Instant Pot Dal Makhani

Instant Pot Dak Makhani is the easiest recipe to make buttery creamy and luscious dal makhani. Black lentils and kidney beans along with spices are cooked to a creamy consistency in this makhani dal.

I am sharing with you my recipe to make Best Restaurant style Punjabi Dal makhani in Instant pot. This dal is a close version of a popular Delhi restaurant where the original dal makhani recipe was created. 

First up let me tell you that you need only very few ingredients to make this makhani dal. Cooking Best Dal makhani is more about cooking it right than adding a lot of spices or other ingredients.

In Traditional recipe of dal makhani, it is slow-cooked for hours on slow heat. This makes dal creamy and adds a smoky flavour to dal. When I have those cravings I make Dal makhani in a slow cooker. 

But on the days when I do not have that kind of time, this Instant Pot Dal makhani is THE BEST for satisfying the cravings. With my easy tandoori roti or no yeast naan makhani dal makes a perfect restaurant-style meal combination. 

Dal makhani Ingredients

The flavour of the recipe depends upon how you use your ingredients and not on how many ingredients. The taste of the original recipe comes from the garlic and tomatoes. Another important flavour is kasuri methi or fenugreek leaves. 

I do one more thing to add another layer to intensify the flavour. Though that's not usually done( I did it accidentally too) but try it you might like to do that as well. 

Once I had the only garlic chive and coriander leaves herbed butter available at home so I used that. The matured flavour of herbs made makhani dal so incredibly flavourful that now I purposefully use herbed butter for making dal makhani. 

Ingredients for dal makhani - preparing authentic and Punjabi Black Dal

Lentils: Black lentils / Whole Urad Dal, small red kidney beans. You need to soak dry black lentils for 2-3 hours for the perfect cooking. 

Fresh Ingredients: ginger, garlic, tomatoes, coriander, chive for making herbed butter. Tomatoes which are ground to fresh puree. 

Spices & Seasonings: Salt, Kashmiri red chilli powder, red chilli powder, kasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaves)

Dairy: Butter and milk. If you want to make it more indulgent you can use fresh cream for the garnishing. 

How to Make Dal Makhani 

The original and authentic dhaba style dal makhani is cooked on coal or wood for hours till it became very soft and tender. But, with the modern cooking methods, pressure cooker and instant pot the time to cook dal has reduced considerably. 

This recipe of Instant pot dal makhani still takes time. But, when You are making it in the Instant pot it is mostly hands-off time. You are not actively involved in cooking. This is what I love about Instant pot recipes, you will need about 15-20 minutes of hands-on cooking rest happens on auto.

So even if you are tempted to make this dal for the weekday dinner it's absolutely okay. 

Best Dal Makhani Recipe

As far as I am concerned the Best Dal Makhani recipe is the one that YOU absolutely love. Regarding the authenticity, I consider this instant pot dal as equal to original in terms of the same ingredients as well the same proportions. Rest all are inspired or our versions.

In my opinion, inspired or your version is even better because that is exactly adapted to your own taste buds. 

This Punjabi dal makhani recipe is inspired from the original restaurant makhani dal recipe And it does not use any onion. The flavour and richness come from cooking technique and butter.

Dal Makhani Recipe Video

How to Make Dal Makhani in Instant Pot

Start Instant pot on saute mode and add herbed butter. When the butter melts add chopped ginger and grated garlic. Saute for a minute and then add fresh tomato puree.

Add in Red chilli powder, Kashmiri red chilli powder, salt to taste. Cook till tomatoes are well cooked and leave out the butter.

Add soaked black lentils and kidney beans that are soaked for 6-8 hours. Mix and add 4 cups of water. 

Cover the lid and cook on beans and chilli mode for 30 minutes. Allow to cool and see that kidney beans and lentils are cooked. But for dal makhani we need to cook them more to  a creamy consistency. 

Add in 1 cup of warm water and 1 cup whole milk and pressure cook for 10 minutes. Allow to cool naturally and open the lid. 

Now add in kasuri methi/ dried fenugreek leaves and butter and mix to combine well. Dal Makhani that tastes incredibly delicious is ready to serve.

Recipe Notes and Tips

• Soak Black Urad dal and kidney beans( rajma) for 6-8 hours. This is a must for the creamy texture of makhani dal. 
• For the best Dal Makhani do not go overboard on spices, the flavour comes from liberal use of butter and slow cooking of dal.
• DO NOT be tempted to use less butter for the real deal! You can try a healthier version of dal makhani from this recipe. 
• Using herbed butter with mature flavour is a Game Changer in this recipe and adds extra flavour. 
• Traditionally, dal is slow-cooked for hours, in this recipe I have cooked it for about an hour in the Instant Pot. I am extremely happy to say that the texture, taste and the colour is almost perfect and similar to the dal makhani from your favourite restaurant.
• In the last step where I have added milk, you can add cream. I prefer to add milk because it adds creaminess without making it heavy. With cream, it becomes slightly heavy so It’s a personal choice you will have to make.
• Fresh tomato puree is best for making dal but in case you can’t find them use canned whole tomatoes. Mash them before adding. Do not use canned tomato puree. 
• You can find these lentils easily online or in any Indian store if you live out of India. 
• You can adapt this recipe to make it in the pressure cooker on the stovetop.

What To Serve with Dal Makhani

How To Store ?Dal makhani tastes best when served with flatbreads like Garlic Naan, Butter Naan, laccha Paratha , masala paratha or tandoori roti. If you like dal and rice combination Dal makhani with jeera rice is one of the best meal combinations.

You can store leftover dal in the refrigerator for 2-3 days. The flavour of one day old dal intensifies as you store it for longer. So I mostly make an extra batch. 

You can also easily freeze dal makhani. Store it in a ziplock bag or a freezer safe container. You can freeze it upto 10-12 weeks in freezer.  

More Such Recipes

• Slow cooked Dal Makhani in Pressure cooker 

• Healthy Stove Top Dal Makhani 

• Rajma Masala 

• Green Moong Dal

• Chana Masala

• Lagar Wali Dal

• Punjabi Dal Palak 

• Sabut Masoor Dal

• Gujarati Dal Recipe

• Dal Fry Recipe

📖 Recipe

Dal Makhani Recipe

The easiest recipe for buttery creamy and luscious dal makhani. Black lentils and kidney beans along with spices are cooked to a creamy consistency in this makhani dal.

5 from 1 vote

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Course: Main Course

Cuisine: indian cuisine, north indian

Keyword: dal, dal makhani, Punjabi dal

Prep Time: 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour hour

Soaking Time: 6 hours hours

Servings: 8 Servings

Calories: 160kcal

Author: Rekha Kakkar

Equipment

• Instant Pot

Ingredients

• 200 grams Black Lentils/ whole Urad Dal
• 50 grams Red kidney beans small
• 2 Tablespoon Herbed butter salted
• 1 tablespoon ginger chopped finely
• 1 tablespoon garlic grated
• 1 cup fresh tomato puree approximately 3 medium sized tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon Kashmiri red chilli powder
• 1 teaspoon red chilli powder
• ½ teaspoon Salt
• 1 cup whole milk
• ¼ teaspoon Kasuri Methi
• 2 tablespoons butter

Instructions

• For this I first start instant pot on sauté mode. Next the first step is to flavors it up. This is one of my secret making best tasting Dal Makani . Use herbed butter, this is coriander and chive butter it adds the best flavour from the start itself.
• But you could start with regular salted butter.If you have regular Amul butter it tastes best. But do not let me bar you here you can pretty much use any salted butter available if you do not have any of the specific I have mentioned.
• I also use a lot of finely chopped ginger. I personally feel that flavour of any recipe depends upon how you use your ingredients and not on how many ingredients. my way of cooking is lesser ingredients and maximum flavour.
• moving on, add in the grated garlic-and Sauté till butter is all bubbly and herbs are fragrant. Next add in 1 cup fresh tomato puree these are nothing but fresh tomatoes blended into puree. If you do not have fresh tomatoes go ahead and use peeled tomatoes from the can but if you are using canned tomatoes mash them before adding.
• Cook these tomatoes with ginger and garlic. Many dal makhani recipes will ask to use to many spices but as far as I know real authentic dal makhni is cooked very simply. The flavour comes from garlic and one more herb which I am using. The real taste of dal makhani is mainly slow cooking dal and a lot of butter.
• Add Kashmiri Red chilli powder along with tomatoes this gives the characteristic red colour to the dal makhni. For heat use regular red chilli powder. salt for the seasoning.
• Now tomatoes are cooked we can tell this because they have started releasing butter. Its time to add soaked lentils. I am adding soaked urad dal (black lentils)and soaked kidney beans. This reduces cooking time and helps to make dal creamier.
• Mix them with tomatoes and add water. Now close the lid of the Instant pot, take care that valve is at sealing position and put this on on beans and chillies mode.
• After cooking is complete force release the pressure by moving the valve to Venting position and open the lid once pressure is fully released.
• Add in about 1 more cup of hot water and 1 cup of milk. Some people add cream here but I feel it adds more heaviness than taste so I prefer to use milk you do what you like. The creamy texture will anyways come from cooking and not from cream. So I avoid too much cream.
• Now again I am closing the lid, valve back to sealing position and this time I am pressure cooking on low for 15 minutes.
• This time you do not force release the pressure allow it to release naturally and still before opening check to release any residual pressure.
• Now this is the texture we are looking at. This looks slightly thin but do not worry… once this will cool down it will all be perfectly creamy. Now its time to add another layer of flavours Kasumi methi
• Dal is cooked very simply, the flavour comes from garlic and one more herb which I am using here.
• Kasumi methi …. yes! other than garlic kauri methi is the flavour in real dal makhani. Always crush this before adding it helps to release the flavour.
• Next add in a little bit more butter I have added 2 tablespoons of butter you may add more if you wish to.
• Now Dal makhani is done! Enjoy this as Dal makhani and Naan combination or Dal makhani with paratha also tastes great!

Video

Notes

• Soak Black Urad dal and kidney beans( rajma) for 6-8 hours. This is a must for the creamy texture of makhani dal. 
• For the best Dal Makhani do not go overboard on spices, the flavour comes from liberal use of butter and slow cooking of dal.
• DO NOT be tempted to use less butter for the real deal!

Nutrition

Calories: 160kcal | Carbohydrates: 17g | Protein: 8g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Cholesterol: 18mg | Sodium: 219mg | Potassium: 119mg | Fiber: 6g | Sugar: 2g | Vitamin A: 528IU | Vitamin C: 4mg | Calcium: 55mg | Iron: 2mg