Instant Pot Cod and Radicchio Bowl

Radicchio is one of those ingredients that home cooks either avoid entirely or forget they love. It’s bitter, yes — but that bitterness is exactly the point here. Braised under pressure with flaked cod, white beans, and enough garlic to wake everything up, it mellows into something almost sweet, holding its shape while the cod breaks into tender chunks throughout the bowl. The whole thing comes together in the Instant Pot in under 30 minutes, and it tastes like you planned it.

This Instant Pot cod and radicchio bowl is weeknight food that doesn’t announce itself as a compromise. It’s hearty without being heavy, and the combination of bitter greens, mild fish, and creamy beans is more interesting than it sounds on paper.

Why This One’s Worth Adding to the Rotation

Cod is underused in the Instant Pot — most people default to chicken or beef for pressure cooking, and fish feels risky. But cod handles it well. The key is a very short cook time and enough liquid that the steam does the work gently. What you get is flaky, moist fish in a dish that feels complete rather than stripped down.

The radicchio is the other argument for making this. Raw, it can be sharp and aggressive. Cooked low and fast under pressure, it softens dramatically, and its bitterness rounds into something almost savory. Combined with white beans — which absorb the cooking liquid and turn silky — the bowl has genuine depth without any complicated technique.

It also uses pantry staples. Canned beans, a can of crushed tomatoes, dried herbs, and a fresh head of radicchio. The cod is the only thing you need to pick up, and it’s one of the more affordable white fish options at most grocery stores. This is a meal you can pull off on a Tuesday without planning ahead.

What You’ll Need

For the Bowl

• 1 lb (450g) cod fillets, cut into 2-inch chunks — fresh or fully thawed frozen both work; pat dry before adding
• 1 small head radicchio (about 8 oz), quartered, then roughly chopped into 1-inch pieces
• 1 can (15 oz) cannellini beans, drained and rinsed — or Great Northern beans
• 1 can (14 oz) crushed tomatoes
• 3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 1 small yellow onion, diced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
• ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (adjust to taste)
• ½ cup low-sodium vegetable or chicken broth
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Juice of ½ lemon, added at the end

To Serve

• Cooked farro, brown rice, or crusty bread — for serving underneath or alongside
• Fresh flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
• Extra olive oil for drizzling

On the cod: Thick fillets (1 inch or more) hold up better than thin ones under pressure. If your fillets are thin, reduce the cook time to 1 minute and check immediately. Tilapia or haddock work as direct substitutes with similar results. For a vegetarian version, swap the cod for extra beans or cubed firm tofu added at the same step.

How to Make Instant Pot Cod and Radicchio Bowl

1. Sauté the aromatics. Set the Instant Pot to Sauté mode. Once it reads Hot, add the olive oil. Add the diced onion and cook, stirring occasionally, for 3 to 4 minutes until softened and just starting to turn golden at the edges. Add the sliced garlic, oregano, smoked paprika, and red pepper flakes. Stir for about 60 seconds — you’ll smell the garlic become fragrant. Don’t let it brown; you’re softening, not toasting.
2. Build the base. Pour in the crushed tomatoes and the broth. Stir to combine, scraping up anything stuck to the bottom of the pot — this prevents the burn notice. Add the drained cannellini beans. Season generously with salt and black pepper and stir everything together.
3. Add the radicchio. Add the chopped radicchio directly on top of the tomato-bean mixture. Don’t stir it in; just lay it across the surface. It will look like too much, but it wilts down quickly once the lid goes on.
4. Add the cod. Nestle the cod chunks on top of the radicchio. Season the fish with a pinch of salt and a few grinds of black pepper. Do not stir. The fish needs to sit above the liquid and cook in the steam, not submerge and fall apart before pressure even builds.
5. Pressure cook. Seal the lid and set the valve to Sealing. Cook on High Pressure for 2 minutes. Yes — 2 minutes is correct. The pot will take about 8 to 10 minutes to come to pressure, and the residual heat from pressurization is already doing work before the countdown even starts.
6. Quick release immediately. As soon as the 2 minutes are up, carefully switch the valve to Venting for a quick release. Do this right away — do not let the pot sit and naturally release, or the cod will overcook. The fish should be just opaque all the way through and flaking at the edges when you open the lid.
7. Finish the bowl. Squeeze the lemon juice over everything. Taste the broth and adjust salt and pepper. Using a large spoon, gently fold the top layer down so the cod breaks into the beans and radicchio — it will flake naturally; no knife needed. Serve over farro or rice, spooning plenty of the broth over each bowl. Finish with chopped parsley and a drizzle of olive oil.

Tips That Actually Make a Difference

• Dry the cod before it goes in. Patting the fish dry with paper towels removes surface moisture that would otherwise turn the broth watery. It also helps the fish hold together slightly better during cooking.
• Don’t skip the sauté step. You could theoretically dump everything in cold and pressure cook — it would be edible. But the 5 minutes you spend building the onion and garlic base is the difference between a bowl that tastes layered and one that tastes canned. The brief heat develops flavor you can’t shortcut.
• Use thick cod fillets if you can find them. Thinner pieces (under ½ inch) will be overcooked at 2 minutes. If that’s all that’s available, reduce the cook time to 1 minute and check the fish the moment you release pressure.
• Taste the broth before serving. The beans and tomatoes absorb seasoning, and this dish often needs more salt than you expect. A well-seasoned broth makes everything in the bowl taste more alive. Add the lemon juice last — acid brightens the whole thing in a way that salt alone doesn’t.

Mistakes to Watch Out For

Stirring the cod in before cooking

If you stir the fish into the tomato mixture before sealing the lid, it will fall apart completely during pressurization — before the cook cycle even starts. Keep the fish on top, sitting in the steam, and it stays in distinct flaky pieces you can actually serve. This matters for texture.

Natural releasing instead of quick releasing

Cod at 2 minutes on high pressure is already at the edge of done. Every extra minute the pot sits sealed is another minute of carry-over cooking. Even a 5-minute natural release will leave you with mushy, overcooked fish. Set a timer if you need to, but get to that valve the moment the cook cycle ends.

Using a full head of radicchio without chopping it down

Large radicchio leaves don’t break down evenly under pressure. Chop into rough 1-inch pieces so they cook consistently. Bigger pieces will have tough stems while the edges go limp — not ideal.

Forgetting to deglaze before sealing

After the sauté step, there will be small bits of onion and garlic caramelized onto the pot bottom. If you seal the lid without scraping them up with the broth, the Instant Pot’s burn sensor will trigger mid-cook. The stir you take when adding the tomatoes and broth handles this — just make sure to actually scrape the bottom thoroughly.

Easy Ways to Change It Up

• Swap the beans: Chickpeas hold up beautifully under pressure and give the bowl a slightly firmer, more substantial bite. Lentils (green or brown) work too — use cooked lentils and add them at the same stage as the beans.
• Make it spicier: Double the red pepper flakes, or stir in a teaspoon of harissa paste when you add the tomatoes. It shifts the whole flavor profile into a North African direction that works well with the bitter radicchio.
• Add capers or olives: A tablespoon of capers or a handful of pitted Kalamata olives added with the beans give the broth a briny, Mediterranean edge. If you go this route, ease off on the salt — both bring plenty of their own.
• Make it dairy-forward: A tablespoon of butter stirred in at the end, just before serving, enriches the broth noticeably. Not traditional, but it rounds out the bitterness of the radicchio if that’s your preference.
• Vegetarian version: Skip the cod entirely. Add a second can of beans and a handful of torn kale or spinach tucked in with the radicchio. Cook on High Pressure for 3 minutes with a quick release. The result is a hearty, meatless bowl that holds up on its own.

What to Serve It With

Farro is the most natural base for this bowl — its chewiness stands up to the brothy cooking liquid and adds a nutty undertone that complements both the fish and the bitterness of the radicchio. Cook it separately while the Instant Pot does its thing.

Brown rice or freekeh are close seconds. If you want to skip grains entirely, a thick slice of toasted sourdough in the bottom of the bowl absorbs the broth and turns into something worth eating with a spoon.

A simple green salad dressed with lemon and olive oil is all you need alongside. The bowl is already substantial — you don’t need much else. If you’re feeding a crowd, start with a platter of roasted vegetables and let the bowl be the centerpiece.

Leftovers and Reheating

Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. The flavors actually deepen overnight — the beans and broth meld in a way that makes the next-day version taste more cohesive.

The cod will flake further as it sits, which is fine. By day two, you’re less eating distinct fish pieces and more eating a thick, bean-and-fish stew — still good, just different.

Reheat on the stovetop, not the microwave. Add a splash of broth or water to loosen the mixture, set it over medium-low heat, and warm it gently, stirring occasionally. The microwave tends to make the fish rubbery and zaps the texture out of the beans. Low and slow on the stovetop keeps everything in better shape.

This dish doesn’t freeze well — the cod texture deteriorates significantly when frozen and thawed. Plan to eat it within two days of making it.

Approximate Nutrition Per Serving

Based on 4 servings, not including the grain base. All values are rough estimates for informational purposes only and will vary depending on specific brands and ingredients used.

What makes this Instant Pot cod and radicchio bowl worth keeping is the combination that shouldn’t work as well as it does — mild fish, bitter greens, creamy beans, bright tomato broth — and how the pressure cooker pulls it all into something cohesive in half an hour. It’s genuinely satisfying in a way that lighter fish dishes sometimes aren’t.

If you’ve been skeptical about cooking fish in the Instant Pot, this is the recipe to change that. Give it one try on a weeknight when you don’t want to think too hard, and see what you think.