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Instant Pot Chana Saag – Chickpea Spinach Curry. Easy 1 Pot Chickpea Curry. Saucepan option. Chana Palak /Palak Chole Vegan Gluten-free Nut-free Recipe. Jump to Recipe
Chana Saag is a simple chickpea curry or chole with greens added in. Saag means any kind of cooked greens. Chana, Chana masala, Choley is chickpea curry. Use any of your favorite greens in this recipe.
Chana Saag can be made in various ways. If you use pre-cooked or canned chickpeas, you can simmer them for 15 minutes in this super easy palak sauce. In this version, I use dried chickpeas that are cooked in a pressure cooker/Instant pot. Fresh chickpeas made from scratch taste so much better and smell better too. They are also easier to digest compared to canned chickpeas.
For the Greens, you can add chopped greens towards the end, or add half chopped and half pureed for a greener sauce. Make it creamier with cashew milk or by blending up a portion of the cooked mixture. Blended chickpeas will thicken the sauce.
Make this Easy Stew and let me know how it turned out! Add hearty vegetables such as potato, sweet potato, cauliflower, peppers etc for variation. Serve with rice/quinoa or Naan/Roti/other flatbread.
More Instant Pot Recipes from the blog. All Soy-free, and can be nut-free.
- Lentil Veggie Dhansak – Lentil Veggie Stew in IP. GF
- Kohlapuri Veggies – Veggies in sesame coconut sauce GF
- Mushroom Matar Masala GF
- Bombay Potato and Peas GF
- Aloo Palak Dal- Potato Spinach Lentils in IP. GF
There are many Instant Pot Recipes on the blog! I have been pressure cooking before IP got so popular. Find all of the IP recipes here
Make this in an Instant Pot or a saucepan.
Let me know how it turned out in the comments and also rate the recipe. Also tag me on Instagram!
Video:
Instant Pot Chana Saag - Chickpea Spinach Curry Instant Pot
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup dried chickpeas, soaked for atleast 4 hours in warm water
- 1 tsp oil
- 1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
- 1 hot green chile, finely chopped
- 4-5 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 inch ginger, peeled and minced
- 1/2 tsp each ground cumin, garam masala, paprika
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 15 oz can tomatoes , or 2 large tomatoes diced
- 1.5 cups water, ,1 cup for less stewy dish
- 3/4 tsp or more salt
- 2-3 packed cups chopped spinach, ,chard or combination greens (8 to 12 oz), use amount to preference
- 1 cup non dairy milk, thicker milks do better like coconut milk or cashew milk or soy milk, or use almond milk blended with 2-3 tbsp cashews
- 1 tbsp or more lemon juice
- cayenne and garam masala for garnish
Instructions
- Drain the soaked chickpeaas, wash well, drain and set aside.
- Press Saute on the Instant pot. Let the pot get hot for 2 mins. Add oil and spread using a spatula.
- Meanwhile. Mince and mix together or process the onion, ginger, garlic and hot chile. Add to the hot oil. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring frequently.
- Add the spices(cumin garam masala, paprika, coriander) and mix in. Add the tomatoes and bring to a boil. Mash the larger pieces.
- Add washed and drained chickpeas, salt and water. Close the lid and put the knob on sealing.
- Pressure Cook for 25 to 30 minutes. I usually cook for 30 minutes to be on the safe side as older chickpeas take a bit longer to cook.
- Quick release after 10 mins. Press saute. Fold in the greens and non dairy milk.. Taste and adjust salt. Cook for 2 to 4 mins to wilt the greens.
- Add cayenne and lemon juice and mix in. Serve hot over rice or with roti or naan.
Video
Notes
Use other spice blends such as berbere, cajun, chili powder blend or Jamaican curry powder instead of the spices (cumin, garam masala). For creamier result, use 3/4 cup coconut milk or non dairy milk + 3/4 cup water instead of 1.5 cups water to cook. Or use an immersion blender to blend some of the cooked mixture. The blended chickpeas will thicken it up.
Saucepan: Follow steps 1 to 4 in a saucepan over medium heat. Add 1 15 oz can chickpeas(drained), or 1.5 cups cooked chickpeas, salt and 1/2 cup nondairy milk. Cook for 10 minutes. Fold in the greens, and simmer for another 3 to 5 minutes. Add cayenne and lemon. With soaked chickpeas, add 1.5 cups water and 1/2 cup non dairy milk and cook partially covered for 35 to 40 minutes or until tender to preference. Then fold in the greens. Nutritional values based on one serving
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Should I refrigerate the chickpeas while they are soaking? Looks wonderful.
no need to refrigerate.
Do you have vegan Bhature recipe, and also non fried one. I have eaten Bhature which looks like Kucha but made in puri size and served with chole, they used to call it chole bhature, and this I had in a sardarji’s shop in Calcutta
i dont. but you can easily make it vegan with vegan yogurt. use any recipe online with vegan yogurt
Oh, this looks so yummy! I will definitely make this soon and let you know how it turns out!
Made this in my old pressure cooker. Came out amazing! I agree, I prefer the soaked chickpeas over canned too.
Richa, great photo; I want to eat this right now! Will definitely make it this week! Thanks for the recipe.
Great! let me know how it turned out!
It was excellent. Served it with rice because it was spicy for us! But we had none left-over!! Next time I’ll make a double batch because I’m sure the leftovers would be terrific. Thanks for the recipe. 🙂
might have been the green chile. Sometimes they just end up being super hot.
Soaking my chickpeas now. Loving your instant pot recipes!! Please keep them coming ????
Awesome! I have many pressure cooker recipes on the blog already, adding IP instructions to them a few posts at a time!
This sounds spectacular. I’ve been needing a reason to get an instant pot
Rocha- Is it possible there are instructions missing in step 3. Onions, garlic and chile? Not sure if ginger belongs to step 3 or 4. Can’t wait for the new book! Thank you, Sue
😀 i did. note to self to not edit when sleepy 🙂 updated
Thank you for reminding me how one of my favorite, flavorful, nutritious dishes is quite straightforward–not so complicated and, actually, very do-able on a work night. I like the sound of your recipe and plan to try this week. Thanks again!
it is super easy and so delicious.
I love your videos and recipes, but wish you had the email icon at the top bar so that I can email it to myself
In Firefox do a file email link and send it to your self
its there on the social share widget. Click the king icon. I will add it in the main set tonight