• DJM on December 03, 2017

  The Butter Chicken is fabulous. I cut the amount of cayenne in half.

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Garam masala

  • trmarvin on January 06, 2019

    Next time I'd bump up the cinnamon (use 2 sticks instead of 1), and it'll be my go-to blend.

• Onion masala

  • Skamper on August 25, 2018

    The first time I made this, I tried a half batch. I have a stove top PC, not an instant pot, and most of the masala burned to the bottom. Luckily, I was able to salvage 1/3 cup that wasn't burnt, and it made the best chana masala I've ever made, also in this book (and this is probably the 4th recipe I've tried). I tried it again with a full batch, using less heat to bring up to pressure, and only cooked for about 11 minutes. Perfect. It yielded 2 cups, not three, but that's still a lot of chana masala!

  • clkandel on January 22, 2019

    Love that this can be frozen.

  • purpleshiny on March 31, 2018

    Enough to make the Chana Masala recipe 9 times. It freezes beautifully - I have it frozen in 1/3 cup portions. I also double the Chana Masala recipe when I make it, so it doesn't last quite so long.

• Ginger-garlic paste

  • Skamper on August 25, 2018

    Helpful to make in advance and keep in the freezer. I've started making it with twice as much garlic as ginger, as that seems to be the ratio called for most often in her recipes.

• Paneer

  • Skamper on July 10, 2019

    I tried this with a quart of whole milk and it came out fine but only made about 1 cup of paneer.

  • purpleshiny on March 31, 2018

    It's really easy to make and the flavor is pretty good. However, I couldn't get it to compress together, so it ended up being flecks in my Palak Paneer instead of cubes.

• Coconut green chutney

  • janeh9 on March 21, 2018

    I made this using jalapeños as part of the green curry fish recipe. Vibrant sauce, that will lend itself well to other dishes...

  • clkandel on January 22, 2019

    This is a simple and tasty chutney. I used much less garlic though - only 1 clove, not 4.

  • tresy on July 04, 2018

    Personally did not care for this at all, despite being a cilantro fan, nor did my family. Flavour lacked complexity. Not worth the minimal effort to make, IMO.

• Marathi spiced rice (Masalé bhat)

  • sarahawker on August 16, 2018

    This is a fantastic recipe. If pressure cooker is being used for something else brown onions on stovetop and add to rice in rice cooker. Big Flavor

• Rice with lentils (Khichadi)

  • trmarvin on January 06, 2019

    Nice, quick comfort dish.

  • PennyG on March 25, 2018

    Hmmmm ... I had khichadi in India and it was much creamier than this was when I opened the pot after natural release. The texture of this was more like a very sticky rice. I did add more water to loosen it up as the recipe suggests, but next time I think I’ll add more to start with. Flavor is nice. I will try again with I’m thinking 2 1/2 cups of water vs. the 1 3/4 cups she calls for.

  • wjjjww on February 18, 2019

    i used 2 cups water. great flavor. don’t skimp on the salt!

  • paisleymonsoon on January 11, 2021

    This recipe is easy enough, but it was lacking something. After a few bites, I put in some garlic powder, and it was a little better. I don't think I'd make it on purpose again.

• Lentils with fried onions (Dal fry)

  • shoffmann on January 01, 2020

    Pretty tasty. Instant pot only used to cook the dal so not quite as "one pot" simple as some IP recipes.

  • Skamper on January 29, 2020

    My (unsoaked) chana dal was not fully cooked after 6 minutes. Next time, I would not add the full 3/4 cup water to the spice/onion/dal mix - it was a little soupier and more diluted than I would have liked.

• Creamy lentils (Dal makhani)

  • Skamper on February 04, 2019

    I tried this in my stovetop PC and the lentils burned to the bottom of the pot - a big mess. The next day I made it in my Instant Pot and it came out perfectly.

  • clkandel on September 06, 2020

    Very good. Mashing up some of the dal is a key step - don't skip it. Came out perfect.

  • sck on January 01, 2018

    Not enough water called for! What a mess.

  • tresy on July 10, 2018

    If anything my result was too wet, but it was still delicious. I did, however, use Dal Makhani Masala seasoning from a local Indian grocery store (1 Tbsp). It's ingredient list was far more interesting than the recipe's. Will definitely be making this again, with slightly less water.

• Chana masala

  • tresy on June 12, 2018

    Agree about the masala and longer soaking/cooking of the chickpeas

  • clkandel on January 22, 2019

    The chickpeas were not done with the 18 minute cooking time and natural release. Next time I'll just cook them the normal amount of time for dried chickpeas. Flavors are great.

  • purpleshiny on March 31, 2018

    Really good. The Onion Masala recipe is worth doing (and then you can make this recipe several times). I used a stick blender for the mashing as I had a hard time mashing them otherwise. I preferred a longer time soaking and a longer time cooking the chickpeas - 3 hours soaking and 25 minutes under pressure (and it took 40 minutes for the pressure to release). I did it as written the first time and felt the chickpeas weren't done enough (and I bought the chickpeas for this recipe, so I don't think they weren't fresh). I like to double the recipe for leftovers.

  • Skamper on August 25, 2018

    Since I have a stovetop PC, I cooked the chickpeas the amount of time I normally do. Also make them in advance to make this an easier weeknight dish and to free up the PC for another recipe. I had about 1 c. of cooking liquid left with the chickpeas, and added all of it to the masala. I used the amchoor powder instead of lemon juice.

  • klipper on September 20, 2019

    Delicious. The Prep Time Header says 10 minutes, plus one hour to soak. However the recipe doesn't mention pre-soaking of the chickpeas. I cooked for the 18 minutes as instructed, and they were a little underdone. Will try a pre-soak next time. Recipe says yields 6 serves - I think you would be lucky to get 3 out of it. Otherwise, it's great.

  • deboChicago on August 24, 2019

    This is a very interesting method for making chana masala. Very tasty but I’m not sure it’s my favorite version.

• Black-eyed peas with spinach (Punjabi lobia)

  • Tee.Tee on October 26, 2018

    This was quick, easy, and delicious. I served it with basmati rice for a vegetarian meal. Though seasoned well the next time I‘ll use more as a personal preference.

  • anightowl on May 16, 2019

    Quite good, although I did make some changes. I diced an onion and sauteed it with the garlic and ginger, and I didn't have fresh tomatoes so I substituted canned, and used the liquid as part of the water requirement. The seasoning balance was quite nice in this dish. I was amazed that the huge amount of spinach called for almost disappears in the finished dish, so don't skimp on the spinach. I chopped mine before adding, so that may be a factor. The serving size is way off. I served it with bread and it's 4 small servings, not 6 as stated unless used as a side dish, or maybe served over a bowl of rice. While good as made, I added a drizzle of lime infused olive oil to each serving to brighten the flavors.

  • kath on May 20, 2018

    This is a really delicious vegetarian dish! The seasoning is perfect. If it is served as a side dish it might yield 4 servings. We ate it as a main course with a bit of rice and a salad and found it was only 2 servings.

• Red kidney beans (Punjabi rajma)

  • tresy on August 26, 2018

    If you have onion masala already, you just need to cook the red beans and then add the masala.

  • Skamper on September 16, 2018

    I already had some onion masala in the freezer, so made a cup of dried kidney beans in the pressure cooker earlier in the day, then simply reheated the beans, about a half cup or so of cooking water (I didn't want them too soupy), mashed some of the beans with a potato masher, then added the onion masala and let it all simmer for a bit. Very easy and tasty.

• Beetroot salad (Beet koshimbir)

  • sarahawker on August 16, 2018

    Quite good, NOT a hit with husband and kids but you have to love beets which I do.

  • janeh9 on March 21, 2018

    A beautiful, delicious and unusual use of beets. I made it with non dairy sour cream, and it was perfect!

• Cabbage and peas (Bundh gobi mutter)

  • Skamper on April 01, 2020

    If I were to make this again, and I'm not sure I would, I'd add the ginger & garlic to the onions after they'd sauteed a while. Everything stuck to the bottom and I got the burn display. It was still edible, but just ok. I did mix it with yogurt the next day as a lunch salad, as she suggests, and that too was just ok.

• Eggplant with onions (Baingan bharta)

  • tresy on June 21, 2018

    Cooking this at low pressure, as called for, does not appear to work for me. Using high pressure yields a better result, IMO.

  • hirsheys on April 01, 2018

    Tasty, but not brilliant. I'm not sure I'd add the amchoor next time, but otherwise, I liked it. Like all recipes in this book - it works well and is super easy.

• Coconut-tomato soup

  • clkandel on October 22, 2019

    Lots of flavor. I didn't have fresh tomatoes so substituted canned, which worked well.

  • montecristo99 on October 04, 2018

    This was terrific and really easy to throw together. Agree with Partyof7's note--reduce cayenne by half.

  • Partyof7 on March 20, 2018

    Very delicious. I used fresh baby san marzano tomatoes (like cherry tomatoes) from Wegmans and reduced cayenne by more than half!

• Mixed vegetables with coconut (Marathi rassa)

  • Skamper on March 19, 2019

    This wasn't a favorite in our house. I used broccoli, cauliflower, yellow squash, and a little bit of green cabbage. I chopped the veggies into about 2 inch pieces; if I were to make again I'd probably cut a little smaller. But we didn't love the flavor so I doubt I will make again.

• Sindhi-style mixed vegetables (Sindhi sai bhaji)

  • janeh9 on March 21, 2018

    I made this instead of the vegetable soup that I usually make to use up the veggies in the crisper before going away. The only one that I left out was celery, which seemed wrong with the other flavors. It was good with rice both before we left town, and great to pull out of the freezer when we returned!

• Paneer biryani

  • excurvatus on November 26, 2019

    This is good! It only serves about 3 in my opinion. Just follow the recipe and dig in.

• Palak paneer

  • Skamper on July 10, 2019

    I cut the cayenne to a heaping 1/4 tsp and would further reduce it to just 1/4 next time. I used canned diced tomatoes (as she recommends) and used about 2/3 of a can with juices, so reduced the water to about 1/3 c. It was still a little watery so I'd further reduce the water next time. With 1 lb of spinach, not sure it needs any extra water at all, if using tomatoes and juice.

  • hirsheys on April 01, 2018

    Pretty good, though I pureed it too much - next time I'd leave a bit more texture. I'm sure this would be best with pan fried paneer, but it was still good with plain old cubed paneer.

  • aberne on May 13, 2019

    Good, but not my fave version of the dish. Missed a bit of acidity that recipes that use a tomato have.

  • purpleshiny on March 31, 2018

    Really great flavor. I made the paneer using the book recipe - will buy paneer next time. It's a solid medium hot as written - I would reduce the cayenne a tad.

  • dtremit on August 08, 2018

    Works great with other kinds of greens -- just increase the cooking time by a minute or two if they're sturdy.

• Fish with green chutney (Patra ni macchi)

  • tresy on July 04, 2018

    The recommended cooking time, 2 minutes low pressure, was woefully inadequate. Two of 3 packets were completely undercooked; we had to pop them in the microwave to finish the cooking. Since I did not care for the chutney, and there is no other seasoning, we found this disappointing.

  • janeh9 on March 21, 2018

    I made the green chutney for this dish and used it all, but will make extra next time because it's so good! Made this with cod, which I had on hand. The method of wrapping in parchment, then in foil before cooking was new to me, and worked beautifully.

• Chicken biryani

  • lina on July 10, 2019

    Great flavors, but like other recipes in this cookbook, they really needed to do some sanity checking before publication. For example, this one says the saute time is 5 minutes, but requires 1-2 minutes of sauteing the spices, 2-3 minutes of sauteing the garlic and ginger, and *browning the onions*. So really it's more like 25 minutes of saute time. Then, the recipe calls for one cup of rice but says it serves 6. No, one cup of rice will not serve 6 people. I would make this again I would double the rice (and the water) and cook for 8 minutes or so with natural release. 5 minutes is not long enough to cook basmati rice and the top layer was still uncooked because the recipe calls for the rice being on top, so it can't be entirely covered by the water.

  • Skamper on August 25, 2018

    A very tasty dish. I used the whole spices and with the exception of the cinnamon sticks and a few peppercorns, we didn't have to avoid them in the finished dish. I used 1.5 jalapenos with seeds and ribs removed (we are wimps). The onions didn't really brown within the cooking time and I only seared the chicken for 1-2 minutes. I didn't turn up the heat to bring to pressure (I have a stovetop PC). I used brown basmati rice so upped the water to 1.5 c and this worked well.

• Butter chicken (Murgh makhani)

  • CindyinOttawa on December 03, 2018

    In my 8-quart Instant Pot I doubled the recipe fully, followed it exactly (although I used ghee instead of butter) and used the same cooking time. Delicious! Butter Chicken isn't supposed to be spicy hot, and it wasn't...just excellent flavour, and the texture was perfect. I like having extra sauce to freeze and use another time.

  • stef on October 04, 2018

    Nicely spiced. I blended my can of tomatoes and added them to instant pot. That way I didn't have to take chicken out to blend. Will cut my chicken thighs in bigger pieces next time

  • sarahawker on August 16, 2018

    Definitely reason enough to buy this book. Delicious, just wonderful. The recipe that actually got me using the pressure cooker again. Used the leftover sauce with tofu and that was amazing too.

  • purpleshiny on March 31, 2018

    I made this using tandoori masala in place of all the powdered spices except the garam masala (a friend had just made a trip to India and given me some tandoori masala) and it was excellent.

  • jenmacgregor18 on August 22, 2019

    Super simple. very little prep. Wonderful results. I used coconut milk w/ butter. So, I used saute function to thicken sauce after removing chicken.

  • hirsheys on March 25, 2018

    The first time I made this I didn't use the full amount of butter because I just couldn't bring myself to and sure enough, it was unimpressive. The second time, I sucked it up and followed the recipe, except that I made it with paneer instead of chicken. It came out great! A few quick changes - I only used 1 heaping tsp of garam masala (I ran out) and didn't wish for more, used only 1/2 tsp of my incredibly hot cayenne, and used heaping amounts of the rest of the spices, including (especially) salt. I also added a pinch of sugar and did not add the extra 1/4 c of water that the note on the right said to add when not using chicken. The only thing I'd change next time is that I'd microplane the ginger so that it really melts into the sauce.

  • PennyG on November 15, 2017

    Wow! This was absolutely delicious and easy too - in the Instant Pot. A definite make again and again and again ...

  • janeh9 on March 21, 2018

    Incredible! This will be a frequent repeat!

  • Rinshin on November 13, 2018

    Like the previous reviewers, I did not see the point in freezing half the sauce for later use and do not care for the use of half canned anything, so I used the whole can of coconut milk, 2 lbs of bone in chicken which was removed after cooking and adding back the meat in big chunks. Pureed the sauce and decided to bulk up the sauce by cooking it down a bit and also adding sliced paneer. Reduced the cayenne to 1/2 tsp only and after tasting the sauce, 1+ tsp sugar was also added. With these modifications, we were very happy with the results and made for best tasting butter chicken I've made so far.

  • rionafaith on May 14, 2018

    Very good, though I wish the sauce were thicker! May try to reduce it more next time before adding the coconut milk and butter. Instead of only cooking 1 lb of chicken (which barely seemed enough for 4 servings once cooked) and removing half the sauce (why???), I just used 2 lbs of chicken straight off (2 boneless skinless breasts). I cut them into large chunks before cooking, but the timing seems intended for whole pieces and they were a tad overcooked, so I will leave them intact and cut after pressure cooking next time. Perfect heat level for me.

• Punjabi chicken curry

  • KristenS on October 27, 2020

    Yup, didn't read the notes and got some burn on the bottom. Good, simple recipe. Makes a great amount of sauce. Might do again but will fiddle with spices (too much turmeric for me).

  • purpleshiny on March 31, 2018

    This is my favorite from the book so far. However, I've found that if I pour the sauce over the chicken, the chicken will burn on the bottom of the pot. I get better results if I mix everything together before setting the pressure.

  • Skamper on February 03, 2019

    I wish I'd read the note above before making this. I got the dreaded "burn" display a couple of minutes into cooking. I was able to put the IP on saute until the chicken was cooked through, and it was still very tasty. Next time, I will either try mixing everything first, or do this one pot in pot.

• Chicken vindaloo

  • HalfSmoke on June 25, 2018

    Wonderful! Very flavorful and instant pot easy. Vindaloo is known to be high octane, and this does carry a bit of heat, but is more moderate than that found at most Indian restaurants. It can be made hotter with more cayenne, but I thought this recipe as written had just the right amount of heat and allowed the wonderful flavors to come through. A real winner.

• Chicken korma

  • HalfSmoke on October 08, 2017

    Very simple, delicious, and Instant Pot quick too. This version has a bit more heat than I'm used to at the local Indian restaurant, so if you prefer less heat I suggest reducing the cayenne by half or leaving it out altogether. Otherwise, the flavors are spot on.

  • Skamper on September 16, 2018

    This was easy and very delicious. I reduced the cayenne from 1/2 tsp to a heaping 1/4 tsp and would reduce it to an even 1/4 tsp next time. (I think my new garam masala blend has a bit more heat than the last one, too.) I have a stovetop PC, so let it come to pressure over medium heat, which took about 15 minutes, but I didn't want to risk scorching. (Sauce fit perfectly in mini ninja.)

• Chicken tikka masala

  • klipper on September 20, 2019

    Excellent. Used chicken thighs. Made it without the cayenne initially (feeding a 3 yr old as well) then added it in to the remainder after serving up her portion. The whole family **loved** it. The liquid smoke is a good touch. Don't bother sticking the meat under the grill / broiler. It won't caramelise post pressure cooking.

  • sarahawker on August 16, 2018

    LOVED this. Would eat this every day. Used Chicken thighs, I think the cooking time would be way too long for breasts.

  • purpleshiny on March 31, 2018

    This is good, but I prefer the chicken curry in Melissa Clark's Instant Pot book a bit more.

• Ground beef coconut curry and spinach (Kheema nariyal saag)

  • sarahawker on November 09, 2018

    Used kale in place of the spinach and it was very well received. Son said it was “Indian hamburger helper”

  • Skamper on August 25, 2018

    Another tasty dish from this book. Used the whole jalapeno, seeds and ribs removed. Also used reduced fat coconut milk and it worked well. Used 8 oz fresh chopped spinach, half before cooking and half after.

  • KristenS on May 05, 2020

    Pretty good, nice spice mix. Mine came out of the Instant Pot very liquidy (but not creamy).

• Spiced ground beef (Kheema matar)

  • dc151 on January 16, 2021

    Simple to pull together. Flavorful. Served with eggplant with bulgur from Ottolenghi's Simple.

• Indian rice pudding (Chawal ki kheer)

  • trmarvin on March 12, 2019

    Amazing - such a treat. Even better after a day in the fridge.