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Instant Pot Vegan Butter Chicken with Soycurls and Chickpeas. 15 minute Active time! 1 Pot Creamy Indian Butter Soy Curls, Vegan Murgh Makhani. Use all chickpeas for soy-free. Vegetarian Gluten-free Recipe. Oil-free Nut-free option. Skillet option Jump to Recipe
Its no Butter No Chicken you all. Then why call it that? Well search! Most people search for vegan butter chicken for some reason and not vegan soycurls in no butter butter sauce or other variations ;). So here goes.
This recipe adapted from my popular Butter Tofu recipe. To make a skillet version, use the butter tofu recipe with soy curls. Just simmer the soy curls in the sauce with a up of water for 15 minutes. I use a combination of soy curls and chickpeas in this version and don’t use any oil. You can add some oil or vegan butter with the cashew cream to make it even more like restaurant flavor profile. Don’t have soy curls ? use all chickpeas, beans or veggies.
Its a super simple recipe. Blend up the tomato, garlic, ginger, chile. Add to the IP along with spices, soy curls and chickpeas, close and cook. Add some cashew cream and simmer for a few minutes to thicken, garnish and done! The garnish of fresh minced ginger and chile and some dried fenugreek takes this dish to an amazing flavor level. Make it!
Soy curls are a meat sub made with whole non gmo soy beans. You can find them in some stores or online on amazon. You can also use other bean curls! Look for “Wadi” in Indian stores made of moong dal, black eyed peas and other lentils/beans. The texture is different but they work equally well. You can also use seitan, tvp, soy chunks, beyond meat strips other chickin subs.
More IP recipes.
- 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
- Eggplant Sambhar – Eggplant Split pea soup
- Aloo Gobi – Spiced potato and cauliflower
This recipe is adapted from my Butter Tofu “Paneer” recipe and the IP method is adapted from twosleevers’s butter chicken. Urvashi has some great tips on cooking indian food under pressure. This recipe benefits from a good fresh garam masala blend. I usually keep my garam masala in whole spice form and then grind it about a 1/4 cup at a time for a potent spice blend. Dried fenugreek leaves (kasuri methi) can be bought online or from an Indian store. If you cant find them, omit and add 1/4 tsp ground mustard instead. Indian restaurants generally add fenugreek for the flavor and of course a ton of cream and butter.
If you make the recipe, please do rate it. I also love to see your creations, so do tag me #veganricha on Instagram.
Vegan Butter Chicken Video:
Instant Pot Vegan Butter Chicken with Soy Curls and Chickpeas - oil-free
Ingredients
- 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
- ½ to 1 tsp garam masala
- ½ tsp paprika or kashmiri chili powder
- ¼ to ½ tsp cayenne
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1 cup soy curls, (dry, not rehydrated)
- 1 cup cooked chickpeas
- 1/4 cup soaked cashews blended with ½ cup water, , or 1/2 cup cashew cream or other non Dairy cream
- 1 tsp or more garam masala
- 1/2 tsp or more sugar or sweetener
- 1 tsp kasoori methi - dried fenugreek leaves, or add a 1/4 tsp ground mustard
- 1/2 moderately hot green chile, finely chopped, or use 2 tbsp finely chopped green bell pepper
- 1/2 tsp minced or finely chopped ginger
- 1/4 cup cilantro for garnish
Instructions
- 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 press manual/pressure cook at high pressure, for 8 to 10 minutes. (6 minutes for stove top pressure cooker). Quick release after 10 minutes. (See notes for Stove top instructions)
- 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.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Can this recipe be doubled in the Instant Pot and, if so, how would this best be done?
Yes, double everything. Just use a bit less liquid.. 1.25 cups water instead of double
This is one of our favorite go-to recipes. The flavors are spot-on and it’s now one of our best comfort food meals. Thank you so much for the awesome recipe! One question: the color of the dish in your photos is such a beautiful bright orange. When I make this (usually with fresh tomatoes, not canned) it comes out a pinkish-greyish color. Still delicious, but I’d love to figure out what I’m doing wrong on the color front. Any ideas?
Awesome! It would probably depend on the tomato. Use ripe roma tomatoes. orange pink is what i get sometimes as well depending onthe ripeness. You can add a tbsp tomato paste for stronger color and flavor. I an not sure about where the grey is coming from. Maybe some green in the tomato is cooking to grey?
Thanks for the quick response and for the suggestion! I’ll try some tomato paste, and might try with canned tomatoes to see if it’s different. Thank you!
Just got done making it. Fantastic recipe as usual! Served mine with kale and my boyfriends with rice. Thanks for another amazing meal Richa!!
Making this now. Would it be weird to serve it over potatoes?
should work just fine!
How much powder ginger should I use instead of fresh ginger?
1/4 tsp although fresh ginger adds a much better flavor
I used a whole can of chickpeas and a package of beyond chicken strips. I cooked in IP for 9 minutes, which was too long as the chicken strips, but the chickpeas too, were so soft and overcooked. Did I do something wrong?
Maybe the volume of the chicken and chickpeas added to time the cooker takes to come to pressure. The food already starts cooking in that time. You can cook it for 4 mins with beyond meat.
I would like to add some vegetables to this. What would you recommend?
In 8 mins under pressure for the sauce, most veggies will overcook and get mushy. You can cook the dish and add roasted veggies with cashew cream or add veggies and cashew cream and close the lid, select low pressure for 0 mins. Quick release when done.
What a great recipe! We don’t have a memory of “real” butter chicken to compare it to, but it was a fantastic soy curls dish. We liked that it was a combination of soy curls and garbanzo beans for texture variety. Day #4 with the IP, and I don’t know what I did without it.
This recipe is so delicious!!
I made this tonight and the first thing i said when i tasted it was, “I can’t believe I made this.” It is delicious! Thank you so much Richa.
yay awesome!