Instant Pot Chana Dal
Jul 25, 2017, Updated Apr 26, 2018
Vegan Chana Dal made in the instant pot! Serve it over boiled rice for a comforting meal.
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Easy and delicious Instant Pot Chana Dal is comforting and vegan and you can make this recipe in no time using your instant pot!
If you love all the Instant Pot vegetarian/vegan recipes that I share on the blog, please join me on this Facebook Group – Instant Pot Vegetarian Recipes. The group would share/feature vegetarian instant pot recipes and ideas from all around the web!
So I am back with my Instant Pot series. I realize that I haven’t shared an IP recipes on the blog for quite some time now and that’s because I wasn’t in my kitchen and I had no access to IP in India. But now expect lots of Indian Instant Pot recipes in the coming weeks. Seriously though, if you are not an Indian and love Indian food, you might want to buy this cool gadget.
It will make things so much easier. And if you are an Indian, you must buy this because we can’t live without pressure cooker and IP is a major upgrade to the regular pressure cooker plus it’s so much more. [I haven’t been paid by anyone to say all this, I just love instant pot and so sharing my honest opinion with you guys.]
I made this simple instant pot chana dal the other day and it came together so quickly. Unlike the other yellow lentils like moong and toor/arhar, chana dal takes little more time to cook. Some people soak it for few hours before using in the recipe.
If you were to cook chana dal in a pan on stove top, I would highly recommend soaking for few hours or even overnight but when you are making this in the instant pot, you don’t have to do anything. Simply cook on high pressure and it will be nicely cooked. That is what is so amazing about pressure cooking, it drastically reduces the cooking time.
Dal in India is made in so many ways and there’s absolutely no wrong or right way of cooking it.
I come from a place in India where dal is cooked literally like a soup, it’s that thin but if I add that much water and share here, most of my non-Indian readers would think “wow that’s so soupy” because the dal that you get in Indian restaurants here in US, they are always on the thicker side.
These restaurants have clearly created a lot of misconceptions about Indian food. Actually Indian dal is mostly thin, in major parts of the country. I know in UP and Bihar, dal is really thin (because I belong to these states) and so is the dal in Gujarat. Of course what consistency of dal you like is a personal preference but I just wanted to make this clear.
People add several kind of tadka/tempering to the dal. It can be cumin, curry leaves, mustard seeds etc.
I added a simple tadka to this instant pot chana dal however I didn’t add it in the beginning, rather I let the dal cook in the IP and then made the tadka in the pan and added to the cooked dal. I really like the strong flavors when we put the tadka in the end.
Tip: If you want to make this entirely in the IP, you may do the tempering before and then add tomatoes and chana dal.
Method
Place all ingredients from 1-7 in the Instant Pot.
Close the lid, set valve to sealing. Press the manual button and then adjust timing to 12 minutes. Cook on high pressure for 12 minutes and then let the pressure release naturallu (NPR) which means you wait till the floating valve goes down on its own, around 20 minutes.
Open the lid and give a stir. Press the “keep warm/cancel button and then press the “saute” button.
Meanwhile heat oil in a pan on medium heat. Add cumin and mustard seeds and let them crackle.
Add hing, chopped garlic and dried red chilies (break red chilies into 2 for extra spice).
Cook till garlic turns light golden brown. Remove pan from heat and add the prepared tempering to the IP.
Give a good stir. You may also mash some dal with back of your spoon at this point.
Add lemon juice and mix.
Finally add chopped cilantro and stir.
Serve chana dal over boiled rice. Enjoy.
Instant Pot Chana Dal
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup chana dal 158 grams, also known as split garbanzo beans
- 1 tomato 140 grams, chopped
- 1.5 – 2 cups water
- 3/4 teaspoon salt or to taste
- 1/4 + 1/8 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1/4 teaspoon red chili powder/cayenne pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon garam masala
Tempering
- 2 teaspoons oil use any oil of choice
- 2 garlic 3-4 grams, finely chopped
- pinch hing also known as asafoetida (make sure it’s gluten-free if following a GF diet)
- 2 dried red chilies
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1/4 teaspoon mustard seeds
1-2 teaspoons lemon juice, adjust to taste
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro, for garnish
Instructions
- Place the first 7 ingredients in the Instant Pot.
- Close the lid, set valve to sealing. Press the manual button and then select high pressure and set time to 12 minutes.
- Cook on high pressure for 12 minutes and then let the pressure release naturally (NPR). [Note: you can soak the chana dal for an hour and then do high pressure for 7-8 minutes only].
- Open the lid and give a stir. Press the “keep warm/cancel” button and then press the “saute” button.
- Meanwhile heat oil in a pan on stove-top on medium heat.
- Add cumin and mustard seeds and let them crackle. Add hing, chopped garlic and dried red chilies (break red chilies into 2 for extra spice).
- Cook till garlic turns light golden brown. Remove pan from heat and add the prepared tempering to the IP.
- Give a good stir. You may also mash some dal with back of your spoon at this point.
- Add lemon juice and cilantro and serve chana dal with rice.
Notes
- Use a combination of ghee (clarified butter) and oil in the tempering for extra flavor. Keep in mind though, ghee isn’t vegan so if you wish to keep this recipe vegan, don’t use ghee.
- Use gluten-free hing if you are following a GF diet.
- Break both the dried red chilies into small pieces to make the dal spicier. I broken only 1 and left the other as such.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Instant Pot Chana Dal
