If you’ve been watching my videos for a while, you’ve probably seen me eating purple rice. Sometimes dark purple, or sometimes lavender, it has a beautiful color and stands out on any table.
It’s Korean multigrain rice, called japgokbap in Korean. It’s a pretty simple recipe and there are many variations to it, and I will make it differently depending on my mood, but today I’m going to show you a version that is reliably beautiful and delicious.
This recipe is also in my cookbook, but in this version I add peas. They’re optional, but they look really pretty to me. You can add your favorite fresh beans if you like.
If you have an electric pressure cooker this rice is really easy to make: you just add everything to the cooker and let it do the work. But of course not everyone has one of those cookers, or sometimes they just want to make it the old fashioned way, in a thick-bottomed pot.
Enjoy the recipe and have some fluffy, beautiful, multigrain rice!
Ingredients
4 servings
- 1 cup short grain rice
- ½ cup brown sweet rice
- ½ cup barley
- 2 tablespoons black sweet rice
- ¼ cup frozen or fresh green peas (optional)
Directions
- Combine short grain rice, brown sweet rice, barley, and black sweet rice in a heavy pot. Add some cold water and stir it around. Tilt the pot and pour out the water, then scrub and rub the grains by hand to remove excess starch.
- Fill the pot with water again, stir, scrub, and pour out the water again. Repeat couple of times until the water runs pretty clear.
- Do a final drain of the water, leaving the grains generously wet.
- Add 2½ cups water and green peas (if using). Cover and let it soak for 2 to 2½ hours.
- Cook over medium high heat for 7 to 10 minutes until the surface bubbles vigorously. Stir the rice with a rice scoop, scraping the bottom and turning over.
- Cover and lower the heat to low and simmer for 10 to 12 minutes until all the grains turn fluffy and well cooked. Taste a sample to check the texture. The grains of rice should be soft and fluffy with nothing hard inside at all, but be careful not to cook them too much and make them mushy.
- Fluff the japgokbap with your rice scoop and serve hot. Keep any leftovers in a container in the fridge. The rice should be finished in three days and you can revive it by reheating it in the microwave or steaming in a steamer basket over a pot of simmering water.
Hi Maangchi. I cooked your multigrain rice this afternoon for our lunch. But I don’t have the green peas but it’s still good and yummy. I used the Japanese short white grain rice and our local brown and black rice. And I have pearl barley with it. I don’t have a pressure rice cooker but the ordinary rice cooker worked as well. We always eat rice but I never thought of mixing those grains.
Thanks for sharing.
Multigrain rice – we love it! Thank you for the recipe!
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it looks great!
This was all my local Korean market had, is it ok to use in this recipe?
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Yes, you can use it.
Hello Maangchi! I made my own mix of rice as your instructed (same proportions) but I would like to cook mine in my Instant Pot pressure cooker so I don’t have to soak it. Would you mind sharing the rice to water ratio as well as the cooking time when you’re making it in your pressure cooker? Thanks!
I have a pressure cooker with a multigrain function, I just use that setting. If you figure out how to do it on the Instant Pot you can share the recipe here with us.
The Instant Pot has a multigrain function too, so I guess it would be the same as you? I just don’t know how much water to add because of the barley that absorbs more water than the other rice in the mix. I can’t use the typical water to rice ratio. How much water do you use?
Hi yirouard,
I’m thinking about getting an Instant Pot soon and just wondering were you able to make this rice with the multigrain function with no problem? Thank you
I have an 8 qt. Instant Pot. I tried this recipe yesterday, and it’s so yummy! Here’s what I did:
– Washed the rice in a colander and drained the rice.
– Added 2 cups + 2 Tbsp cold water in the Instant Pot.
– Added the drained rice to the water.
– Set the Pressure Cook function for 17 minutes. Did 5 minutes natural release.
I omitted the peas.
I hope these instructions are helpful for other Instant Pot fans!
Maangchi – thank you for your amazing recipes, loving personality, and for sharing your knowledge and passion with the world! You are an inspiration!
I grew up eating a rice and barley mix! I always use broken barley grains, this way you don’t need to soak. :) Just wash and put it in the rice cooker. So easy! Sometimes I also use oat grains. Greetings from Finland. <3
Can we soak the rice longer than 2.5 hours? I won’t have time to do this at night after work so I was thinking of doing it in the morning and leaving it soaking all day and cook it in the evening after work.
Yes, you can soak them overnight.
would the measurement of the ingredients be the same if I use the rice cooker?? Even if I plan not to include the barley??? thanks
망치씨,
In your video you mentioned not having to soak the rice if you have a pressure cooker. How long would you cook in the pressure cooker? Any different than in the rice cooker? 고맙습니다!
Hi,
I watched the first 2 episodes of “Late Night Restaurant” starring Kim Seung-woo. He cooked a pot of rice with some green beans inside. Would you know what kind of beans are used in his rice? They look like edamame but I’m not sure. It looks so good I can’t wait to cook it. Hopefully you’ll be able to enlighten me. Thanks :)
I was wondering that, too! The rice looked SO tasty and homey. I want to make it!
Maangchi, could you tell us about the rice in Late Night Restaurant? Actually, what if you featured all of the dishes Master makes in the k-drama in a series of posts? For many of us, we watch Late Night Restaurant and want to make the yummy Korean food the cook makes ourselves!
I always end up feeling so hungry after watching that show.
Oh yaaaaay I’ve been waiting for this recipe!! I kind of cobbled together my version of multigrain rice but I’m so glad to have a Maangchi recipe video to refer to!
What a great dish! I have made this many times, but with just two kinds of grain (short grain and black rice). Now I can make it Maangchi-style, with all four grains, and peas!
And such funny comments: “My bottom is also thick!” ; ) Very funny, but not true. ; 0 )