Kala Chana Recipe in Instant Pot
This Kala chana is made in an instant pot from unsoaked black grams to a finished curry. A quick and easy no-soak, delectable, savory, and comforting, one-pot black gram curry that can be served for lunch or dinner.
Equipment
- Instant pot
Ingredients
Ingredients for making Kala Chana (Black chickpeas curry)
- 1 cup Kala chana (( Bengal Gram/ Black chickpeas))
- 3 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 red onion (medium) (chopped)
- 2 tablespoon ginger (grated)
- 5-6 garlic cloves
- 3 tablespoon tomato paste
Spices for making black chana recipe
- 1 tablespoon cumin seeds
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon garam masala
- ½ teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon asafetida
- 2 black cardamoms (seed crushed)
- 2 teaspoon chana masala
Instructions
Step 1 Prepare the ingredients
- Start by washing the Kala chana and set it aside. You can let it soak in water while we prep the rest of the ingredients.
- Chop the onions finely, mince the garlic and grate the ginger.
- Pull out all the spices and keep them at a hand's distance. While preparing the tadka or masala, you must be quick with adding the dry spices. The powdered spices can burn very quickly when added directly to the oil.
- Also, keep a glass of water close.
- If you are using fresh tomatoes instead of tomato paste, blend them in a food processor to make tomato puree.
Step 2 Preparing masala for kala chana recipe
- Set the instant pot in the sauté mode at high temperature for 10 minutes.
- Then, in the pot of the instant, add oil. And add cumin seeds.
- When the cumin seeds start to sizzle, add ginger and garlic.
- Sauté them for a minute and then add the chopped red onions. Sauté while stirring the onions. When they turn golden, add all the dry spices. Give them a quick stir and add 2-3 tablespoons of water immediately.
- Let the spices cook for half a minute and then add tomato paste.
- Add ¼ cup of water and stir the tomato paste. Cook the tomato paste for 1-2 minutes until it starts to leave oil.
Step 3 Cooking kala chana in an instant pot
- Now add Kala chana. Mix to coat them thoroughly in the spices and cook kala chana for 2-3 minutes in the spices.
- Now, add 4 ½ cups of water and stir.
- Cancel the sauté mode. And close the lid of the instant pot.
- Set it on the pressure cook mode for 45 minutes. When done, let the pressure release naturally.
- When done, remove the lid.
- Now, use a slotted ladle to remove 2-3 ladles full of cooked black chana and drop them into the mortar.
- Use the pestle to crush and break the Kala chana into a paste.
- Now, put these crushed Kala chana paste back into the instant pot. This makes the gravy thick. Mix well and cook on sauté mode for 3-4 minutes.
- Finally remove into a serving bowl and top with chopped onions, chopped cilantro, or a dollop of butter.
- Serve hot with roti, rice, or paratha.
Notes
- Use tomato puree of 3 tomatoes to substitute the tomato paste or use a small can of diced tomatoes.
- If you are cooking soaked Kala chana reduce the quantity of water in the instant pot by a cup.
- In absence of red onions use shallots or yellow onions.
- You can use ginger garlic paste to replace fresh ginger and garlic.
- Use something on the lines of a pestle or mortar or a potato masher to mash a small amount of cooked Kala chana to give thickness to the gravy of this Kala chana recipe. You can also use a food processor.
- Crush the pods of black cardamom using a pestle and mortar and extract the seeds. Now further crush the seeds and add them with the dry spices.
📋Nutrition Facts
Nutrition
Calories: 183kcal
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!