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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.
Hi. I am making this tomorrow, but I was unable to find any soy curls. I did find something called textured soy protein chunks – can I sub that straight across? Or would tvp be a better sub? Thanks for all the fantastic recipes you create and share!!
nope those chunks are too hard and end up too chewy.
i havent tried tvp, but that might be better sub. Seitan, more chickpeas, baked tofu all are better subs.
Thanks!
Thank you so much for replying!! I’ll use the tofu 🙂
Delicious! Lots of flavor with a kick. Gave the soy some good flavor. Thanks for sharing! Definitely making many more times to come
awesome!
We had this tonight. Fantastic recipe. Everything was perfect.
Do you remove the seeds from the Serrano Chile? I took some out but not all, and the tomato mixture seems insanely spicy!
i dont, but serranos are notorious to range from super mild to hot, so remove the seed box entirely if needed or use green bell pepper and a tiny amount of serrano.
You can reduce the heat by adding more cashew cream in the current batch.
Made this with my newly purchased instant pot. It was most awesome, as all your recipes have been that I made. Thank you for all your vegan meals!!
awesome!
This has become my new go-to recipe. We make it at least once a week. I use a whole can of chickpeas and cook them a bit first as they can be a bit chewy without it. As often as we have it, I still look forward to it each time 😊
awesome!
OMG this dish is amazing!!! I used coconut milk instead of the cashew cream, since I still had an open can and I couldn’t find soy curls only chunks, so used the chunks and it looked rather like Hot Dogs LOL. One reviewer mentioned she served kale with it so I decided to add chopped kale to the dish and also gave a good squeeze of lime juice over it. Amazing recipe Richa, i have your books and there hasn’t been one bad recipe ❤️.
awesome!
Wow – Scrumptious! Thanks so much for your hard work developing these recipes
This is DELISH!!!
Happy hubby, happy kids = happy Mum!
I love soy curls and they turned out so perfectly soft and flavourful in the IP. The IP Infused the perfect spice mix into the chickpeas and Soy Curls.
Another awesome recipe from VeganRicha!
You are my go to recipe gal for good reason! THANK YOU!! I’m loving the IP recipes. Keep them coming. I don’t have a go to vegan IP cookbook yet…., I see an opportunity!!! 😆
awesome!!
Made this last night and loved it! Just the right amount of kick from the serrano and great flavors. I will be making this again.
yay!