Instant pot Aloo Matar | Indian Potato and Peas Curry (Instant pot & Stove top)

Instant pot Aloo matar is a very simple and every day comfort food made with potatoes and green peas in onion and tomato masala. This is a Vegan and Gluten free home style recipe which is very easy and quick to make, yet delectable. Ready on table in 30 mins.

There are so many different recipes for potato in India that it is very difficult to keep track. I guess it's wide range of availability, budget friendly price and good shelf life makes it a very highly used vegetable.

Aloo matar ( Aloo is potato and matar is green peas) is a very common dish which is made all over India in different styles with slight differences in the combination of spices used. This recipe is made using very simple spices which are available easily in many of our pantries which makes it a prefect weeknight dinner option.

Aloo Matar Facts

• Easy and Quick
• Vegan and gluten free
• Uses very basic spices and easily available ingredients
• Can be served with many different foods like roti, naan, paratha, jeera rice, pulao, basmati rice or even with dosa.
• Last but not least very kid friendly !! ( We all know how tough this is to achieve🙂 )

How to make Aloo Matar in Instant pot

Start with chopping onion, green chilli, tomato and potatoes. Chop onion and tomato into small pieces. Dice the potatoes into medium size cubes as seen in the curry images below and put them in water until ready to use to avoid discoloration by oxidation.

Slit the green chilli into half ( I always prefer slitting green chillies than cutting into small pieces as it is easy to discard them in the end for the sake of kids ).

Turn on the Instant pot in saute mode and wait until it is hot. Add oil, when it is hot add whole spices, curry leaves, turmeric powder, sauté for a minute and add onions and green chilli with little salt. Saute for couple mins and add ginger garlic paste.

After a min add coriander powder, red chilli powder and garam masala powder and combine well. Deglaze the pot by adding 2 to 3 tbsp water if required and add tomato pieces with a little salt. Cook for 3 to 4 mins until tomatoes are a little soft. Now add potato cubes, green peas, coconut milk, water, salt and close the instant pot lid.

Cancel saute mode and set on manual mode for 4 mins on high pressure. Close the vent. Once the instant pot turns off, let the pressure release naturally for 5 mins and then do a quick release manually.

Once all the pressure is released and the pin drops, open the lid, check the taste for salt and spices and garnish with cilantro to serve.

Adjusting the spice levels

This aloo matar ( or aloo mutter ) curry is moderately spiced, I would say little more than medium spice level. If you want to adjust the spice levels as per your taste, follow the below instructions.

To increase the spice level : Add ½ tsp more of red chilli powder and ½ tsp more of coriander powder. I suggest adding one of these and taste before you add the other to make sure you don't make it over spicy.

To reduce the spice level : Skip the green chilli. If you want to make it very mild spiced then additionally reduce the coriander powder to ½ tsp instead of 1 tsp.

Variations

You can reduce the amount of potato and add mixed vegetables like carrot, cauliflower, beans to this recipe at the same time as potato to make this a mix vegetable masala curry

You can add mushrooms or cauliflower( gobi ) or paneer in place of potatoes to make this mushroom matar masala or gobi matar masala or paneer matar masala.

Same cooking time as this recipe will work for Mix vegetables, mushrooms and paneer but if you are making gobi matar masala then cook on manual mode for only 2 mins instead of 4 mins.

Serving ideas for Indian Potato and Green peas curry

This can be served with many things. Some ideas are given below.

• Roti or naan or paratha
• Plain basmati rice
• Pulao
• Jeera rice or coconut rice or any mildly flavored rice
• Dosa ( Dosa with this aloo matar curry is our family's regular dinner )

Try my Tomato Mint Coconut Rice with this curry if you want to make it a special meal and serve it with some yogurt or raita.

Cook jeera rice ( Cumin Rice ) or plain basmati rice pot in pot on a trivet along with this curry ( cooking time is same for both this curry and rice ) and you have your delicious one pot meal ready in no time.

Storage

Store it in an air tight container in refrigerator and it can stay fresh up to 4 or 5 days.

Also it can be made 1 or 2 days in advance if you want to make it for an event. Just make sure to store it in a air tight container in refrigerator after cooling it until you are ready to use it.

Scaling

This recipe is made in 8 qt instant pot Duo model.

• If you are cooking in 3 qt Instant pot then half the recipe and make sure the contents are not exceeding the max filling line before closing the lid.
• If you are cooking in 6 qt, you can follow the same recipe without any overfilling problems.

Recipe

Instant pot Aloo Matar | Indian Potato and Peas Curry (Instant pot & Stove top)

Yamini

Aloo Matar or Indian style Potato and Green peas curry is an everyday comfort dish made with very basic spices and ingredients. Making it in instant pot makes it an even more easy and quick dish than it already is.

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Prep Time 5 mins

Cook Time 25 mins

Course Main Course

Cuisine Indian

Servings 8

Ingredients

  

• 2 lb potatoes I used 8 medium size Yukon gold potatoes
• 1 big onion chopped finely
• 1 big tomato chopped finely
• 1 cup green peas
• 2 inch cinnamon stick
• 3 cloves
• 4 cardamom whole
• ½ tsp cumin seeds
• ¼ tsp turmeric powder
• 1 sprig Curry leaves
• 1 slit green chilli
• 1 tsp ginger garlic paste
• 1 tsp coriander powder ground coriander
• ½ tsp red chilli powder
• ¼ tsp garam masala
• ¾ cup light coconut milk
• ½ cup water
• Cilantro for garnishing

Instructions

 

Instant pot Method 

• Start with chopping onion and tomato finely, slit the green chilli ( I always prefer slitting green chillies than cutting into small pieces as it is easy to discard them in the end for the sake of kids ), and dice the potatoes into 1 to 1.5-inch cubes. Place the potatoes in water until ready to use to avoid discolouration by oxidation.
• Turn on the Instant pot in saute mode and wait until it is hot. Add 2 tsp oil, when it is hot and add 2-inch cinnamon stick, 4 cardamom, 3 cloves, ½ tsp cumin seeds, 1 sprig curry leaves and ¼ tsp turmeric powder.
• Sauté for a minute and add onions and green chilli with ½ tsp salt.
• Saute for a couple of minutes and add 1 tsp ginger garlic paste and mix well.
• After a minute add 1 tsp coriander powder, ½ tsp red chilli powder, ¼ tsp garam masala powder and combine well.
• Deglaze the pot by adding 2 to 3 tbsp water if required and then add tomato pieces with a little salt. Cook covered (use a normal glass or steel lid which fits instant pot and not the instant pot lid )for 3 to 4 mins until tomatoes are little soft.
• Now add potato cubes, green peas, coconut milk, water, salt to taste ( start with 1.5 tsp and add more at the end if needed ) and close the instant pot lid. Seal the vent.
• Cancel sauté mode and set on manual mode for 4 mins on high pressure. Once the cooking process is done and the instant pot turns off, let the pressure release naturally for 5 mins and then do a quick release manually by turning the vent from seal to vent position.
• Once all the pressure is released and the pin drops, open the lid, check the taste for salt and spices and garnish with cilantro to serve. Serve with roti, naan, puri, dosa, jeera rice or pulao as suggested in the serving ideas above.

Stovetop Method

• Follow the same procedure until step 7 but instead of cooking in the instant pot, cook it on a pan on stovetop. Once you add all the ingredients cook covered while stirring frequently on low to medium heat for around 10 to 15 mins or until potatoes are cooked thoroughly. 

Notes

• Dice the potatoes into a minimum size of 1 to 1.5 inch cubes or else they will be mashed when cooked.
• Skip the green chilli and half the amount of coriander powder to reduce the spice level and to increase the spice level, increase the amount of coriander powder and if required red chili powder.
• Turn on the instant pot saute mode before vegetable chopping so you can save time. Chop the onions, chilli and tomato while the instant pot gets hot and dice the potatoes while the onions and tomatoes are cooking.

Keyword Aloo Matar Recipe, Indian style potato and green peas curry, Instant pot potato curry

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