Instant Pot Vegan Butter Chicken with Soy Curls and Chickpeas
Vegan butter chicken made in the Instant Pot with soy curls and chickpeas. It is creamy, flavorful, and ready in under 30 minutes!
Vegan butter chicken made in the Instant Pot with soy curls and chickpeas. It is creamy, flavorful, and ready in under 30 minutes!
- 3 large ripe tomatoes or 1 15 oz can diced tomatoes
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 1/2 inch cube of ginger
- 1 hot or mild green chile ( i use serrano)
- 3/4 cup water ( use 1 cup if the tomatoes arent very juicy)
- â½ to 1 tspâ garam masala
- â½ tsp paprika or kashmiri chili powder
- â¼ to â½ tsp cayenne
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1 cup soy curls ((dry not rehydrated))
- 1 cup cooked chickpeas
- cashew cream made with with â¼ cup soaked ( cashew
- 1/2 tsp or more garam masala
- 1/2 tsp or more sugar or sweetener
- 1 tsp kasoori methi - dried fenugreek leaves (or add a
- 1/2 tbsp finely chopped green bell pepper)
- 1/2 tsp minced or finely chopped ginger
- 1/4 cup cilantro for garnish
- Carbohydrate 18.97559 g
- Cholesterol 0 mg
- Fat 0.666158 g
- Fiber 4.58683333613078 g
- Protein 3.684858 g
- Saturated Fat 0.0965154666666667 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (568g)
- Sodium 626.845833333333 mg
- Sugar 14.3887566638692 g
- Trans Fat 0.205371566666667 g
- Calories 81 calories
Step-by-step
- Blend the tomatoes, garlic, ginger, chile with water until smooth.
- Add pureed tomato mixture to the Instant pot or pressure cooker. Add soy curls, chickpeas, spices and salt. Close the lid and cook on Manual for 8 to 10 minutes. (6 minutes for stove top pressure cooker). Quick release after 10 minutes.
- Start the IP on saute (medium heat for stove top pressure cooker). Add the cashew cream, garam masala, sweetener and fenugreek leaves and mix in. Bring to a boil, taste and adjust salt, heat, sweet. Add more cayenne and salt if needed. Fold in the chopped green chile, ginger and cilantro and press cancel(take off heat).
- At this point you can add some vegan butter or oil for additional buttery flavor. Serve hot over rice or with flatbread or Naan.
Vibrant orange sauce clings to textured soy curls while releasing the distinct aroma of toasted fenugreek leaves and warm spices. Achieving this consistency relies entirely on proper moisture management during the initial pressure cooking phase. Tomatoes release liquid at varying rates depending on their ripeness, meaning water additions must adjust proportionally. When multiplying this recipe to serve larger groups, avoid scaling the liquid linearly; pressure cookers trap steam completely, requiring only a fraction more water to prevent burning at the base of the insert. Dry soy curls act as sponges, absorbing seasoned tomato puree as pressure forces moisture into their porous structure within the initial eight to ten minutes of cooking. Opening the lid requires a ten-minute natural release window before manually venting, which allows internal temperatures to drop safely while starches stabilize. Finishing the sauce demands raw cashew cream blended from soaked nuts, which emulsifies smoothly when brought to a brief simmer on the saute setting. Kasoori methi provides the characteristic earthy bitterness inherent to restaurant-style preparations, but must be stirred in at the end to prevent volatile aromatics from dissipating under prolonged heat. Adjusting salt levels upward after incorporating the cashew cream is necessary because high-fat plant emulsions mute sodium perception.
