Flavorful, Punjabi style kala chana masala made in instant pot with onion, tomato, basic Indian spices and a drizzle of lime juice at the end.
This makes a super healthy and satisfying vegetarian dinner when served with piping hot rice! If you’re lucky to have any leftovers, it will make filling lunch the next day too!
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❤️You’ll Love This Recipe
- This makes a delicious and protein-packed vegetarian meal. Usually served with rice or roti.
- Plus, it’s vegan and gluten-free.
- It requires some preplanning like soaking the black chickpeas ahead of time. But when you have soaked kala chana ready, it’s very easy to make.
- This instant pot kala chana requires 30 mins of pressure cooking time, plus some more time for your instant pot to come to pressure. But that is passive time. The active time required to prepare this kala chana masala is very little.
🧾Ingredient Notes
Here is the pic of the ingredients required to make kala chana in instant pot. All of them are basic and easily available in your pantry if you’re cooking Indian food regularly.
Kala Chana (Black chickpeas): Dry chana are super hard (tiny rock-like). This must be soaked for at least 8 hours before cooking. I usually soak them before I go to bed and make the curry the next day. It is completely OK, if the soaking time exceeds 13-15 hours (no worries at all).
I have seen many cook kala chana in instant pot without soaking. I have tried that but honestly, I do not like (prefer), as it requires around an hour of pressure cooking time. And that is too long for onion, tomato and spices. They will lose all the flavors and the end result is so bland.
Plus, soaking makes the beans easy to digest and enables better absorption of nutrients.
Ginger, Garlic, Geen chili: Nowadays I use my wet jar of spice grinder to crush them together quickly. Otherwise, I would use ginger garlic paste and finely chopped green chilies. Or sometimes I would just grate ginger garlic using a micro plane zester.
Lime juice: I prefer lime over lemon juice in my Indian cooking. You can use any.
Tomato puree: I have blended fresh tomatoes until it becomes a smooth puree. Personally, I do not prefer the canned tomato puree.
🎥Watch The Recipe Video
👩🍳Step By Step Photo Instructions
Pre-Plan: Wash the kala chana under running cold water or rinse them 2-3 times until the water is not cloudy anymore. Then soak in enough water for at least 8 hours or overnight. Then discard the soaking water.
1) Turn the instant pot on with saute mode. Once hot add oil and cumin seeds. Let the cumin seeds sizzle a bit and then add onion and crushed ginger, garlic, green chili. Sprinkle a pinch of salt to speed up the cooking process.
2) Mix and saute for 3-4 minutes or until onion becomes soft and there is no more raw smell of ginger garlic.
3) Add pureed tomato and mix.
4) Let it cook for 4-5 minutes or until it thickens slightly and not much watery.
5) Now add remaining salt and spice powders (turmeric powder, red chili powder, coriander powder, cumin powder).
6) Mix really well.
7) Add soaked kala chana and fresh water. Stir well so everything is combined well. Cover the instant pot with a lid (make sure the valve is on a sealing position). Cancel the saute mode and pressure cook (manual, high pressure) for 30 minutes.
8) Let it NPR (natural pressure release) if you have time. If in rush then let it NPR for 10 minutes and then QPR (quick pressure release) by pressing the valve or changing the valve position. Once the pin drops open the lid. Add garam masala and squeeze the lime juice.
9) Finally, add chopped cilantro.
10) Mix everything well and kala chana masala is ready.
🍽 Serving Ideas
This instant pot kala chana can be served with steamed basmati rice with a side of kachumber salad (or sliced onions) and papad.
It can be served with roti or paratha as well with your choice of side (salad, chaas, pickle, papad, chutney) to make it a complete meal.
FAQs
Follow the same method with the following changes.
- Add ¼ cup of more water.
- Pressure cook on high heat for 2 whistles, then lower heat to med-low and cook for 30 minutes.
Yes, absolutely. That is such a time-saver.
- Skip onion, tomato, ginger, garlic, green chili, turmeric powder from the list.
- Use ¾ cups of frozen masala.
- Reduce the amount of chili powder and coriander powder by half.
Check Out Similar Instant Pot Recipes
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📋 Recipe Card
Instant Pot Kala Chana
Ingredients
- 1 cup Dry Kala chana (black chickpeas or desi chana)
- 2 tablespoons Oil
- ½ teaspoon Cumin seeds
- 1 medium or ¾ cups Red onion finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon Ginger paste or freshly grated or crushed
- 1 teaspoon Garlic paste or freshly grated
- 1 Green chili finely chopped
- Salt to taste
- 2 medium Tomatoes pureed
- ½ teaspoon Turmeric powder
- 1 ½ teaspoon Red chili powder
- 1 teaspoon Cumin powder
- 1 teaspoon Coriander powder
- 1 ½ cups Water for pressure cooking
- ½ teaspoon Garam masala
- 1 teaspoon Lime juice or lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons Cilantro or coriander leaves finely chopped
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Instructions
- Pre-Plan: Wash the kala chana under running cold water or rinse them 2-3 times until the water is not cloudy anymore. Then soak in enough water for at least 8 hours or overnight. Then discard the soaking water.
- Turn the instant pot on with saute mode. Once hot add oil and cumin seeds. Let the cumin seeds sizzle a bit.
- Add onion and crushed ginger, garlic, green chili. Sprinkle a pinch of salt to speed up the cooking process.
- Mix and saute for 3-4 minutes or until onion becomes soft and there is no more raw smell of ginger garlic.
- Add pureed tomato and mix. Let it cook for 4-5 minutes or until it thickens slightly and not much watery.
- Now add remaining salt and spice powders (turmeric powder, red chili powder, coriander powder, cumin powder). Mix really well.
- Add soaked kala chana and fresh water. Stir well so everything is combined well. Cover the instant pot with a lid (make sure the valve is on the sealing position). Cancel the saute mode and pressure cook (manual, high pressure) for 30 minutes.
- Let it NPR (natural pressure release) if you have time. If in rush then let it NPR for 10 minutes and then QPR (quick pressure release) by pressing the valve or changing the valve position. Once the pin drops open the lid.
- Add garam masala, squeeze the lime juice and chopped cilantro. Mix everything well and kala chana masala is ready.
Notes
- Follow the same method with the following changes.
- Add ¼ cup of more water.
- Pressure cook on high heat for 2 whistles, then lower heat to med-low and cook for 30 minutes.
- Yes, absolutely. That is such a time-saver.
- Skip onion, tomato, ginger, garlic, green chili, turmeric powder from the list.
- Use ¾ cups of frozen masala.
- Reduce the amount of chili powder and coriander powder by half.
Divya
Hi!
I followed your recipe and it turned out really delicious.
Thank you!
Also how do you like the wet and dry grinder. I have the Revel one and its not working well so been looking to get a new one.
Kanan Patel
Glad that chana came out good.
I recommend that. I use the wet one almost everyday to coarsely grind ginger garlic chilies. I use that if I have to make a puree of just one tomato to make small amount of gravy. It makes really smooth puree.
The dry one I use it once a month to make garam masala and other spice powders.
ALEENA
THANK YOU FOR YOUR RECIPE,
I LOVED IT
Kanan
Glad that you liked.