Instant pot Channa Masala: a Vegan Chickpea Curry

Name: Instant pot Channa masala
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 50 min
Total time: 60 min
Ingredients: 1 cup dried Chickpeas or 1 can chickpeas; 1 cup finely chopped onions (Preferably red onions); 11/2 cups pureed or finely chopped tomatoes; 1 tsp cumin seeds; 1 or 2 slit green chilly ((use as per spice levels)); 11/2 tsp ginger garlic paste or finely minced ginger garlic; 1/4 tsp turmeric powder; 1 tbsp chole masala / channa masala; 1 tsp Kashmiri chilly powder / cayenne / red chilly powder; 1/2 tsp Amchur / dry mango powder; 1 tsp Coriander Powder; salt to taste; 1 tbsp oil of choice; 2 tbsp chopped coriander leaves; 1/2 lemon or lemon juice as needed in the end; 2 tsp kasuri methi

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So if there’s one Indian dish most people love, it has to be channa masala. It is one of the most popular dishes in Indian restaurants and this Instant pot channa masala is just as good as any channa masala you would get there.

Before I go into the vegan chickpea curry recipe, I will have to tell you a small secret. I used to make the worst channa masala until recently. My hubby loves channa masala and would keep asking me to make it. He would also say his mom makes the best channa masala. But I could never get it right and top it with the pressure of recreating a dish his mom was so good at! The channa I made wasnt inedible or anything. But being the perfectionist I am, I would find something or the other wrong in my recipe and eventually I started fearing the dish. I made it less and less often at home and the only time we ate it was in potlucks and restaurants.

There were many things I wasn’t satisfied with. For starters, in a normal pressure cooker, I would lose count of the number of whistles and sometimes end up with uncooked or overcooked chickpeas. Next, the spices would be off balance.

So one fine day, I decided to conquer my fear and set about perfecting the channa masala vegan chickpea curry recipe. I realised I was doing too much to try and add flavor, adding a lot of spices, herbs and complicating it. So this time I decided to keep it simple and make it with basic ingredients and voila!! It worked. I couldn’t believe that I was doing something so basic wrong all this time. Keep it simple!! How could I have forgotten that?

So I nailed the taste part of the dish and this was when I did not have my instant pot. But in a normal pressure cooker, all it needed was keeping count of the whistles and making sure you don’t burn it, which was actually not that difficult. But then instant pot, solved that problem as well. Now no more counting whistles and baby sitting the pressure cooker. I love that we can do some basic sauteeing, dump the chickpeas and walk away. No counting games here 🙂

So here I am with my perfected Instant pot channa masala vegan chickpea curry recipe. This channa masala is simple, fuss free and delicious with the perfect texture and balance of spices. Now I can’t get enough of this recipe and the husband is one happy man 🙂

5 from 1 vote

Instant pot Channa masala

Prep Time

10 mins

Cook Time

50 mins

Total Time

1 hr

Simple and easy resturant style Chickpeas masala where chickpeas are cooked in an aromatic tomato onion nased gravy

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Asian

Keyword: instant pot

Author: Cookingwithpree

Ingredients

1 cup dried Chickpeas or 1 can chickpeas
1 cup finely chopped onions (Preferably red onions)
11/2 cups pureed or finely chopped tomatoes
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 or 2 slit green chilly (use as per spice levels)
11/2 tsp ginger garlic paste or finely minced ginger garlic
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 tbsp chole masala / channa masala
1 tsp Kashmiri chilly powder / cayenne / red chilly powder
1/2 tsp Amchur / dry mango powder (optional, substitute with lemin juice in the end)
1 tsp Coriander Powder
salt to taste
1 tbsp oil of choice
2 tbsp chopped coriander leaves
1/2 lemon or lemon juice as needed in the end
2 tsp kasuri methi

Instructions

Soak the dried chickpeas in water. You would use approximately 31/2 cups of water to soak them.
Switch on the saute mode in your Instant pot and when it gets hot, add the oil, cumin seeds, green chilly and let the cumin seeds splutter
Then add the ginger garlic and saute until the raw smell goes off.
Next add the onions, a pinch of salt and saute until they are translucent.
Now add the tomatoes, coriander powder, channa masala powder, turmeric powder, chilly powder, amchur powder and give it a mix. Let it cook for 5 minutes.
Add the soaked chickpeas or the canned one if using canned peas, 2 cups water and salt as needed and cook on manual setting, high pressure for 30 minutes. If using canned chickpeas you would just have to cook for 10 minutes. Release pressure naturally in both cases.
Open up and add some lemon juice and chopped cilantro. If you want a thicker gravy, use a hand blender and blend some of the chickpeas and let it simmer for 5 to 6 minutes. Alternatively, you can take 2 or 3 ladles of the channa, grind it and add it back to the masala. Simmer it for 5 minutes.
Serve with rotis / rice.

Recipe Notes

You can replace the chole masala with 11/2 tsp of garam masala
You can omit the dried fenugreek leaves if you don’t have it.
If using tomato paste, use 11/4 tbsp of tomato paste instead of tomato puree
Can substitute the amchur powder with chat masala
If you like it less tangy, add a tsp of maple syrup or honey in the end. Alternatively you could also add a bit of cream or coconut cream.

If you tried this Instant pot channa masala vegan chickpea curry recipe and liked it, do share a picture with the hashtag #cookingwithpree on Instagram or Facebook. Would love to know what you guys have been cooking

Looking for more Instant pot or Vegan reicpes? Check out Pinterest boards for inspration. Happy cooking!

Preethi

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View Comments

Brenda says:

March 3, 2021 at 11:25 am

Hi Pree. Thank you for this recipe. I made it last night and it was outstanding. Your photo looks like you served it with Matar Pulao, so I found a recipe and made that too. Both completely done in the Instant Pot!

I do have a couple of novice questions about the recipe, and hoping for clarification.

I didn't see in the recipe when I was supposed to add the Kasuri Methi. I added it with the other spices BEFORE cooking .... was that correct?

I wasn't sure what you meant by "slit chilis." I used fresh green serrano chilis, that I split down the side (and removed the seeds for less heat). Is that correct, or was I to use dried chilis?

Should the pureed tomatoes be fresh or canned .... or does it matter?

Thank you so much for the recipe and education! I'll be trying many more of your recipes.