these other plant-based rice and grains recipes!

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