Instant Pot Veggie Curry
In this Instant Pot Veggie Curry Recipe, tender chunks of delicata squash, kale, red bell peppers and chick peas are enveloped in super rich tasting coconut and spice for the coziest (vegan) fall meal you ever did see (or taste.) Once the pressure-cooker comes to pressure, it only takes 3 minutes of cooking time! Hard to believe but try it and tasting is believing!
Table of contents
Why We Love This Veggie Curry
Friends, I think I may have to marry my Instant Pot. Don’t tell my husband. But seriously, it is so awesome! I am actually thinking of getting a second one so I don’t have to keep lugging it back and forth between my kitchen in my house, and the one in my studio. I already told you how I bought it when I shared my Instant Pot Cream of Cauliflower Soup recipe.
I love that I can just dump everything in, turn it on and then go into another room and fold laundry or help the kids clean up their massive pile of lego city. It is not only fast, but it is hands off. Which for a busy mom or dad, you know that is as good as gold.
This Instant Pot Veggie Curry is my latest success. I was so happy with the way it ended up working out. The veggies are tender, but still hold their shape. I am getting better at this! So exciting. {Side note: if you have any suggestions or requests for instant pot recipes I should work on next, let me know in the comments below!}
Key Ingredients For This Instant Pot Curry
Indian Curry powder + Spices
Indian curry powder is a spice blend that included ginger, cumin, garlic and turmeric. It is not uncommon for Indian families to have their own distinct blend.
In earlier tests of this Instant Pot Veggie Curry recipe, I found that the curry flavor itself was somewhat boring. I amped them up by adding in the whole mustard seeds (they add a pungent and astringent flavor that balances the sweetness from the maple and onion.) I also wanted more spice so I added some ginger and cayenne. Boom! So glad I did. Now it has just the right amount of pizzaz!
Light Coconut Milk
Coconut milk is shredded coconut flesh that is pureed with water and strained to make a rich and creamy liquid that adds body and flavor to recipes. Lite coconut milk has less fat than regular coconut milk.
Veggies
Delicata squash adds a tender sweetness to the curry, while the slightly sweet and crunchy texture of the red bell peppers and bitter peppery flavor of the curly kale all complement the flavor profile of the entire dish.
Cut the delicata squash into half-moons. They will hold their shape and provide an interesting texture to the final dish. Delicata squash is one of the winter squashes that doesn’t require peeling, so it is okay to leave the skin on. This also helps with the texture not being too one note and mashy.
Chickpeas
I also added in a can of chickpeas for a little extra protein and substance. Chickpeas add a nutty earthy flavor and creamy texture to the curry. And besides, who doesn’t love chickpeas in their curry!
Maple Syrup
Finish the curry with maple syrup. This is key to the balance of flavors. I love the way it helps to balance all the spice without negating it. I like to think of maple syrup as a heat enabler. Try it before and after, and you’ll see what I mean!
Other Ingredients For This Recipe
- 1 tablespoon avocado oil or coconut oil
- 1 large onion, diced
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 4 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 cup vegetable broth or no-chicken broth
- 2 tablespoons dark pure maple syrup, or brown sugar
- chopped fresh cilantro and cashews for garnish
Step By Step Instructions For Vegan Curry In The Instant Pot
Step 1: Sauté the onions, garlic, ginger and spices in the Instant Pot.
Set instant pot to sauté mode. Add oil and allow to heat. Add onion, mustard seeds and salt, and cook stirring often until the onion starts to brown, 4 to 5 minutes. Add garlic, curry powder, ginger and cayenne and cook, stirring often until the mixture is fragrant and the spice is starting to darken slightly, about 90 seconds.
Step 2: Add broth, coconut milk, veggies, chickpeas and maple syrup.
Stir in broth and coconut milk and stir until smooth. Add in squash, bell pepper, kale, chickpeas and maple syrup and stir to combine.
Step 3: Close the lid and cook.
To pressure cook the veggie curry, turn sauté mode off. Then cover the instant pot and set the valve to sealing. Set the instant pot to pressure cook for 3 minutes.
Let it come to pressure (this will take a little while- like 10 or 12 minutes) then it will beep and start counting down. Then it will beep once the time is up.
Step 4: Quick release the steam, stir and serve.
Carefully (with pot holders and a set of tongs) turn the valve to release, and watch in amazement as your entire house fills with steam and the most delicious curry aroma on the planet! Once it stops hissing and steaming. Remove the lid with a pot holder. Serve curry in bowls topped with cilantro and cashews.
FAQ’s and Expert Tips For This Recipe
Tips For Making Instant Pot Veggie Curry
- Build the Flavor: For the most deep rich curry flavor take a couple extra moments to sauté the onions and spices on sauté mode. The reason this is important is that the sugars in the onions start to caramelize, and become sweeter as they brown. Furthermore, the spices bloom in the hot oil, and taste stronger and less sharp and “raw.”
- Go Easy on the Broth. As the vegetables cook, they release their own liquid, so I didn’t want to add too much liquid. I found that one cup of veggie broth (I like Imagine No-Chicken) and one can of light coconut milk was enough to make this curry saucy but not soupy.
- Choose Your Favorite Veggies. The veggies I used were red bell pepper, kale and delicata squash. If you happen to prefer another medley of veggies, feel free to swap those into this Veggie Curry Recipe. It is fairly forgiving.
- Garnish. Top off the veggie curry bowls with chopped cilantro and cashews for fresh flavor contrast and crunch.
Can You Freeze Veggie Curry?
Yes you can! Here are some things to keep in mind:
- If you are planning to warm it back up all at once, then you can freeze it in one large container. I like to have thawed and reheated Veggie Curry for lunch, so what I do is I divide it into single servings in 2 cup resealable containers. The trick is to make sure you divide the veggies and broth evenly.
- Make sure the veggie curry is cool before you seal the container shut. Then freeze up to three months.
- Thaw in the fridge for a day then reheat until simmering hot. Top with cilantro and cashews before serving.
What To Serve with This Recipe
The servings in this recipe are just shy of two cups. A serving is only 277 calories, which is okay for a light lunch. But for dinner, you may want to add on to it. Here are some recommendations:
- If you are gluten-free these Gluten-Free Biscuits from Veggie Balance would be lovely.
- Simple brown basmati rice is always a classic and well-loved compliment to curry.
- I have been making this easy Whole Wheat Bread recipe a lot lately! It would be great for soaking up all that curry sauce!
- If you want to skip grains all-together you can make cauliflower rice from scratch, and ladle the veggie curry over it.
- If you’re needing something green to go with this Instant Pot Veggie Curry, these roasted green beans with almonds would be so yummy and savory.
- For dessert these Lemon Cranberry Cookies with white chocolate chips from Vegetarian Mama look amazing! Or my favorite dried apple and walnut oatmeal cookies are great for after a super cozy fall meal.
More Recipes You May Like
- If you are looking for more IP inspiration, check out this roundup of Healthy Instant Pot Recipes too!
- This Palak Paneer is also made in an Instant Pot.
- This Chickpea Tomato and Spinach Curry is another one to try.
- If you love your IP try our Instant Pot Minestrone.
- This recipe for Veggie Burrito Bowls is also made in the Instant Pot.
- Our Chicken Coconut Curry is an all-time favorite.
- This Curry Yogurt Chicken Thighs recipe is great for entertaining.
- If you are obsessed with barley like I am, try making Barley In An Instant Pot. It is so much faster!
At Healthy Seasonal Recipes, we specialize in cooking with fresh veggies and creating weeknight meals. Sign up HERE to get more produce-forward dinner ideas for FREE! If you make this recipe, please come back and leave a star rating and review. I would love to hear what you thought! Happy Cooking! ~Katie
PrintInstant Pot Veggie Curry
- Total Time: 28 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Description
Instant Pot Veggie Curry made with coconut milk, chickpeas, delicata squash, kale, red pepper and rich and spicy curry sauce. Naturally vegan and gluten-free.
Ingredients
1 tablespoon avocado oil or coconut oil
1 large onion, diced
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons Indian Curry powder
1 teaspoon grated ginger
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 cup vegetable broth or no-chicken broth
1 14-ounce can light coconut milk
1 large delicata squash, cut into small bite-sized chunks
1 red bell pepper, diced
4 cups chopped curly kale (no stems)
1 14-ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 tablespoons dark pure maple syrup, or brown sugar
chopped fresh cilantro and cashews for garnish
Instructions
- Set instant pot to sauté mode. Add oil and allow to heat. Add onion, mustard seeds and salt, and cook stirring often until the onion starts to brown, 4 to 5 minutes. Add garlic, curry powder, ginger and cayenne and cook, stirring often until the mixture is fragrant and the spice is starting to darken slightly, about 90 seconds.
- Stir in broth and coconut milk and stir until smooth. Add in squash, bell pepper, kale, chickpeas and maple syrup and stir to combine.
- Close lid, and turn pressure valve to sealed. Set to pressure cook high for 3 minutes.
- When timer goes off, carefully quick release the steam with a pot holder and tongs. Remove lid and stir. Serve curry in bowls topped with cilantro and cashews.
Notes
Freezing Tips: If you are planning to warm it back up all at once, then you can freeze it in one large container. I like to have thawed and reheated Veggie Curry for lunch, so what I do is I divide it into single servings in 2 cup resealable containers. The trick is to make sure you divide the veggies and broth evenly.
Make sure the veggie curry is cool before you seal the container shut. Then freeze up to three months.
Thaw in the fridge for a day then reheat until simmering hot. Top with cilantro and cashews before serving.
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 13
- Category: main course
- Method: instant pot
- Cuisine: Indian
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 3/4 cups
- Calories: 277
- Sugar: 14 g
- Fat: 12 g
- Saturated Fat: 6 g
- Carbohydrates: 36 g
- Fiber: 7 g
- Protein: 7 g
Wow, this recipe is amazing. I made it once for myself and it turned out amazing, then even better the second. I love how relatively easy and flexible it is, very filling and great for leftovers. I made it for my mom who’s a world class cook and when loved it too, which is the only proof I need this recipe is awesome. I’ll be checking out more recipes here for sure, thank you!
Wow I just made this it’s so delicious. I didn’t have chickpeas or cayenne pepper so used lentils and chilli flakes instead. The broth is really good. I expected it taste quite bland only using curry power but obviously the chilli and mustard seeds balance out so nicely with the maple. So quick easy and tasty
I am so happy to hear it. Thanks for coming back to leave the review and rating Lesley.
If I dont have any stalk, would the liquid from the can of of chickpeas be too overbearing?
I don’t think it would be overbearing. I say go for it! Let me know how it comes out Kel.
Absolutely delicious!! Easy to follow recipe. I tweaked it a bit but not too much. Came out fabulous. Can’t wait to try another recipe.
Hi Laura. I am so psyched to hear you liked this one! Yay!
This was easy and delicious. I used butternut squash.
Hi Lillian. That’s great to hear you liked and and I love knowing that Butternut worked as well. At this time of year, delicata is not as easy to find, and I am sure other folks would love to know that! I appreciate your coming back to review. That’s so nice of you! Thanks!!
Enjoyed by the whole family. Will make again.
That’s so great to hear! Thank you so much for coming back to rate and review Nisha. I really appreciate it!
I added a chopped up mango to this recipe. Added to an already wonderful flavor.
I LOVE the idea of adding mango. I will have to try that next time. Thank you for coming back to report on how it went. So glad you loved it! Have a great day and happy new year!
Great recipe Katie and you have the honour of being the provider of my very first Instant Pot recipe – just finished it and easy peasy but so very nice, the wife has just had a massive bowl so I earned some points there
Thanks, from the UK
That is so completely cool Chris and I am totally honored. Thanks too for coming back to rate and review. I really appreciate it.
It says “indian curry”. Do you mean madras curry powder? Regular curry powder you see in just about every store? What specific type of curry powder when you say “indian curry powder”? there are many different types.
Hi Megan- Thanks for asking that. Regular grocery store curry powder works great. Madras would be wonderful as well, however I think you may want to omit the cayenne in that case since it is spicier. I also really love these Indian spice blends from a small craft spice company http://www.teenytinyspice.com/organic-indian-spice-blends-gift-pack/ They are awesome! My favorite is their British curry.
Yum! This recipe looks so healthy yet so hearty! I also love a good meal that can “cook itself” for most of the time. Thanks for sharing 🙂
I love that expression: cook itself! Hands off cooking is a life-saver!
I’m always looking for new ways to use my Instant Pot! Can’t wait to try this!
Thanks Tayler! I hope you’ll come back and let me know how it goes!
I do not have an instant pot but this post is making me want to run out and grab one. This dish looks great!
I waited to buy one for so long too. I am really glad to have it now. It is so fast and so easy! I don’t know why I was so scared.
Loving all the colours going on here. I really need to get myself an instant pot.
This curry looks sooo good. So comforting and perfect for cold days. I love all the veggies and flavor combos. I bet this tastes amazing as it looks. Lovely recipe. Saving to try.
Thanks for the ideas. I added lime juice when serving – brightened up the dish considerably.
Yummy nice way to use the delicata pumpkin and also a genius idea to use the Instant Pot so convenient and easy. I need a bowl please =)