Instant Pot Rajma

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This instant pot rajma is the ultimate comfort food when served with steaming hot rice. You get the soft, melt-in-your-mouth kind kidney beans in delicious, flavorful onion tomato gravy.

Instant pot rajma in a bowl with cilantro leave, served papad and rice on the side.

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❤️You’ll Love This Recipe
🧾Ingredients
👩‍🍳Step By Step Photo Instructions
💭Expert Tips
🍽 Serving Ideas
FAQs
📋 Recipe Card
⭐ Reviews

❤️You’ll Love This Recipe

Weeknight dinner: This makes the healthy, filling and comfy vegetarian (Vegan & GF) weeknight dinner. Leftovers are best to pack into the lunch box.

Cook brown rice using the PIP method: The kidney beans and soaked brown rice both take the same amount of time to cook. So a complete meal is ready in one shot. See the details below in the Notes section.

Rich in protein: The kidney beans are a good source of plant-based protein. They’re also rich in healthy fibers, which moderate blood sugar levels and promote colon health.

🧾Ingredients

Here is the pic of the ingredients you’ll need to make a simple, easy rajma recipe in instant pot. All of them are very basic and easy to find.

Red kidney beans (rajma): There are different types of kidney beans available in the market, some are darker in color vs some are lighter. The one you see in the above pic is really dark and I bought that from Indian grocery stores.

Ginger, Garlic: I like to use the fresh ones and grate them using Microplane zester. Instead, you can use readymade or homemade ginger garlic paste.

Onion, Tomatoes: I have chopped them finely using a sharp knife. Alternately, for quick prep, you can use the food processor.

👩‍🍳Step By Step Photo Instructions

Soaking The Beans:

1) Take rajma in a colander and wash under running cold water until water runs clear.

2) Soak them in enough water (about 2-3 inches above the beans) for at least 8 hours or overnight. After that discard the soaking water. The beans get double in size and get lighter in color.

Making Instant Pot Rajma:

1) Turn on the instant pot with saute mode. Once hot add oil and onion. Sprinkle a little salt to speed up the cooking process.

2) Mix and saute until onions get soft and light pink or translucent. It takes around 2-3 mins.

3) Then add ginger, garlic and slit green chili.

4) Mix and saute for 30-40 seconds or until the raw smell of ginger garlic goes away.

Collage of 4 steps showing adding onion, cooked onions, adding ginger-garlic, green chili, mixed and cooked.

5) Then add chopped tomatoes.

6) Mix and cook until they become soft and about to be mushy. It may take around 2-3 mins.

7) Now add remaining salt, turmeric powder, red chili powder, coriander powder and cumin powder. Mix and saute for 30-40 seconds.

8) Then add soaked rajma and fresh water. Stir to mix everything well.

Collage of 4 steps showing adding tomato, cooked tomato, adding spice powders, adding soaked beans, water.

9) Cover it with the lid, keep the vent to sealing. Cancel the saute mode and cook on manual (high) for 25 minutes. Let it NPR (natural pressure release), when the pin drops open the lid. If in a rush then let it NPR for 10 mins and then release the pressure manually. Now with the back of the spatula mash a few beans to thicken the gravy.

10) Now add garam masala and amchur powder, mix.

11) If you need to thicken the gravy more then let it simmer on saute until you get the desired gravy consistency.

12) Lastly, garnish with fresh chopped cilantro and serve.

Collage of 4 steps showing mashing beans with spatula, adding garam masala & amchur, adding cilantro.

💭Expert Tips

Forgot to soak the beans? Quick soaking method:

Take beans and plenty of water in a pan. Bring the water to a rolling boil. Let it boil for 2-3 minutes. Then turn off the stove and cover tightly with a lid. Let it sit for 1 hour. Voila, after 1 hour your beans are at the same stage where you have after overnight soaking.

Cook brown rice and rajma together using PIP (pot-in-pot) method:

Traditionally, the rajma chawal dish has white rice (basmati or any other regular rice) served. When cooking in IP using PIP method rajma takes 25 minutes to cook and basmati rice takes only 4-6 minutes only. So we cannot cook basmati rice here as we did in instant pot dal fry.

But brown rice takes 20-25 minutes in IP. So here we can use that for PIP method.

Wash and soak 1 cup of brown rice for 30 minutes to 1 hour as time permits. If no time, no need to soak.
After that discard the soaking water, take soaked rice in a steel container along with 1 ½ cups water and a pinch of salt.
Follow the above procedure for rajma. After you add water, put the tall trivet in it.
Place the rice container on the trivet. Cover with lid.
Cook on manual (high pressure) for 25 minutes and let the pressure release naturally.

🍽 Serving Ideas

Traditionally rajma masala is served with rice hence the name rajma chawal. But you can have it with quinoa or millet for a grain-free option.
This instant pot rajma tastes good with paratha or roti.
To make it a complete meal, I suggest serving kachumber salad, chaas and roasted papad on the side.

FAQs

How to make it with canned kidney beans?

Follow the same procedure with the below changes only.
- two 15 oz can = 1 cup dried
- Reduce the water quantity to 1 cup only.
- Cook on manual (high pressure) for 5 minutes.
- If using canned kidney beans then you can cook basmati rice (not brown rice) using PIP method because both get cooked at the almost same time.

How to make it with frozen onion tomato masala?

- Skip these ingredients (oil, onion, ginger, garlic, green chili, tomato, coriander powder, cumin powder, turmeric powder)
- No need to turn the saute mode.
- Dump these into IP inner pot: ¾ cup OTM, soaked rajma, salt, water, ½ teaspoon red chili powder.
- Cook on manual as mentioned above.
- Add garam masala, amchur powder, cilantro as mentioned above

Can I make it without soaking the beans?

No, you must soak the beans. Dried beans should be soaked overnight or 8-10 hours at least. Legumes have indigestible carbohydrates in it, with some verities having more than others. This makes you gassy and bloated.

But the good news, these carbohydrates are water-soluble. So soaking will make the difference. Also, you must discard the soaking water.

and then cooking will break down the remaining carbohydrates and makes it digestible.
and another advantage, soaked beans will cook faster. So, Less cooking time = Less time of exposure to heat = Less loss of nutrients. Another win-win situation!!!

So always prepare/plan ahead of time. Soak the dried rajma beans ahead of time or day before.

Top view of rajma in a bowl served with papad and rice.

Check Out Other Instant Pot Recipes (Lentils, Beans)

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