Indian chickpea curry (Vegan chana masala) - Instant pot & Stovetop

Do you love Chana Masala (Chickpeas curry) served at your favorite Indian restaurant? You can make it easily at home using this Chickpea curry recipe. With only pantry ingredients, make this delicious gluten-free curry for your weeknight dinner.

Contents

• What is Chana Masala?
• Ingredients
• How to make Chana Masala
• Step 1 - Cooking chickpeas
• Step 2- Making Chana Masala curry
• Stovetop Instructions
• Instant pot Instructions
• Cooking times and water ratio for Instant pot chana masala 
• Recipe Notes
• Variations
• Serving suggestions
• Storage and Leftovers
• FAQ
• Recipe

What is Chana Masala?

Chana Masala is an Indian-style Chickpea curry cooked in an onion-tomato mixture along with spices. Chana means chickpeas, and masala means Indian-style onion tomato sauce.

Ingredients

Chickpeas: I used homemade cooked chickpeas in this recipe. Though you can make this chana masala using dried chickpeas, I usually don't make it that way. Instead, cook chickpeas with plain water and simmer them in tomato masala to get the best flavors, taste, and consistency.

Onion: Onion gives a nice flavor, but you can safely omit it.

Tomatoes: I used fresh tomato puree. You can use canned tomatoes or tomato puree to make this curry. Crushed tomatoes or diced tomatoes also work. You can even roughly chop the tomatoes and make this curry. 

Spices: We only need basic spices like turmeric powder, ground cumin, ground coriander, red chili powder, and garam masala to make this curry. If you have, you can use homemade chana masala powder as well to make this curry. To get that restaurant-style taste, use dried fenugreek leaves or powder. You can get this easily in any Indian supermarket.

How to make Chana Masala

In traditional chana masala, chickpeas are cooked first with plain water and then simmered in the onion-tomato sauce.

Step 1 - Cooking chickpeas

You can make this curry using canned chickpeas. First, drain and wash the chickpeas once. Then, keep them aside and follow step 2 to make chana masala.

It's effortless to cook chickpeas from scratch, and I always cook them at home. Check my detailed post on Instant pot chickpeas to prep, cook, and store chickpeas.

Follow these basic steps to cook chickpeas using an Instant pot or pressure cooker.

• Soak the chickpeas overnight or at least 8 hours.
• Discard the water from soaked chickpeas and wash them a couple of times.
• Add soaked and rinsed chickpeas to the Instant pot inner pot.

• Add water and close the Instant pot with its lid.

• Seal the vent and select manual or pressure cook mode, and cook for 10 minutes on HIGH pressure.
• If you use a stovetop pressure cooker, cook for about 4 to 5 whistles on medium flame.

Step 2- Making Chana Masala curry

Once you have cooked chickpeas ready, you can make this curry using a stovetop pan or Instant pot.

Stovetop Instructions

• Heat a heavy-bottomed pan or cooking pot.
• Once it is hot, add oil, bay leaf, cumin seeds, and ginger paste to it.

• Once cumin seeds start spluttering, add chopped onion and sauté them for 3 to 4 minutes. 

• Now add tomato purée and cook it on a medium flame for 4 to 5 minutes.

• Add spice powders to this cooked tomato mixture and mix it well. 

• Cook it for a couple of more minutes. By now, the oil will be oozing out from the tomato mixture.
• Add cooked chickpeas and stir it so that the tomato mixture is coated well to the chickpeas.

• It's time to add the water to this chickpeas tomato curry. I have used water reserved from cooked chickpeas here. It will make the curry creamy. 

• Mix it well and simmer the chickpea curry over medium heat for about 8 to 10 minutes. 

• The more you simmer, the more flavor the curry will be. Give a good stir in between so that curry will not burn.
• And the delicious Indian chickpea masala curry is ready to serve with basmati rice and naan bread.

Instant pot Instructions

We can make Instant pot Chana masala using cooked chickpeas (canned as well) or dry chickpeas. 

Chana masala with dried chickpeas will take quite a lot of time to cook as we cook it in tomato gravy. (Tartness in tomatoes will hinder the cooking process)

So I prefer cooking chickpeas first and then cooking them again in tomato masala to soak up flavors very well.

• If you are using dried chickpeas, soak the chickpeas for at least 8 hours or overnight. Discard the water from soaked chickpeas and 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 cumin seeds start spluttering, add ginger paste, garlic paste, chopped onions. Sauté 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 that the tomato mixture is coated well to 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 your chickpeas are already soft, you can simmer the curry for 5 minutes in saute mode or pressure cook for 5 minutes on low pressure.
• 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 for 10 minutes and release the pressure carefully.
• Mix the curry once, and the easy chickpea curry is ready to serve with basmati rice and naan bread.
• Garnish the curry with fresh cilantro leaves for added flavor.

Cooking times and water ratio for Instant pot chana masala 

Chickpeas	Pressure cook time	Water
Cooked	5 minutes	1 cup water
Dried & soaked	35 minutes	1.5 cups

Recipe Notes

• To make the dry version of this chickpea masala, reduce some water and cook it for more time so that all water gets evaporated.
• Want to make the curry creamy and less spicy? Use coconut milk instead of water in this recipe. Though the taste will not be the same as you get in your favorite Indian restaurants, it will be creamy and delicious.
• Want to make the curry creamy? Add some cashew cream or regular cream at the end and cook it for a couple of more minutes.
• 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. 
• Want to make it healthy? Add some green leafy veggies. Spinach and fenugreek leaves are the best choice, and they blend very well into this recipe.
• To make it spicier, like how you get in the restaurants, add 1 or 2 Indian green chili or jalapeno.
• As this curry will have a smoother texture, tomato puree works best. But you can use freshly chopped tomatoes or canned tomatoes as well.
• If required, you could add half a cup of water to adjust the consistency as per your liking.
• You can use a chana 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.

Variations

• Coconut chickpea curry: To make a coconut version of this curry, use coconut milk for cooking the curry in step 2 instead of water. Creamy and milk coconut chickpea curry will be ready.
• Potato chickpea curry (Aloo chana curry): Add some chopped potatoes while adding chickpeas to this recipe and cook everything till potatoes are cooked well. You can use sweet potato as well.
• Paneer chickpea curry: You can add some more protein to this curry. Indian cottage cheese or tofu is a good addition. 
• Cauliflower chickpea curry: Cauliflower goes very well with chickpeas. If you use a stovetop to make this Indian chickpea curry, add chopped cauliflower florets and chickpeas and simmer everything till cauliflower cooks. If you are using an Instant pot, bake or pan roast the chickpeas and add them to the curry at the end. Cauliflower will be overcooked if you pressure cook them.

Serving suggestions

The best and a favorite side dish to pair with this Indian-style chickpea curry is plain basmati rice. Naab bread and everyday Indian flatbread chapati also pair very well with this curry.

Storage and Leftovers

This curry tastes delicious the next day. So store some portion in the refrigerator for the next day. You can keep this for two days in the fridge and around three months in the freezer.

I usually batch cook and freeze the chickpeas and make this curry when needed.

I makeover the leftover curry and use it in many ways.

• Hummus: Instead of plain chickpeas, use this curry to make the hummus, and it will taste delicious.
• Sandwich: Use this curry as a sandwich spread to make a smashed chickpea sandwich. Usually, curry consistency will become thick when you store it in the refrigerator. So you can use it directly as a sandwich spread. You can simmer the curry for some time to make it thick.
• Quesadilla: You can use this curry as a quesadilla filling.
• Rice pilaf: While making rice pilaf, you can add this curry, and chickpea rice pilaf will be ready. It will be a complete meal by itself.

FAQ

More vegetarian curry recipes

As you are here, you will like my other curry recipes. Do try them out!

Vegetable curry with chickpeas

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Adzuki beans curry

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