Instant pot kala chana recipe is a sure shot winner recipe. Kala chana or brown chickpeas cooked in delicious onion and tomato gravy in the Instant pot. This punjabi style Indian curry of black chickpeas recipe is vegan, gluten-free, low GI and tastes great with steamed rice.

Also known as black chana masala, I used to make this chickpeas recipe in conventional Indian pressure cooker. But after acquiring Instant pot few year ago I prefer to use this recipe. You can check Kala chana on stovetop method if you like to try that recipe.

The everyday vegetarian curry is light and easy to cook, ready in 30 minutes, tastes great and packed with nutrition. If you thought Indian food is all heavy on spices fats and cream it is not. Everyday homemade curry recipes are simple light and wholesome . It's perfect simple wholesome brown chickpeas dish healthy for our daily meals.

When I am talking about everyday Indian curries, beans like chana/choley or chickpeas are included in our menus often.

Punjabi curry recipes, like chana masala, Rajma etc take time to cook. Now that I make it in an electric pressure cooker or Instant pot, it is ready in comparatively much lesser time.

You know in my quest to cook tasty, healthy home cooked food my effort is always towards reducing cooking time or time spent in the kitchen and make it super easy.

So, if you too follow the same philosophy of cooking stay with me here 🙂 I am going to make this Punjab kala chana masala recipe in a simple way. Before we go any further, let me tell you kala chana in english is also known as black gram or horse gram. In southern India it is known as Kadla.

How to Make Instant Pot Kala Chana

Most of us cook black gram by soaking, boiling the black chana and then use boiled kala chana to make curry. With this recipe you do not need to pre boil or cook chana and straight away cook it in the bhuna masala.

Being a super lazy cook who wants her every day meals quick and easy I try to cut short the process further. Because! there is a life that exists outside the kitchen 😀

Kala Chana Nutrition

When we talk about chana, the first thing people think is chickpeas or garbanzo beans. You can think black chana or kala chana a close cousin of chickpeas or desi chana. But much better in terms of nutrition profile as per Ayurveda.

According to Ayurveda, kala chana or black chana is (Agneya) which means it is a metabolic booster and it is easily digestible.
A high amount of fiber and protein helps to keep a person satiated for long.
Being Low GI food kala chana is good for diabetics. So, this kala chana curry is suitable for a diabetic diet, low GI diet, and even vegan diet.

How to Make Kala Chana curry in Instant Pot

As usual Soak chana overnight or minimum 6-7 hours. Discard the soaking water. Soaking it reduces cooking time and discarding water get rids of compounds which may cause gas in the stomach.

In Punjabi Kala chana curry stovetop recipe, kala chana is boiled and then cooked with masala. But, In instant pot kala chana recipe everything is cooked together so it takes much lesser time and effort.

Tips and Recipe Notes

If you don’t have instant pot, do not worry. You can make this black chana masala recipe in any other electric pressure cooker or simple pressure cooker we use in the Indian kitchen. And all in 30 minutes.
If you like to serve the dish like soup you can add some chopped kale or spinach after you finish complete cooking.

How To Serve Kala Chana Curry

The Punjabi Kala chana curry with rice tastes best. You can also serve it with Roti, Chapati, naan or Paratha.

I am majorly infatuated with instant pot these days. If you have not read it already you can read now. What is an Instant Pot, Common mistakes while Using Instant pot and 5 Things you should know about Instant Pot.

The only thing for using stove top pressure cooker you need to adjust time differently. You can check the stove top Pressure cooker Kala Chana recipe here. Also, In Navratri you can make no onion no garlic Dry Kala chana recipe

More Recipes Like This

If you are looking for more Instant pot recipes you can try

Watch Punjabi Kala Chana Recipe in Hindi

The original recipe was published 24 Feb 2017 and updated on 24th March 2020

📖 Recipe