Instant Pot Masala Desi Chickpeas (Masala Desi Chana)

Instant Pot Masala Desi Chickpeas (Masala Desi Chana). Pressure cooker brown chickpeas, with a hint of garam masala.

Desi chickpeas are smaller than regular chickpeas, with a striking dark brown color. I discovered them when they showed up in my Rancho Gordo bean box - my favorite way to find new beans. And I’m cooking them in my Instant Pot, because pressure cooking is my favorite way to cook dried beans.

Jump to:

• 🥫Ingredients
• 🥘 Substitutions
• 🛠 Equipment
• 📏Scaling
• 🤨 Soaking desi chickpeas?
• Sorting Beans
• 💡Tips and Tricks
• Instant Pot Masala Desi Chickpeas (Masala Desi Chana)
• ☃️ Storage
• 🤝 Related Posts
• 💬 Comments

What should you do with desi chickpeas? They are great served plain as a side dish, with a little of their broth. They also make great hummus - substitute them for regular chickpeas in my hummus recipe.

🥫Ingredients

• Dried Desi Chickpeas
• Butter
• Garam Masala
• Baking soda

See recipe card for quantities.

🥘 Substitutions

Desi chickpeas are smaller and denser than "regular" chickpeas, with a dark brown color. If you can't find them, you can substitute regular chickpeas, or black chickpeas.

I add a hint of Indian flavors to the beans by toasting some garam masala spice blend in butter. If you want plain chickpeas, that’s fine - skip the butter and the masala. Like most beans cooked from dried, these beans have a lot of flavor on their own.

If you don't have garam masala spice blend, you can substitute an Indian curry powder. It won't be authentic garam masala spices, but it will still be good.

🛠 Equipment

A 6-quart pressure cooker. (Or larger - this recipe was originally cooked in my 10-quart stovetop pressure cooker, but I switched to full time Instant Pot use years ago.)

Pressure cooker dried beans are one of the reasons I became a pressure cooker convert. Try them - you’ll never go back to canned beans. (OK, maybe you will, for convenience - but see the Storage section for tips on make ahead freezer beans.)

📏Scaling

This recipe scales down easily - cut everything in half if you don’t need as many beans, or have a 3-quart pressure cooker. Scaling up runs into space issues; if you have an 8-quart pressure cooker, or larger, you can double this recipe, but it’s too much to fit in a 6-quart pressure cooker.

🤨 Soaking desi chickpeas?

These chickpeas a small, dense bean, so dense that I can’t give my usual “don’t bother soaking them before pressure cooking” instructions. They need an overnight soak to get tender, or at least a quick soak. (See the recipe for instructions). Even then, cooked to creaminess, these chickpeas still have a noticeable “al dente” resistance when biting into them.

Sorting Beans

Beans are an agricultural product, and stuff tends to creep in when they are processed. Beans should always be sorted and rinsed before using, to get rid of any twigs, stones, clumps of dirt, or broken beans.

To sort the beans, I pour them out on one side of a rimmed baking sheet (a half-sheet pan), to keep the beans from escaping. Then I slowly run my fingers through the pile of beans, pulling them towards me on the sheet. I watch the beans as they move, looking for anything that doesn't seem right. If I see something, I poke around in the beans until I find what caught my eye, and discard it. I repeat this a couple of times, until I'm satisfied everything is out of the beans.

Then I dump the beans into a fine mesh strainer and rinse them under cold running water, to wash off any dirt or dust still on the beans.

Now the beans are sorted, rinsed, and ready for soaking or cooking.

💡Tips and Tricks

• Salt your bean water! “Salt toughens beans” is a myth. Salting before cooking helps season the beans all the way through as they cook.
• If your beans are still tough when the cooking time is over, especially any “floaters” at the top of the pot, give the beans a stir, lock the lid, and pressure cook for another five minutes. Older beans take longer to cook, and if the beans have been sitting in the shelf at your store for a while, they may need extra time.
• Simmer to thicken: If you have the time, and want thicker bean liquid, simmer the beans for 20 minutes after pressure cooking. I set my Instant Pot to Sauté mode adjusted to low, set the timer to 20 minutes, and leave the lid off to let the broth evaporate.

Inspired by: Desi Chana from RanchoGordo.com

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☃️ Storage

A 2-cup container of cooked chickpeas, with cooking liquid, replaces a 15-ounce can of beans from the grocery store. They’ll last in the refrigerator for a few days, and freeze for up to 6 months. I always make extra beans, and freeze the leftovers for use in other recipes. Freezer beans are ready to use with about 5 minutes in the microwave, and are so much better than canned.

🤝 Related Posts

Instant Pot Royal Corona Beans
Instant Pot Garbanzos with Smoked Paprika
Instant Pot Spanish Farm Beans (Alubia Blanca De La Granja)
My other Instant Pot and Pressure Cooker Recipes

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