Need a quick and flavorful meal? This Instant Pot Chana Masala delivers rich, spiced flavors in a fraction of the time! Made with cooked chickpeas, this Instant Pot Chickpea Curry comes together effortlessly for a hearty and satisfying dish.
My Meal Pairing Tip: Serve it with fluffy Indian basmati rice or cooked millet for a wholesome, satisfying meal at home.
Instant Pot Chana Masala makes it easy to enjoy a classic Indian chickpea curry in a fraction of the time. The pressure cooking method helps the spices blend seamlessly, creating a rich, flavorful dish. I cooked soaked chickpeas in the Instant Pot first and whipped up this curry for dinner in no time. You can also use canned chickpeas to make this recipe.
If you love quick and hearty curries, try my Instant Pot black-eyed peas curry and Instant Pot spinach lentil curry.
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Ingredients
- Chickpeas: I am using already-cooked chickpeas in this recipe and again cooking them in the onion tomato gravy. In this way, chickpeas will be flavored well. But you can use dried chickpeas also to make this Instant pot chana masala. The difference would be cooking time and water content. Check my Instant pot chickpeas recipe to batch-cook the chickpeas and store them.
- Aromatics: I used finely chopped onions and ginger garlic paste to flavor the curry. Instead of ginger garlic paste, you can also use finely chopped ginger and garlic. You can even use powdered garlic and ginger if fresh ingredients are unavailable.
- Tomatoes: Using my handheld chopper, I pureed the fresh tomatoes into a rough paste and used to make this curry. You can also use canned tomatoes or canned tomato puree. Crushed tomatoes or diced tomatoes also work. You can even roughly chop the fresh tomatoes and make this curry as we are using the pressure cooker.
- Spices: We only need basic spices like turmeric powder, ground cumin, ground coriander, red chili powder, and garam masala to make this curry.
Detailed Steps
Step 1: Start the Instant pot in saute mode.
Step 2: Add oil, bay leaf, cumin seeds, ginger paste, and garlic paste.
Step 3: Once the cumin seeds start spluttering, add chopped onions. Saute them for 3 to 4 minutes.
Step 4: Now add tomato purée and cook it for 4 to 5 minutes.
Step 5: Now add tomato purée and cook it for 4 to 5 minutes.Add salt, spice powders to this cooked tomato mixture and mix it well.
Step 6: Add cooked chickpeas.
Step 7: Stir it so that the tomato mixture is coated well with the chickpeas.
Step 8: Now add the water to this chickpeas tomato mixture. Deglaze the pot to avoid burn signals.
Step 9: Start the Instant pot again in manual or pressure cook mode and cook it on HIGH pressure for 5 minutes. When the Instant pot finishes cooking, wait 10 minutes and release the pressure carefully.
Step 10: I sometimes use cashew cream to thicken the curry and make it creamy.
Garnish the curry with fresh cilantro leaves for added flavor.
And the flavorful and delicious Instant pot Chickpea curry is ready to serve!
Cooking times and water ratio
Recipe Notes & Variations
- This Instant pot chickpea curry will be a little soupy in consistency. To make the dry version of this chickpea masala curry, simmer the curry for around 5 minutes once you release the pressure. And while simmering the curry, gently mash a few chickpeas using the back of the spoon.
- Instead of water, you can use vegetable broth or coconut milk for cooking the curry. Coconut milk will make the curry rich, creamy, and less spicy.
- You can use thin coconut milk or full-fat coconut milk to make the coconut chickpea curry.
- I like the chickpea curry to be creamy. So I added cashew cream at the end.
- If you do not have cashew cream handy, you can also use cashew butter or almond butter. You can even use fresh cream.
- If you get dried fenugreek leaves, add ½ teaspoon of them. If you are using chana masala powder, you can skip these, and that blend will already have dried fenugreek leaves.
- While making this curry, you can add a cup of potato cubes or baby potatoes along with cooked chickpeas and enjoy the delicious potato chickpea curry. However, potatoes will be overcooked if you use dried and soaked chickpeas, so I do not recommend them.
- I sometimes add leafy greens like spinach, Kale, fenugreek leaves, or swiss chard after the pressure cooking step and simmer for a couple of minutes.
- You can use half a teaspoon of dry mango powder to make the curry a little tangy.
- You can use a chana masala spice blend or chole masala blend to make this curry. Skip red chili powder and garam masala in this recipe and use 1 tablespoon chana masala powder. You can taste the curry and add more chili powder to make it spicy.
- Before serving, add a dash of fresh lemon juice and garnish with fresh cilantro leaves for added flavor and taste.
Serving & Storage
Plain basmati rice is the best and a favorite side dish to pair with this Indian-style chickpea curry. Naan bread and everyday Indian flatbread chapati also pair very well with this curry.
Leftovers of this curry taste delicious, and you can store it for a day or two in the refrigerator. Also, you can freeze the curry for around three months.
I usually batch cook, freeze chickpeas, and make this curry when needed.
FAQs
Yes, you can use canned chickpeas to make this chickpea curry. Drain and rinse the canned chickpeas before using them in the curry.
You can use canned tomatoes or tomato puree to make this curry. You can even use tomato paste. Use around 2 tablespoon as it is concentrated.
Add teaspoon of sugar or jaggery powder. You can even use coconut sugar.
Yes, you can use dried chickpeas but make sure to soak them for at least 6 hours or overnight. Unsoaked chickpeas will take a long time to cook as we use tomatoes.
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Recipe
Instant pot Chickpea curry (Chana masala)
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Equipment
- 1 Instant Pot
Ingredients
- 3 cups chickpeas cooked (or 1 cup dried chickpeas)
- ½ cup onions finey chopped
- 1 cup tomato puree
- 1 cup water use 1.5 cups for dried chickpeas
- 2 bay leaves
- ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
- ½ teaspoon garam masala powder
- ½ teaspoon red chili powder Use Kashmiri red chili powder for more flavor
- ½ teaspoon coriander powder
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
- ½ teaspoon sugar optional
- ½ teaspoon ginger finely chopped or rough paste
- ½ teaspoon garlic finely chopped or rough paste
- 2 tablespoon oil
- 1.25 teaspoon salt Adjust according to your taste
- 2 tablespoon cashew cream optional
- Coriander leaves for garnishing
Instructions
- If you are using dried chickpeas, soak the chickpeas for at least 8 hours or overnight. Discard the water from soaked chickpeas, rinse them 2 to 3 times, and keep them aside.
- Start the Instant pot in saute mode. Add oil, bay leaf, and cumin seeds.
- Once the cumin seeds start spluttering, add ginger paste, garlic paste, and chopped onions. Saute them for 3 to 4 minutes.
- Now add tomato purée and cook it for 4 to 5 minutes.
- Add spice powders to this cooked tomato mixture and mix it well.
- Add cooked chickpeas and stir it, so the tomato mixture is coated well with the chickpeas.
- Now add the water to this chickpeas tomato mixture. Deglaze the pot to avoid burn signals.
- Mix it well and stop the Instant pot saute mode.
- Close the Instant pot with its lid and seal the vent. Start the Instant pot again in manual or pressure cook mode and cook it on HIGH pressure for 5 minutes.
- If you are using uncooked chickpeas, set the timer for 35 minutes and cook it on HIGH pressure. And use 1.5 cups of water for every 1 cup of dried chickpeas.
- When the Instant pot finishes cooking, wait 10 minutes and release the pressure carefully.
- If using cashew cream, add it now.
- Garnish the curry with fresh cilantro leaves for added flavor.
- Mix the curry once, and the easy Instant pot chickpea curry is ready to serve with basmati rice and naan bread.
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