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Instant Pot Tikka Masala – Vegan Tikka Masala Sauce Recipe. Easy Tikka masala sauce, made in a Pressure Cooker. Saucepan option. Add veggies, tofu, chickpeas, vegan chickin subs. Freezer Friendly. Glutenfree Soyfree Nutfree Jump to Recipe
This Tikka Masala Sauce is ridiculously delicious, super easy and freezer friendly. Cook the sauce in a pressure cooker. Then use or freeze for later!
If you are new to the Indian Tikka Masala Sauce, it is a tomato based, tangy spicy flavorful sauce often found in Indian restaurants, served with veggies, paneer, meats. Many of the restaurant sauces have similar base or flavor components with variations here and there. They vary slightly in flavor and texture (creamy, chunky etc). Make this fabulous sauce, adjust after pressure cooking to your preference and use with veggies, beans, tofu, vegan chikin/meat subs or however! Freeze in serving portions, so you can use the sauce to whip up a meal in 10 mins!
See Saucepan and oilfree options in the Recipe notes. Also see Tips section below.
With Cauliflower above for Cauliflower Tikka Masala. Add chickpeas for chickpea tikka masala, some crisped tofu, soycurls for chickin tikka masala! How do you tikka masala?
Like with all my Indian Recipes, I try to keep the flavors as authentic as possible while making it simpler. You can change up other things based on availability and preference (non dairy yogurt can easily be subbed with non dairy cream or milk). It doesn’t affect the amazing flavor, the sauce is flavorful enough and some changes here and there dont affect the deliciousness. It might affect the traditional flavor profile, which may or may not be detectable :).
More Instant Pot Recipes
- IP Red Lentil Chili. GF
- Instant Pot Vegan Butter Chickin(soycurls). GF – Creamy, Delicious
- Japanese Veggie Curry. GF
- Potato Chickpea Spinach Soup. GF
- Instant Pot Lasagna Soup with Red lentils. – So Easy
- More Instant Pot Recipes!
Step by Step Photos
Uncooked Sauce below
Sauce just opened after cooking
Tips for a fabulous Instant Pot Tikka Masala Sauce
- As with all Indian food or spiced up food, the flavors tend to get stronger as the sauce or dish sits for a while. I generally adjust the spices later when ready to serve rather than right after cooking.
- Indian sauces/base are always overcooked for the best flavor. The onions caramelized, tomatoes well roasted. Pressure cooking helps with the roasting if you cook it long enough. If the sauce flavor feels less complex, just pressure cook the sauce, without the added veggies/beans,for longer.
- Since I eat Indian food at home often, I tend to use much less garam masala and let the other flavors and components shine. If you don’t cook it often or want more flavor playoff, use more garam masala and more of the other spices and flavors in general. This also depends on the flavor payoff of the spices. Old spices and garam masala will have significantly less flavor, so just add more as needed. Mine is pretty potent and a 1/4 tsp is usually enough for me. 🙂
- The right garam masala also is essential for some of these spice heavy restaurant style sauces. Some brands have an imbalance of flavors which make the dishes one dimensional. Get garam masala from Indian stores or make your own using my recipe from Indian kitchen or just omit and add some ground cumin, coriander.
- Salt, spices and heat to your preference will make the dish. Esp the right amount of salt, which immediately helps the flavors and spices bloom on your taste palette. The sauce also thickens on cooling, or you can thicken by simmering for a few mins for more concentrated flavor.
- For Burn errors: Make sure to stir the tomato really well to pick up scorched or browned onion and spices. Those scorched bits on stove top would dislodge with the bubbling and lower heat, but in a pressure cooker, they are under pressure and at higher heat, so they will continue to burn. Mix really well before closing the lid.
Instant Pot Tikka Masala - Vegan Tikka Masala Sauce Recipe.
Ingredients
- 1 tsp oil
- 1 small onion chopped, (I usually just process the onion, garlic, ginger and chilli to chop in a processor or a chopper)
- 6 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 1 inch of ginger, finely chopped
- 1 hot green chili, such as serrano or bird's eye
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp paprika, (combination of sweet and smoked)
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- 1/3 to 1/2 tsp cayenne
- 1/2 to 1 tsp Garam Masala
- 2 tsp dried fenugreek leaves, ,plus more for garnish
- 1/4 cup chopped red or green bell pepper
- 28 oz diced tomatoes(including juices), or 15 oz diced + 2 ripe tomato chopped
- 1/2 cup non dairy yogurt, , plain unsweetened, plain lightly sweetened also works
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup non dairy cream, such as cashew, soy or coconut (optional)
- smoked paprika or cayenne for garnish
Instructions
- Press saute on Instant Pot. When hot, add the oil then add finely chopped onion, ginger, garlic, and chili. Add good pinch of salt, mix well and cook for about 3 minutes. Stir occasionally
- Add the spices and mix well. Add bell pepper and mix well. Add tomatoes and non dairy yogurt and salt and mix well. (stir well for a few seconds to pick up the scorched onion bits, else they tend to scorch more and cause burn errors in some sensitive instant pots)
- Cancel saute. Close the lid. Pressure cook for 11-12 mins (manual high pressure)
- Let the pressure release naturally. Open the lid. mix, taste and adjust salt, flavor, heat. Add some sugar or maple syrup if needed. (I add 1/2 tsp if using plain unsweetened yogurt). Add some more fenugreek leaves or cilantro, some fresh smoked paprika or cayenne and garam masala for garnish.
- At this point you can freeze the tikka masala sauce for upto 2 months, and refrigerate for upto 4 days. Add some non dairy dream for creamier and use or store(refrigerated or freeze). You can also blend half of the sauce for smoother.
To use the sauce with veggies, chickpeas, tofu etc:
- Add the 4 cups vegetables, 3 cups chickpeas or 21 oz baked tofu or seitan/vegan chiken subs, and some non dairy cream like cashew/soy cream to the cooked sauce(after pressure cooking), and simmer for 10 minutes. Soycurls: Add 2 to 2.5 cups soy curls and 1/2 cup water to the sauce, Pressure cook for 6 mins and natural release. You can also add the soy curls earlier with the uncooked sauce.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
We loved this recipe! I added chick peas, cauliflower, broccoli and potato. Thank you so much for sharing!
is there a good substitute for fenugreek? thank you!
add a 1/4 tsp ground mustard and 1/4 tsp dried oregano
Thank you so much! 🙂 I cannot wait to try this!
Great Recipe, thanks for the info.
Hi Richa. Are fenugreek leaves easy to get?
Can you find fried leaves and what amount would you use?
do you mean fresh or fried ? Dried ones are easy to find online or in stores. Fresh ones you will only find in Indian stores.
I only found fenugreek seeds. Can I use those Instead or no? Just omit?
Yes, powder them in a spice grinder and use the powder, a 1/4 tsp
hi richa
I absolutely love your recipes, they are super yummy and you make them super easily with your detailed instructions.
I wanted to try the above recipe however i stay in a small place where vegan yogurt is not available(Shillong, India) and wanted to know if there is any substitute for it like lemon juice.
thank you
Use cashew cream + some lemon juice. Make cashew cream with1/2 cup cashews and 1/2 cup water. Add half before pressuring and half after when pressure cooked.
Thank you 🙂
I did the same, because making the vegan yogurt was time consuming, so cashew cream and lemon juice did it 🙂
Just made this. Yum yum can’t wait to cook some veggies with it tomorrow.
Your makhani recipe is my all time favorite and this one will be right beside it. I kind of want to eat it as a soup – so tasty. I love your recipes very much. These sauces are such wonderful staples – you can add them to anything and everything. Thrilled to freeze it though not sure it will last that long 😉
awesome!
5 stars! The only thing that would have made this better is if I already had the sauce pre made because it was time consuming for a week night meal but I didn’t get a chance to make it last night. I doubled it so I could freeze the other portion But I wish I would have tripled it! My family absolutely loved this, too! My son actually asked for more cauliflower which has never happened! I cannot put into words when my family will not only eat my vegan dinner, but they love it too. I blended it because my family refuses to eat anything with chunks of anything 😂😂😂 thank you so much!!
awesome!!
Great tips! I am new to pressure cookers so this is all good info for me. Thanks!
I liked the flavors but my instant pot kept giving me the burn signal, so I finally just switched it over to slow cooker and let it cook for a couple hours. Turned out fine but next time will probably just try it on the stove. I used half the sauce for your cauliflower tikka recipe. The other half I’m going to add a can of coconut milk to later in the week to make soup. 🙂
hmm what size is your instant pot? i havent had a burn problem in the 6 qt
I have the smaller size (so maybe 6 qt?). Every time I use sauté function it happens. I think I need to either sauté on stove then add to pot, or let pot totally cool down before switching to pressure cook.
I liked the tip to roast the cauliflower first. Was surprised how well this kept it from falling apart in sauce, no matter how long I simmered it.
I have the 6 qt. The pictures and videos are in the 6 qt.maybe you have a mini 3 qt?
even the 6 qt newer modelsare more sensitive than the older models. You will have to do trial and error to see what helps reduce the burn chances and then apply that process to most IP recipes for thicker dishes or with tomatoey dishes. Maybe some extra broth overall or extra oil at the bottom, less saute time or something. Its quite frustrating that they are not maintaining the technology over models.
Okay yes I just looked it up and it’s 3 qt which sounds very small (!) but is just right for my 3-person family. I’ll pay more attention to recipes from now on to see which size instantpot they were tested for. Thanks for the tips. 🙂
You might also want to stir the tomato really well to pick up scorched or browned onion and spices. Those scorched bits on stove top would dislodge with the bubbling and lower heat, but in a pressure cooker, they are under pressure and at higher heat, so they will continue to burn. So mix really well before closing the lid.
I just bought the IP and this will be my first recipe. Hope I can find the leaves & chili. It seems there’s a local |Indian grocery store so I will be checking it out.
Question..what does Let the pressure release naturally mean?
Doubling the recipe and freezing half..excited is an understatement!
Yes you shoudl find them at the indian store.
Once the cooking is complete. It takes the pot about 10 mins to release pressure naturally. You can also push the pressure knob slowly to venting to remove it manually (some recipes need manual).But for natural, look at the pot after 10-15 mins and see if the presure knob(the silver knob near the vent) has dropped. If it has, then you can open the lid. There might be instant pot official videos on youtube about it,let me find a link
Thank you so much! I was able to find the leaves and chilis. I made my chick peas and black beans tonight and I am obsessed with it! Making the masala tomorrow along with the cauliflower. I’ll report back with a rating after I try it!
Two more question. The coconut milk is optional if you want it more creamier, is that correct? Also, I read somewhere you’re supposed to peel the chili peppers, do you do this? Do you think I can freeze the chili peppers? They gave me a ton of them lol (the little skinny ones)