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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 optionย ย Jump to Recipeย ย
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 โ Lentil Veggie Stew in IP. GF
- Kohlapuri Veggies โ Veggies in sesame coconut sauceย ย GF
- Mushroom Matar Masalaย GF
- Bombay Potato and Peasย GF
- Aloo Palak Dal- Potato Spinach Lentils in IP. GF
- Eggplant Sambhar – Eggplant Split pea soup
- Aloo Gobi – Spiced potato and cauliflowerย
This recipe is adapted from my Butter Tofu “Paneer” recipeย 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
- ยฝ to 1 tspย garam masala
- ยฝ tsp paprika or kashmiri chili powder
- ยผ to ยฝ tsp cayenne
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1 cup soy curls, (dry, not rehydrated)
- 1 cup cooked chickpeas
- 1/4 cup soaked cashews blended with ยฝ 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. ย 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.
Delicious! I only left a few seeds from the serrano and thought it was the perfect amount of kick for us. Also used a full can of chickpeas instead of one cup. Might have to double next time!
I made this tonight… it was absolutely fabulous!!!!
just bought some soy curls and I’m looking forward to trying them out tonight with this recipe, which looks great. I don’t have fenugreek leaves, but do have fenugreek seeds — can I substitute them or should I go with the ground mustard? thanks!
omg, this is soooo delicious! I want to eat the whole pot of it. (I made with the fenugreek seeds.)
Awesome! you can use seeds a 1/4 of the amount of leaves, whole or powdered.
I notice you’ve posted a few recipes with soy curls. Last year I bought a case from Amazon and we didn’t like them at all. I’ve got both your books and given them to my kids with kitchens. I like the fact that most of your ingredients are fresh and unprocessed… What could I substitute for the soy curls?
Ooh, I’ve never tried soy curls! They look remarkably amazing in this recipe. I miss Indian food SO much now–since going back to university, I haven’t had the time to make a nice curry! The closest to Indian food I’ve gotten to is cooked beans and brown rice with turmeric powder! LOL!
This was really good but a little too spicy for our taste. What should
I cut back on to make it less spicy?
The paprika might be hot. Sometimes the green chiles are also overly hot, esp with the seeds. The whole batch might be very mild and one will be super hot and blending that one with the seeds will elevate the heat of the overall dish quite a bit.So maybe use just half and remove all seeds before using. Also omit the cayenne.
You can add a bit more cashew cream to tone the heat down .
I made this for dinner in my crockpot and it was amazing! The whole family gobbled it up. The fenugreek leaves add such a great flavor to many of your recipes- this one is going in the rotation for sure!
awesome! could you put the times for crockpot here to help out people who want to make it that way. Thanks!
In the crockpot I did 8 hours on low with an extra 1.5 C of veggie broth, before turning to high and adding the cashew cream and final spices for the last 15 min while my rice cooked. Super easy!
Thanks for the great dinner! Made this a couple of nights ago with chickpeas. Guess i was too impatient to wait the 2 days for Amazon to deliver. Used the instantpot for 8min and then put in for 1 more with veggies added and it came out great! I made a double recipe so we’ll see how well it freezes ๐
Can this recipe be made in a slow cooker?
It probably can. i wouldnt know though since I have never used a slow cooker
Thanks for your quick answer! I made this last night for dinner with the soy chunks. They are sponge-like and did require a bit more water. But the flavor of the dish was excellent and I am looking forward to leftovers tonight ๐ Thanks for introducing me to something new!