This is a fast and easy way to make an Indian onion masala in your pressure cooker. This onion tomato masala is the base for many different Indian dishes. You could spend hours making a traditional onion masala, or you can make a Pressure cooker onion masala with about a fourth of the effort and all of the taste.
Pressure Cooker Onion Masala | Indian Onion Masala
If I had known you could make this tedious masala this easily, I could have saved me, my mom, my grandmother and her mother a ton of time in our lives. I can't believe this pressure cooker onion masala worked so simply, but it did. Onions, tomatoes, ginger, garlic, and a chili, combined with spices like garam masala form the basis for so many different curries, that this will set you up for near-instant Indian food for dinner.
My nifty spice container shows you what you will most likely need if you start to cook Indian food with any frequency. Sure, you could add several more, but these are the basics that will serve you well.
WHAT IS PRESSURE COOKER ONION MASALA?
This humble mixture is the base for many different East Indian dishes and traditionally, it is a labor of love, taking 30-45 mins of standing around and stirring quite frequently. It came together very quickly in the Instant Pot.
If you like chana masala, or rajma (red kidney beans), or maybe even different meat curries, this pressure cooker onion masala is the base you will start with. So let me show you how to make this, and you can divide it up and use it for a variety of different dishes.
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Ingredients
- ¼ cup (54 g) peanut oil, (or other high smoke point )
- 2 cups (320 g) Onion, diced
- 1 cup (149 g) Tomatoes, chopped
- 8-10 cloves (8 cloves) Garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons (2 tablespoons) Minced Ginger, minced
- 1 (1) Jalapeño Peppers, (optional)
- 1 teaspoon (1 teaspoon) Turmeric
- ½ teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon) Cayenne Pepper
- 1 teaspoon (1 teaspoon) Ground Coriander
- ½ teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon) Ground Cumin
- 2 teaspoon (2 teaspoon) Garam Masala
- 2 teaspoons (2 teaspoons) Kosher Salt
- ¼ cup (62.5 g) Water
Instructions
- Turn on the fan and the exhaust fan in your kitchen 🙂
- Turn your Instant Pot onto Sauté on high. When the display reads HOT, add oil.
- When the oil is hot and shimmering, add in the ginger, garlic and green chili and sauté for 1-2 minutes.
- Add in the onion and mix well. You're going to sauté this for 10 minutes, stirring once or twice.
- Add all the dry spices and mix well, being careful not to let them burn. Be sure to put the spices on top of the veggies rather than on the surface of the pan directly.
- Add tomatoes and the water and deglaze your pot well, scraping up all the brown bits.
- Close and cook at High Pressure for 15 minutes, allowing it to release pressure naturally.
- Open up the pot and if it's too watery, just sauté for bit it will thicken as it cools.
- That's it! You're now ready to cook with this immediately, put some in the fridge for a week or so, or in the freezer for several months. I'd save it in 1 cup containers. This recipe made about 2.5 cups.
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Nutrition
When I made this as instructed, it started burning on the bottom of the pot during the pressure cooking cycle. I added another half cup of water and it burned again, I added another generous half cup of water and it didn’t burn. On the back end. I let it simmer about 10 minutes to thicken up. I’ve had the same experience with other recipes from this site and the cookbook, and I wonder if the more recent versions of the instant pot are more prone to this problem.
I am looking for clarification, your cookbook recipe for this calls for 2 tsp of cumin and this online version calls for 1/2 tsp. Which amount is correct?
Hi, the version of this recipe in your cookbook calls for 2 teaspoons of cumin while the version here calls for 1/2 teaspoon. Is the cookbook in error?