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Instant Pot Vegan Chicken Saag with Soy Curls. Use seitan, tempeh, baked tofu, chickpeas or chikin substitutes for variation. 1 Pot Soy curls in Spinach Sauce. Vegan Gluten-free Saagwala Recipe Can be Soy-free and Nut-free Jump to Recipe
Saag is basically a dish made with greens. Often times it is mustard greens or a combination of mustard and spinach or others which depend on local availability and seasonality. I’ve made it with mixed greens with spinach as baby kale, bok choy, mustard and amaranth greens. Mixed greens work well when pressure cooking.
Plain Saag (just the greens dish), Saag with veggies like potatoes, Saag paneer (palak tofu), and Saag with different meats are all similar dishes, but have subtle differences based on what they are paired with. Saag for paneer is often blanched greens in both coarse and puree form for a vibrant green sauce, Saag with meats is coarse and uses yogurt for thickening and so on. This soycurl saag dish is a vegan version of Saag Chicken. See Recipe notes for variations. Finish this delicious saucy dish with some cashew cream and vegan butter for a luscious meal.
To make this dish without soy, use seitan, non soy chickin subs, veggies, use potato to make Saag Aloo or cooked chickpeas or beans with this delicious sauce. To make it without nuts, use a nut-free non dairy yogurt or coconut cream. To make it without oil, omit the oil (you will need to add splashes of water and stir more frequently to avoid sticking and burning, or roast the tomato onion mixture separately in a non stick skillet). See Recipe notes for Saucepan instructions. Lets get to it!
More Instant Pot Recipes.
- Instant Pot Vegan Butter Chickin(soycurls). GF
- Lentil Veggie Dhansak – Lentil Veggie Stew in IP. GF
- Kohlapuri Veggies – Veggies in sesame coconut sauce GF
- Lentil Sweet Potato Soup GF
- Aloo Palak Dal- Potato Spinach Lentils in IP. GF
- Chana Saag – Chickpea Spinach Curry GF
Use steamed tempeh, baked tofu, chickpeas, seitan or veggies with this fabulous saag/palak sauce for variation. Soy chunks are different from soy curls. They need a longer cooking time and are chewy (I dont particularly like them). Use other subs with this amazing sauce. If you make this recipe, do let me know how it turned out and tag me on social media!
To make cashew cream, blend equal amount of soaked cashews(soaked for atleast an hour) and water until creamy and measure and use.
Video:
In the video I am using Butlers soy curls and some home made soy curls. I have been trying to make some at home. They are just soaked soybeans, drain, blend to a thick batter, spoon onto a baking sheet and dehydrate or bake at 250. You can do this with most beans. The texture is different from curls. Also, so hard to make Indian food look good, but believe you me it tastes so good.
Instant Pot Vegan Chicken Saag - Soy Curls in Spinach Sauce.
Ingredients
- 1 small onion
- 5 cloves of garlic
- 1/2 inch ginger
- 1/2 hot green chile
- 3/4 cup tomato
- 4 to 5 oz spinach , or spinach + other greens such as baby kale
- 1 cinnamon stick, , 2 inch long
- 2 cloves
- 1 or 2 bay leaves
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 1/2 tsp garam masala
- 1/2 tsp coriander powder
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1.5 cups soy curls, , dry
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup cashew cream or , 1/3 cup vegan plain yogurt
- 1/2 to 1 tsp sugar or sweetener
- cayenne and garam masala to taste
- 1 tsp fenugreek leaves, optional
Instructions
- Blend the onion through tomato and set aside. Blend the spinach/greens with 1/4 cup water(*inline amounts don’t change when you scale the recipe, only ingredient list scales. So adjust accordingly). Pulse to make a coarse mixture and not a puree. (use 1/2 cup water if using hardy greens and using more).
- Heat oil in saute mode. When hot, add cinnamon, cloves and bay leaf. Cook for a few seconds.
- Add blended onion tomato mix. Cook for 3 minutes, stir frequently. If it starts to burn, switch off saute for 2 mins, then switch on again if needed. Add the spices and mix in.
- Add the greens, soy curls and salt. Add 1/2 cup water and mix in.
- Cook on Manual/Pressure Cook (hi) 8 to 10 minutes. Release after 5 mins. (If using tofu, potato or tempeh, 3 to 5 minutes pressure cook time is sufficient)
- Fold in cashew cream or yogurt and mix in. Add some water if needed and cook on saute until the mixture starts to boil. Add cayenne, garam masala, sugar and mix in. Adjust salt, spice and heat. Add fenugreek leaves if using.
- Serve garnished with pepper flakes with rice, quinoa or with flatbread or pita bread. Additional garnish: Drizzle Cashew cream and add some vegan butter per serving.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Hi Richa,
I really enjoy your recipes. For this one, you mention sauteing in oil, but I don’t see the oil listed in the ingredients. Do you have a recommended amount?
Use 2 tsp of oil.
It was delicious (as always)! Thank you for all your great recipes. With your Instant Pot Book I’ve become such a fan of using the IP for weeknight dinners.
Just a little thing I observed with the recipe: The in-text water references (blend spinach with 1/4 cup of water, etc.) obviously don’t scale when one changes the portion size. That makes sense as it is static text. But I nearly did not think of that. So maybe it might be worth it to make it easier for people to add something like a little asteriks (*) behind those in-text water references and add a little text below the recipe “does not change when changing portion size” or something like that?
Awesome! Yes I’ll update it
I knew I wanted to make Saag with soy curls so I came to your site to search for a recipe and I was not disappointed ! Every single recipe I’ve made of yours has been outstanding.
Thank you for so many delicious recipes!
thanks for popping in
Hi Richa – why do you cook on manual for 10 mins and then quick release after 5? Why not cook on manual for 5 minutes?
I am new to the instant pot 🙂 we had a pressure cooker before but we upgraded to an instant pot, so getting used to it
Thanks
because it needs the residual heat to really bring out the flavours and come together
10 mins is the pressure cooking time needed for soycurls. 5 mins won’t be enough. The additional quick release time is after pressure cooking is done. So it’s 15 mins of cooking time.
Made this last night!! It was so delicious!! Thanks for the recipe!
Just prepared this and it came out so amazing. My daughter states that this recipe is slightly better than the one at the restaurant that we used to buy it from. I have made so many recipes from this site and have yet to be disappointed. Thanks so very much for sharing.
really?!? ❤️❤️
I love this recipe. I make it with Swiss chard because I have a lot of it in the garden and it’s wonderful. Lacking fresh tomato I have used a 14oz can of tomatoes and that worked great. I really like Butler soy curls and am always looking for recipes using them so was so glad to find this. It is a quick and so delicious dinner! Thank you!!!!
that’s great – fresh from the garden