Mushroom Matar Masala. Mushrooms and Peas in creamy tomato sauce. Mushroom Masala Recipe with Easy Blender Masala Sauce. Vegan Indian Gluten-free Soy-free. Pin this post for later
Masala means many things in Indian cuisine. It can be a dry spice blend, a wet spice blend or a sauce which can be used to make a dish. This simple Masala sauce works well with any veggies, or baked tofu, soy curls, chickpeas or lentils. Make the sauce creamier with more cashews, creamy + vegan butter to make makhani or butter sauce, tangier with more tomatoes, spicier or milder.
The sauce with mushrooms and peas is a satisfying flavorful meal. I add some spinach or greens as well. In the pictured dish, i also added some chickpeas. Serve over rice or cooked grains, with flabread or over toast for snack or breakfast. Easy and 20 minute active time in the kitchen and then let everything simmer.
Matar mean peas. Use less or more peas. To make the sauce without nuts, use pumpkin seeds or silken tofu or plain unsweetened non dairy yogurt, or full fat coconut milk or coconut cream. Many many more options for sauces, curries, easy dishes on the blog and my book.
More curries from the blog
- Bhindi Masala
- Mushroom Chickpea Soup with veggies and greens
- Aloo Baingan – Potato Eggplant Curry
- Okra in tamarind coconut sauce
- Bhindi Zunka – Okra crusted with chickpea flour and spices.
Video!
Recipe Card
Mushroom Matar Masala
Ingredients
- 1/2 large onion chopped
- 5 cloves garlic
- 1 inch ginger
- 1 green chile remove seeds to reduce heat if needed
- 1 tsp oil
- 2 large tomatoes
- 1/4 cup (32.25 g) raw cashews soaked for 15 mins if needed, use 1/3 cup for creamier sauce
- 1/2 to 1 tsp garam masala
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp dried fenugreek leaves kasuri methi
- 6 to 8 oz (170 to 225 g) sliced white mushrooms
- 3/4 cup (108.75 g) or more peas
- 1/2 tsp (0.5 tsp) or more salt
- 1/4 tsp (0.25 tsp) or more sugar
- 1 cup (30 g) chopped spinach optional
- cayenne to preference
- cilantro for garnish
Instructions
- Blend onion, garlic, ginger, chile with a few tbsp of water to a puree in a blender.
- Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the above puree. Cook for 5 to 7 mins or until the onion smell is not raw. Stir occasionally.
- Meanwhile, blend tomatoes and cashews in the same blender until smooth. Blend for two 1 min cycles so the cashews are blended in. Add the pureed tomato puree, garam masala, paprika, and fenugreek to the skillet. Cook for 7 to 8 minutes.Stir occasionally.
- Add mushrooms, peas, other veggies, 1/2 cup or more water, salt, sugar. I added a 1/2 cup cooked chickpeas as well as seen in the pictures. Mix well.
- Cover and cook for 10 mins or till the mushrooms are cooked to preference.
- Fold in spinach if using, taste adjust salt and heat. I usually add some cayenne.
- Garnish with cilantro and serve over rice, cooked grains or with flatbread.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Claudia Moore
I made this today (a triple batch) and it’s ridiculously delicious! The spices and heat are perfect. This is a new favourite in our home. We make recipes from your books and website every week. A thousand thanks for another amazing recipe.
Richa
awesome! Thanks!
Sarah Whittaker
This was amazing. I used coconut cream instead of cashew milk and stirred in some left over chicken (without it, it’d still be amazeballs though) It was perfect. I did substitute chile peppers for roasted red peppers however
Kim
This was delicious and so simple to make. I changed the spice from tsp to tbsp and used red chili powder instead of paprika. Taste almost as good as restaurant quality.
Candice
Can I replace the raw cashews with something else? perhaps coconut milk?
Richa
If you see the recipe notes, its already mentioned that you can “Nut-free: To make the sauce without nuts, use pumpkin seeds or silken tofu or plain unsweetened non dairy yogurt or coconut cream or thick coconut milk from a can of full fat coconut milk.”
Denise
I made this recipe tonight and it was fabulous! Served it over brown rice with some toasted naan bread to soak up the deliciousness. I can’t wait to make it again. Thanks so much for the recipe!
ama
Made this tonight after seeing the Instapot one. Really full of flavor and the perfect spiciness. So yummy. Served it with an almond flour tortilla and lots of chopped cilantro on top. It was perfect after tasting it so I didn’t end up folding in the spinach I had prepared. Thanks!
Richa
Awesome!
Joan Bitterman
I made this tonight with two very minor variations (powdered ginger instead of fresh; crushed fenugreek seeds popped in the oil before adding the onion, garlic, and jalapeño; additional water). At the end I added some leftover coconut milk.
Served over germinated brown rice. Oh my, absolutely exquisite. Thank you! This is my first successful attempt at Indian cooking.
Clean-up was easy, too, since there’s nothing oily or greasy going on.
Next time I will use a soup pot instead of the skillet, because I always double any recipe. I also plan to add garbanzo beans and cauliflower.
Richa
yumm!
Jo
I made this for lunch today and it turned out pretty good and kid friendly. Although I appreciated the convenience of the blender base I couldn’t help myself wondering how it would taste like if I could properly brown my onion, garlic … I very much appreciate the simplified recipes you provide. As someone relatively new to Indian cooking (vegan for 4 yrs) and a pantry stocked with exciting indian seasonings I was wondering if you would consider sharing recipes with the original technique perhaps your mom used to follow and your user friendly quick versions side by side. That could be fun and educational.
I continue to learn a lot from you and I greatly appreciate the guidance your website and books provide.
Richa
Awesome! All of these are methods that my mom, aunts, chefs use for various dishes. Blending the raw onion is a common sauce step for making many sauces. The onion blended with garlic or with tomato, garlic, ginger etc is roasted after the blending for a long time. It takes much longer to roast that way but the active time of chopping etc is reduced. There are some sauces that use browning the onions before blending and then cooking again and some that use blending the raw and roasting. My mom generally prefers the raw blended sauces as she lets them cook and roast at a lower heat for a longer time for best results. Depending on your pan, stove and moisture content, the cooking time varies. So just cook the mixture for longer until the onion smell changes from raw to roasted.
In a recipe like this which isnt a particular regional cuisine recipe, you can use either way. You can brown chopped onion and garlic and blend and proceed as well.
Jo
Thank you for your reply. I don’t want to make a chat site out of your blog, but I just wanted you to know that I cooked 2 of your recipes again today because they cook fast, they are full of flavor and health boosting ingredients and my kids always eat it so I don’t need a “backup plan”.
Richa
yay! so glad everyone loved them! I love hearing feedback, so chat away!
Janani
Hi Richa, this looks amazing. To make it nut free with coconut milk, how much coconut milk would you suggest using for 2 servings?
thanks!
Richa
1/2 to 1 cup. If you want it creamier, use 1/2 cup coconut cream.
Patricia de Crom
Thank you for your printable recipes!. An Indian woman I met going for cancer treatment gave me your website. I love Indian cooking and have many cookbooks, but have drifted away toward a purist cancer fighting diet. Your recipes inspire me to return- particularly this one, which is a wonderful way to incorporate cancer fighting mushrooms (maitake and lion’s mane) with Indian cooking!
Patricia
Lea
I tried this today.
We were having guests, my mom made butter chicken and I made this dish.
All the guests approved of it, even though they aren’t vegan (and all of it wasgone!).
It tasted amazing, really flavourful and I love mushrooms!
I will make it again, but probably a little different, and make my own twist on it.
Great recipe!
Asha
A wonderful recipe – I doubled it and had it along with many other dishes and this was completely finished! Everyone raved about this dish and fairly simple to make! I did add some amchur and cinnamon and did not add sugar.
Susie
This is amazing–so delicious! I’m eating the entire thing myself. Thank you, Vegan Richa!
Trashbby
So glad I tried this recipe! Even better than anticipated. I used coconut milk instead and served it over cauliflower rice. So yummy! Will definitely make again.
Mani
The recipe is awesome. Thanks richa
Jen
You’re a kitchen goddess! Your food is heavenly. Made this tonight and it was so delicious. Thank you. Can’t wait for your next book to arrive (I’ve pre-ordered it.)
Richa
Awesome! so glad you loved it! Thanks for Pre-ordering the book!
KJ
This was amazing! Turned out delicious. I did add one tablespoon of Earth Balance vegan butter at the very end and squeezed in some lime juice. The lime added a nice touch!
Claire
Thanks for the tip about the lime juice. A fantastic recipe, we loved it!
Shelby
What type of green chili do you use?
Richa
Serrano, bird’s eye(thai) or jalapeno
Arden Fortner
Thank you, Richa.
Mushroom Matar Masala is wonderfully delicious! Will now be a “most frequent” recipe in my kitchen. Everyone should try it. You’ll enjoy it!
Verona Laffitte
Thank you for this fantastic recipe! I tried it today and it was absoluty DELICIOUS!!!
Like all your recipes! I cooked it for friends and an old neighbor couple (in exchange for his homegrown tomatoes) and everybody loved it and asked for the recipe! So it was an absolute succes!
Aimee P
I saw your post tonight and it looked so tasty and easy that I made it for dinner. What a great recipe! Thank you, Richa! This will be a new staple for us!
Trish
Very easy and quick to put together. Best part: delicious. Loved by entire family! Will be making this often. Thanks for a fab meal this evening! 🙂
Diane
I will be making this tonight! I am going to substitute the cashews for plain yogurt, can you let me know how much I should use?
Richa
1/4 cup. Mix in and add more to taste or preferred texture.
Cassie
Masala is DELICIOUS. WOOT WOOT. I MUST make this recipe soon!
Ritika
So simple and yummy. Just a question though, is there a reason you didn’t add cumin seeds? It’s yummy regardless.
Richa
You can roast the cumin seeds in oil and proceed from there for the sauce. I like the mushrooms without the cumin seeds for some reason :).But really both should work well.
sreeja
i cannot have mushrooms, but this recipe looks amazing, can I substitue with more chick peas?
Richa
yes you can add more chickpeas, or cauliflower or tofu.
Isabelle Ivors
If using tofu, do you just drain and add or….?
Richa
yes just drain and blend and use
Monica
When do you add the garam masala and paprika? Not in method
Richa
at step 3, add spices. Ingredients are usually added in the order mentioned.
Marlene
If I don’t have fenugreek seeds or leaves or powder… what do you suggest I use as a substitute?
Richa
use ground mustard. 1/4 to 1/2 tsp.
Amber
Oooh this looks sooo delicious! I’ve pinned it for later! Can’t wait to try it myself 🙂
Laina
Hi Richa,
This looks so delicious, but I’ve never had a dish with those spices in it as of yet. I hope I like it. ???? Btw, you missed adding the chickpeas in the list of ingredients.
Richa
I don’t usually add chickpeas to the dish, but happened to add them for the photos. Also it looks nicer with the chickpeas :). I do mention it in the method.
Sussu
Excellent recipe! I had 24 ounces of baby bella mushrooms and used them all. I also used some fenugreek seeds instead of leaves. I love the recipes where all sauce ingredients are blended! Thank you so much!
Richa
Awesome!!
Sharon vitullo
I am trying to loose weight lol so want to use silken tofu instead how much should I add please
Richa
3 tbsp. you can add in more (1 to 2 tbsp) later if you’d prefer it be more creamy.
robin m
I don’t know where to get fenugreek leaves. Do you think fenugreek powder would work?
This recipe, like all of yours, looks amazing.
Learning how to dehydrate real good food would be so worthwhile and helpful.
enjoy…..robin m
Richa
yes you can use fenugreek seed powder. use a 1/4 tsp.
MPaula
I love mushrooms and I love curry so the combination is divine. I would probably add green peas for more colour especially since I don’t always have cilantro. I have tried to grow my own but it hasn’t worked yet; I will keep trying.. I also want to know about dehydrating such meals!
Julie
Wow! This looks beautiful! My husband and I have taken to doubling your recipes (from Indian Kitchen!) and then dehydrating the left overs for our backpacking trips! This is going to be Sunday’s dinner and one of our next trail dinners! Besides all the great vegetables and spices the fact that they have little to no oil makes then perfect for dehydrating! You can’t imagine how great it is having real food out there rather then the pathetic commercial freeze dried food. I will go back and rate the dish on Sunday, but both my husband and I have commented that nothing we have tasted from your book or blog has been less then 5 stars!
Richa
oh thats awesome! How do you dehydrate and rehydrate the meals? it would be fun to send some with my husband on his long hikes as well.