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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.
Apparently this is on me, because no one else mentions it, but I’m kind of confused. It seems some ingredients are listed twice, are you supposed to use both amounts? ie chiles, am I using “1 hot or mild green chile” and “1/2 moderately hot green chile finely chopped, or use 2 tbsp finely chopped green bell pepper”?
yes, they are used in the order listed. The second one is garnish. Sometimes it is confusing to use divided(1 1/2 green chilis, divided). I use that when it is pretty straight forward or list them twice to reduce confusion in longer recipes.
I got an Instant Pot for Christmas and made this last night. I think my soy curls were a bit stale but that’s on me. LOL Overall, this came out great but I’m wondering if I released pressure too soon.
Since I’m new to using one of these things this instruction confused me – “cook on Manual for 8 to 10 minutes. Quick release after 10 minutes.” – Was I supposed to wait an additional 10 minutes AFTER the cooking process and then quick release? Sorry if this is a dumb question! I’m still trying to wrap my brain around this thing! 😀
Awesome!
The Instant pot or any pressure cooker has a “coming to pressure” time (which varies based on size or the cooker and amount of the dish), the actual cook time (which is Manual or other mode and time mentioned), and once the cooking in done, there is a pressure release time. Natural release is when you leave the IP alone and let the pressure come down by itself. It can take 15 mins or longer. Most recipes use natural release so you dont have to stand around to man the food. Some dishes can get overcooked in that much time, so some recipes mention if you should do a quick release immediately after the cook time is finished (i.e manually move the valve to venting(carefuly using a towel or a long spatula as the steam will be hot through the valve)), or the recipe mention release after some minutes manually depending on the recipe.
You can let the pressure release naturally in this one. It just adds a bit of time to the dish.
I made this tonight and it was SO GOOD. I love the stovetop tofu version so I was excited to find a different take on it. I’m fairly new to instant pot cooking and this was super easy. I modified the tomatoes a bit, using one 28 oz can of San Marzano tomatoes because I like a lot of sauce and I like the consistency a little on the thicker side. I upped the salt and sugar a tiny bit but did everything else the same. Like everything I’ve made of Richa’s, it was fantastic!
Awesome!!
I’ve made this a few times now and it turned out fantastic every time. I used sunflower seeds instead of cashews due to allergies and it was really creamy. This and the Any Bean Curry from your book are my absolute favourites so far. I became a vegan 4 months ago and am so glad I found your blog. Thanks and keep up the great work!
Thats awesome!! So glad you love both! Thanks for the info on sunflower seeds. i end up using pumpkin when making nut-free, so i’ll try those next time i make one of the creamy sauces.
Hi, i’m Interested to know how much sunflowers seeds did you us4 and did you pre-soak them? Thanks!
Hi Lucy,
I use the same amount as specified for cashews, i.e. 1/4 cup. I have found that it doesn’t make much difference if I soak them or not, but this might be because I usually eat the curry the day after cooking it, so the seeds have time to “soak” in the cooking sauce.
Incidentally, since posting my original comment I have experimented with cashews and found out that am not allergic to them after all (I don’t recommend doing this!). But really, flavorwise I think there is very little difference between cashews and sunflower seeds. I was quite disappointed with the taste of cashews. 🙂
Good luck with
Are you using raw or roasted cashews?
I used roasted. Raw cashews are not so readily available in stores and I also read some stuff that made me concerned regarding the toxins that workers may be exposed to when pealing raw cashews.
Made this tonight with Dixie dinners not chicken. I didn’t have Chiles so I used some sriracha. Turned out amazing and quick and only one pot besides my vita mix!
Thank you.
Awesome!
By “ground mustard” do you mean dried mustard (spice) or stone ground mustard (like the liquid type)?
yes dry mustard powder
A new family favorite! Thank you!!!
yay!
This recipe was AMAZING! I was sooo happy with it.. so flavorful and saucy! I loved the soy curls too.. first time trying those! I doubled the recipe so I’d have enough for leftovers and that was a GOOD call.. Will definitely make again and again and again!! Thank you!!!!
Yay! thats amazing!
I have stomach problems with spicy things. Any suggestions! I would definitely have to leave out cayenne pepper! Your recipes make my mouth water but afraid of spicy.
Spices are for flavor. leave out the heat = cayenne, green chile, black pepper etc. Use green bell pepper instead of green chile for the flavor but no heat, and sweet paprika for cayenne for the smoky flavor if needed. For most of the recipes, the heat can left out completely.
I have not tried any of your recipes yet, but they all look so yummy.
A word of caution, the soy curls tend to go rancid FAST. So if not using
very soon, store in freezer.
yup it says on the package to refrigerate and use within a few months.