Instant Pot Indian Black Eyed Pea Curry (Lobia Masala)

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Cooking With Anadi

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As I’m writing this Lobia Masala recipe, Mother’s Day is a week away! I wanted to dedicate this recipe to my mom! I first had this dish from my school cafeteria. I loved it so much and begged my mom to make it for my sister and I at home. Her version was amazing, and I couldn’t get enough of it! Before this recipe, I didn’t eat legumes very often. I loved Rajma Masala and Restaurant-Style Dal Makhani (psst, where both can be made in the Instant Pot as well!), but that was pretty much it. This Lobia Masala recipe opened up my eyes for sure!

If you’re looking to treat your mother to a vegetarian delight, then get out your Instant Pot and make this dish for a very comforting Sunday lunch or dinner! Yes, this is a homestyle recipe without any lavish spices or cream here, but to me Mother’s Day screams simple comfort food. Let’s celebrate all the hard work and unconditional love provided by our moms and give them a wholesome and healthy meal! Just because it’s a special occasion doesn’t mean you should spend lots of time slaving away in the kitchen. After all, it is Mother’s Day, and you want to have as much time as you can with your mother on this wonderful day! Let me know if your mother played a role in your cooking journey! She sure did with mine!

With this lobia masala recipe made in the Instant Pot, all you need is a blender to make a puree that will be the base for your gravy. Then, the Instant Pot takes over, and this tastes as extremely delicious, if not even yummier, than the traditional stove top recipe! Take advantage of the minimal clean-up and effort and prepare a wonderful side dish to go with this! Bond with your mother and prepare some Homestyle Rotis or Light & Healthy Vegetable Pulao to make this a complete meal!

Why Make Instant Pot Punjabi Lobia?

I say this all the time with my Instant Pot recipes but the main reason you’ll want to make it is to SAVE TIME & DISHES! With that being said, there are plenty of reasons why you should make this Instant Pot Lobia Masala:

• The obvious, saves time & dishes
• Excellent choice for busy nights when you don’t want to clean but want a hearty meal
• High in protein and fiber
• Gluten-free and can be vegan (if you substitute the ghee with other cooking oil)
• No soaking required!

Yes, you don’t need to soak your lobia! That’s a great bonus for me! I’ll admit, I’m someone who often forgets to soak my beans, or I decide what to eat for dinner last minute. So, you don’t have to skip out on having this amazing black eyed peas curry if you didn’t plan ahead. Yay!

Don’t have an Instant Pot? Don’t worry! This recipe can easily be adapted to be prepared just as well without one. All you’ll need is a stove top pressure cooker to cook your black eyed peas, and you can prepare the masala in a deep pan or wok. More details can be found in my Punjabi Lobia Masala recipe! Do keep in mind, however, that if you’re going to pressure cook your black eyed peas over the stove, then I highly recommend you do soak your lobia. That’s the key difference.

Tips & Tricks for Instant Pot Lobia Masala

• Make sure the onion masala is cooked well before adding the black eyed peas. The masala should be fluffy and slide around the pan easily. To help cook the masala, add a splash of water if the mixture starts to stick.
• Mango powder/Amchur is tangy, so add a small bit at a time, taste, and add more as per your preference
• This curry is very mildly spiced, so don’t overdo the amount of spices you put in the curry. The sweetness from the onions and tomatoes will play well with the creaminess of the beans.

Tools Needed

• Instant pot
• Food processor
• Garlic press
• Measuring cups
• Wooden spoon
• Knife
• Cutting board

Ingredients for Instant Pot Black Eyed Peas Curry

For the Lobia

• Black eyed peas or lobia
• Bay leaf
• Cloves
• Cinnamon stick
• Turmeric
• Salt to taste
• Water as needed

For the Curry

• Onions
• Tomatoes
• Ginger
• Garlic
• Cumin seeds
• Ghee
• Hing
• Red chili powder
• Ground coriander
• Mango powder
• Garam masala
• Turmeric
• Green chilies (optional): these are an extra for anyone who wants more heat than the red chili powder gives. They are not on the recipe card, so add them to taste.
• Cilantro, for garnish

How to Prepare Punjabi Lobia in the Instant Pot?

1. Add onion, ginger and garlic to a food processor, add a bit of water to get the blades moving and puree. Set aside.
2. Add tomatoes to the same blender, puree and set aside.
3. Set Instant Pot to Saute mode on Normal and add ghee, along with the whole spices (cloves, bay leaf, cinnamon and cumin seeds). Add pinch of hing as well.
4. Cook until spices are reddish brown and aromatic. Add the onion, ginger, garlic puree and mix well.
5. Add turmeric and ground coriander and cook until mixture turns most of the moisture has cooked out. The masala should be golden brown, fluffy and slide around the pan easily. Add a splash of water as needed if mixture starts to stick.
6. Add the lobia/black eyed peas and mix well. Then, add pureed tomatoes, 2-2 1/2 Cups water, degi mirch, and salt.
7. Mix well and select Cancel on the Instant Pot. Close the lid, make sure knob is on Sealing mode and set the Instant Pot to Bean & Chili mode. Cook for 19 minutes.
8. Once the timer goes off, let the pressure release naturally, about 15-20 minutes.
9. Open the lid and mix well. Set the Instant Pot to Saute mode and season with salt as needed, mango powder and garam masala.
10. Add in cilantro for garnish and simmer until the gravy reaches your desired consistency.

Serving Suggestions for Instant Pot Lobia Masala

I usually serve my Lobia Masala with Plain Steamed Rice. However, there are many ways you can serve this lobia masala! As it’s a homestyle dish, we’ll usually serve with homestyle breads, such as Classic Homestyle Roti/Chapati/Phulka or Classic Layered Paratha. You could serve with a stuffed paratha, however, such as Aloo Paratha or Paneer Paratha!

Feel free to serve with a rice dish of your choice, such as Jeera Rice Pulao or even a Light & Healthy Vegetable Pulao.

Bean and Chili Mode, Not Manual, and Why the Pressure Comes Down on Its Own

The card names a preset rather than a number. You are not reaching for Manual and dialing in high pressure yourself - you select Bean and Chili mode and set the pressure cook time to 19 minutes, and the preset handles the rest. Before any of that, hit Cancel to come off Saute, close the lid, and check the knob is in the Sealing position. A valve left in any other seal position will sit there venting and never come up to pressure, which is the single most common way this goes wrong.

When the timer goes off, do nothing. The recipe asks for a natural pressure release, about 15 to 20 minutes, letting the remaining pressure drop on its own rather than venting it. There are no whistles to count here either - that is a stovetop pressure cooker measure, and every number on this card is an Instant Pot number. Anadi covers the stovetop swap further up the post if that is what you own.

The dry beans go in dry. One cup of lobia straight from the bag, with no hour soak time and no drain step anywhere in the method, which also means the 2 to 2 1/2 cups of water is doing double duty: it is the cooking liquid and it is the gravy.

No Coconut Milk, No Cashews, No Cream: What a Homestyle Lobia Leaves Out

This is a deliberately plain curry and it is worth knowing what is not in it. There is no coconut milk, no cashew paste, no cream and no addition of butter at the end. The only fat is 2 tablespoons of ghee at the very start, and nothing enriching goes in after that. Anadi says as much in the introduction - a homestyle recipe without lavish spices or cream. Swap the ghee for coconut oil and the whole thing is vegan.

The body of the sauce is doing that work instead: an onion, ginger and garlic puree cooked down until it is golden brown and sliding around the pot, then 3 pureed tomatoes. The creaminess people taste in a good lobia is the beans themselves breaking down, not dairy. There are no other vegetables in it either - no carrots, no kale, no collard greens. And lobia is not a lentil, so it does not behave like one.

For a thicker curry there is no cornstarch and no slurry. You come back to Saute mode at the end and simmer it down to whatever gravy consistency you want, which also gives you the chance to taste and correct the salt.

Rongi, Chawli, Lobia: One Bean With Several Names

Lobia is what this bean is called in Hindi and Punjabi. Across much of north india you will also hear rongi, and in Marathi and Gujarati kitchens it is chawli. Botanically they are cowpeas, and English-language shops sell them as black eyed peas or black-eyed beans. Same bean, and any of those names will bring you to the same indian style black eyed pea curry.

Among indian pulses it sits in the beans family rather than with the dals, which is why it wants 19 minutes under pressure and why the finishing spices go in afterwards rather than being poured over as a tadka. This is a very basic everyday dish in north indian homes rather than a special-occasion one, which is exactly what makes it a popular dish - it is a hearty north indian black eyed peas curry built from things already in the cupboard, with no fancy ingredients on the list.

Worth saying that this is not the southern united states version. There, black eyed peas turn up on new years day for good luck, usually alongside collard greens and pork. Same bean, completely different plate.

Where Each Spice Goes In, and What to Do With the Leftovers

The spices are split across three moments, and the order is most of the recipe. First the whole aromatic spices bloom in the ghee on Saute mode: a bay leaf, 2 cloves, a 2 cm cinnamon stick, 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds and a pinch of hing, cooked until they are reddish brown and you can smell them. Then 1 teaspoon of turmeric powder and 1 teaspoon of ground coriander go in with the onion tomato gravy and cook down with it. Only once the pressure is fully down do the finishing spices arrive, back on Saute: 1 teaspoon of garam masala powder and 1/2 teaspoon of amchur. Those two wait because nineteen minutes under pressure would flatten them, and the amchur is tangy enough that you want to add it a little at a time and taste.

One detail that is easy to skim past: the onion, ginger and garlic go in as a puree, not chopped and not from a jar of garlic pastes. Food processor, a splash of water to get the blades moving, then the tomatoes pureed in the same bowl so you are not washing it twice.