One of the first recipes that I wanted to try to make in my rice cooker is Spanish Chickpeas and Rice, and I finally got a chance to do so this week. This simple mix of rice, chickpeas, artichoke hearts, and TONS of smoky spices is one of my favorite vegan meals, and perfectly suited for making in a rice cooker. The original stove top version was already pretty simple, but when you add in the ease of a rice cooker, it’s pretty much fool-proof. You just dump all the ingredients in, press go, and about 30 minutes later you have a totally killer meal. This Rice Cooker Spanish Chickpeas and Rice is seriously as easy as it gets!
Check out my other Rice Cooker Recipes: Rice Cooker Teriyaki Shrimp and Rice, Rice Cooker Mac and Cheese, Rice Cooker Chili.
Do I Have to Use a Rice Cooker?
Nope! You can make this same dish on the stove top in a deep skillet with a lid, or a Dutch oven. You can find the original stove top instructions here: Spanish Chickpeas and Rice.
Rice Cooker Adaptations…
I did have to make a couple of changes from the original for this Rice Cooker Spanish Chickpeas and Rice. First, I had to reduce the quantities of ingredients a bit because I was afraid that it wouldn’t all fit in my 8 cup capacity rice cooker. I reduced the amount of artichoke hearts and chickpeas, and swapped out the diced onion for onion powder. Swapping the fresh onion and garlic for powdered versions also served to make this version of the recipe even easier more beginner-friendly. The only chopping you need to do is slicing the lemon, and chopping the parsley garnish at the end! I also reduced the broth slightly, to account for the fact that less evaporation occurs in a rice cooker compared to a skillet on the stove top.
What Rice Cooker am I Using?
I chose to work with one of the most popular and most basic rice cookers on the market to make sure the rice cooker recipes I develop have the broadest compatibility. That being said, every model rice cooker is slightly different, and may yield slightly different results, so you may have to tweak the recipe to work with your equipment. I’m using the Aroma Housewares 8 cup cooked/4 cup uncooked Digital Rice Cooker (affiliate link).
Can I Make This in an Instant Pot?
The “rice” function on the Instant Pot cooks food in the same manner as a rice cooker, so this recipe should work just fine in an Instant Pot, providing you are using the rice function and not a pressure cooking function. That being said, I have not had a chance to actually test this recipe using an Instant Pot.
Rice Cooker Spanish Chickpeas and Rice
Servings 4 1.5 cups eachIngredients
- 1 Tbsp olive oil ($0.16)
- 1 cup long grain white rice ($0.39)
- 1 tsp smoked paprika ($0.10)
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin ($0.05)
- 1/4 tsp dried oregano ($0.02)
- 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper ($0.02)
- 1/4 tsp onion powder ($0.02)
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder ($0.02)
- freshly cracked black pepper ($0.02)
- 1 15oz. can chickpeas, drained ($0.55)
- 1 15oz. can petite diced tomatoes, with juices ($0.49)
- 1 6oz. jar quartered artichoke hearts, drained ($1.79)
- 1 cup vegetable broth ($0.13)
- 1/4 bunch fresh parsley, chopped ($0.22)
- 1 fresh lemon ($0.43)
Instructions
- Combine the olive oil, rice, smoked paprika, cumin, oregano, cayenne pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and some freshly cracked pepper (about 10 cranks of a pepper mill) in the bowl of the rice cooker. Stir until the rice is coated in oil and spices.
- Next add the chickpeas (drained), diced tomatoes (with juices), artichoke hearts (drained), and vegetable broth. Give everything a brief stir, then closes the rice cooker and turn it on to the white rice setting (or the basic “cook” setting).
- Let the rice cooker cook the mixture until finished, then once the cook cycle has completed let it rest on the “keep warm” setting for at least 5 minutes. After resting, open the cooker and gently fluff and stir the mixture to make sure everything is evenly mixed.
- To serve, spoon the chickpea and rice mixture into a bowl, sprinkle chopped parsley over top, and serve with a couple wedges of lemon. Squeeze the lemon over top just before eating.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Equipment
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!How to Make Rice Cooker Spanish Chickpeas and Rice – Step by Step Photos
The spices you’ll need for this dish are 1 tsp smoked paprika, 1/2 tsp cumin, 1/4 tsp oregano, 1/8 tsp cayenne, 1/4 tsp garlic powder, 1/4 tsp onion powder, and some freshly cracked pepper.
Add 1 Tbsp olive oil, 1 cup of long grain white rice, and all of the spices listed above to the bowl of the rice cooker. Stir until the rice is coated in oil and spices.
Next, add one 15oz. can of chickpeas (drained), one 15oz. can of petite diced tomatoes (with the juices), and one 6 oz. jar of artichoke hearts (drained).
Finally, add 1 cup vegetable broth to the rice cooker and stir briefly to make sure everything is combined.
Close the rice cooker and set it to the white rice setting, or if your rice cooker just has one basic “cook” function, choose that. Once it has finished the cook cycle, let it rest on the “keep warm” setting for at least 5 minutes. This helps the rice absorb any excess steam and makes everything cooked a little more evenly.
After resting for at least 5 minutes, open the cooker and it will look a little like the photo above.
Gently fluff and stir the mixture to make sure everything is evenly combined.
To serve the Rice Cooker Spanish Chickpeas and rice simply spoon the rice mixture into a bowl, top with chopped parsley, and serve with a couple wedges of lemon. Squeeze the lemon over the rice just before eating. Enjoy!
Can’t wait to take this to a potluck of vegetarians tonight! I wonder if I can use brown rice instead of long grain white? It looks delish!
It would have to be reworked to use brown rice because you’ll need a different liquid ratio and longer cook time.
Will this work with brown rice on the brown rice setting?
You’ll probably need to increase the liquid as well, but I’m not sure how much without doing some testing.
Can you make in a slow cooker?!
First full meal that I have made in a rice cooker. Turned out really well, thanks!
I made this tonight using my instant pot. It was fast and came out perfect. I used a whole 14 oz can of artichoke hearts and added the onion from the original stovetop recipe back in. I sautéed it first then added in the spices. Just needed to increase the olive oil a bit.
Could this be made in the instant pot?
Yes, if you use the rice cooking function it will work just like a rice cooker. :)
This is the best and easiest thing I’ve made in a long time!!! Thank you so much for sharing this!
Can another bean be used as I can’t do chickpeas?
I bet cannellini beans would be a good match for these flavors.
I wonder if the 6 oz. jar of artichokes are marinated or just plain. Mostly I find them to be marinated in the stores nearby but canned ones are plain so I am wondering. I want to try this and also, I am always on the lookout for good vegan recipes since my son and a granddaughter are vegan.
These were marinated, but you honestly couldn’t tell in the final dish. It didn’t impact the overall flavor. Use whatever kind you can find. :)
Thank you. I’ve got a large jar of marinated ones from Costco!
Can I make this in a microwave rice cooker ?
Unfortunately I’ve never used one of those, so I’m not sure how it might affect this recipe.
If I don’t have a rice cooker, can I cook in saucepan on the stovetop? How long, 45 min? Thanks in advance!
Yes! The original recipe on this site is the stovetop version.
Yes, there are links in the very beginning of the blog post to the original version, which for the stove top. :)
Could I use frozen artichoke hearts? Will be trying this in my instant pot
I have never used frozen artichoke hearts myself, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. They’re not raw, are they?
Haha, this is what I’ve been doing for at least a year now. I’ve taken this recipe (and some of your other simple beans & rice recipes) and adapted them for the rice cooker. It’s super easy and it doesn’t heat up the kitchen. I use dry chickpeas so I still have to soak them overnight, but everything else is the same. It’s nice that you’re posting this for people who may not have thought to do this before or who don’t have enough cooking experience to adapt recipes like this.
$4.41 is a bit misleading to price this entree … Really, where can one buy one tsp of this, a cup of that or 1/4 bunch of anything? A jar of spice will probably cost the $4.41 alone and most of those 7 spices in the recipe will just end up languishing in the cupboard until you use it again in another recipe.
You don’t buy an entire jar of spices every time you use them. Costs will very per person based on what you have on hand, and what the prices are in your area. They are for estimation purposes only and won’t ever be exact for anyone. I calculate the prices for the amount used and the remained of the bottle or container is accounted for in the other recipes where it is used. This is the method used by commercial food services for tracking expenses, and it works quite well at home too.
Out west we have WinCo which has fantastic bulk bins including bulk spices were you really can buy just a little bit of whatever, if you want! I love WinCo! it’s a co-op too. :)
This looks so good! I need to try this asap!
Paige
http://thehappyflammily.com