Hi guys. Today I'm making an Instant Pot
Chana Masala. This recipe is super easy,
it takes just 10 minutes of actual
cooking, and it's 100 percent vegan.
And it's delicious. If you want to see
more Instant Pot recipes or more Instant
Pot Indian recipes in particular, just
let me know in the comments below.
If you're not familiar with chana masala or
chole masala as it's sometimes called,
depending on the type of chickpea used,
it's basically an Indian chickpea curry.
And chana refers to the type of chickpea
and masala refers to the spice blend or
the spice mix. What I love about this
dish--aside from the fact that it reminds
me of my mother's kitchen-- is that it's
really hearty and comforting but still
really healthy. It's basically chickpeas cooked in a
thick, tangy spiced gravy. So how do you
make the perfect gravy? For this dish, it
starts with a few whole spices I'm
frying some black mustard seeds and
cumin seeds in oil. If you can't find
black mustard seeds, not to worry. You can
use the more commonly available brown
mustard seeds. They'll do just fine,
they're just a little bit less spicy
than the black ones. And the reason a lot
of Indian dishes start with frying
spices is that it really enhances the
flavor of the original spice. It makes it
more intense, bolder and it gives a more
complex flavor to the entire dish. You
want to wait until the oil is really hot
in the Instant Pot before adding the
spices.
They'll sputter and spit a little bit so
stand back so you don't get burned. And
you just need about 30 seconds for that.
Like most Indian dishes, chana masala
also starts with a base of aromatics -
onions, green chili, garlic and ginger. 
In fact, these ingredients are so common
in Indian cuisine so that I can always
find a tub of green chilli-garlic-ginger
paste in my mom's fridge.For this recipe, 
I'm using two Serrano peppers, which
yields a nice medium heat. If you want it
to be spicier, you can use another pepper.
And if you want it to be less spicy, you
can omit the seeds where most of the
spiciness is, or you can use how jalapeno
peppers instead, which have less
spiciness than a Serrano pepper. I like
to use gloves when I'm chopping peppers
because there's nothing worse than
touching your eye after you've touched
hot chili peppers. Trust me this is not
something you want to experience. After
the whole spices have been toasted
you'll add the aromatics.
Start by cooking the onion until it's
lightly browned and then add the ginger,
bay leaves, garlic and green chilies.
Sfter you let these initial ingredients
cook down and get a little browned,
you're gonna add some ground spices. And no Indian dish would be complete without
a generous dose of spices. I'm using
ground coriander, chili powder, garam
masala and turmeric, along with the
healthy amount of salt and pepper. The
spices just need a minute to cook and
incorporate. And if it seems dry, you
might want to add a tablespoon of water
to prevent burning because the Instant Pot
can really suck up all the oil.
There is one spice that's commonly used
in chana masala that I'm not using today.
It's called amchur and it's dried mango
powder.
It's made from unripe green mangoes and
it gives the dish a tart, tangy flavor.
Unfortunately amchur is hard to find
outside of Indian grocery stores, so I
wanted to keep this dish accessible. Instead I'm using some lemon juice at
the end to give it that tart, tangy
flavor. But if you happen to have a
well-stocked Indian spice cabinet, feel
free to use one and a half teaspoons of
amchur instead of the lemon juice. While
it's a little more traditional to use
whole dried chickpeas instead of canned
chickpeas, I wanted to keep this dish
super easy and quick. And honestly can't
really tell the difference. But if you do
want to use whole dried chickpeas, you'll
need about 12 ounces or one and a half
cups, which is about 3 cans of chickpeas.
You also need to soak the whole
chickpeas in plenty of water for about
8 hours before cooking, so if you want to
skip this extra step, just use canned
chickpeas. It'll turn out great, I promise.
After all of the spices, you'll just add
the remaining ingredients - the chickpeas,
tomatoes and broth. For the tomatoes I'm
actually using canned tomatoes instead
of fresh because, honestly, the quality of
most supermarket tomatoes in the U.S. is
pretty bad - they're bland and they're
boring. And canned tomatoes are gonna
give a lot more flavor than fresh ones. 
But if you live somewhere with amazing
quality tomatoes or it's tomato season
and you have some locally grown tomatoes,
feel free to use a couple fresh tomatoes
instead of the canned ones. It'll add a
nice freshness and vibrancy. Give
everything a good stir and secure the
lid on the Instant Pot and set the
pressure release to Sealing instead of
Venting. Select the manual setting and
set it to high pressure for 8 minutes. If
you're using dried whole chickpeas that
you've soaked, you'll set it to 35
minutes instead. Allow the pressure to come to a natural
release - this should take about 10 to 15
minutes. Open the pot give it a stir and
then add the lemon juice and fresh
cilantro leaves.
I recommend letting the chana masala sit
for about 15 to 20 minutes before
serving because it gives a chance for
all the flavors to meld together and it
always tastes better the next day. I hope
you enjoyed this recipe for Instant Pot
chana masala. If you did go ahead and
give it a thumbs up because it's always
appreciated when you do. And feel free to
share with friends and family who you
think might like this recipe. Thanks so
much for watching and I'll see you in
the next video, bye.
