Vegan Instant Pot Butter Chicken

A plate of instant pot butter chicken made vegan with tofu and accompanied with rice and garnished with cilantro.

Vegan Instant Pot Butter Chicken

This is the BEST vegan version of Instant Pot Butter Chicken - using whole food ingredients like bell peppers, carrots, and onions. It's got a mild creamy flavor with the addition of canned coconut milk.

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Servings servings

Calories 147kcal

Equipment

Pressure cooker
Immersion blender

Ingredients

1 16oz block firm tofu
2 red bell peppers
1 green bell pepper
4 carrots
1 white onion
1 red onion
3 Tbsp tomato paste
1 cup water
1.5 cups canned coconut milk
1 Tbsp curry powder

Instructions

Chop up all of the peppers, onion, and carrots, and add them to the Instant Pot. Add in the tomato paste, water, and curry powder. Drain the tofu and place it on top of the veggies.
Close and seal the lid of the Instant Pot and cook at high pressure for 20 minutes. Do a quick release when done.
Carefully remove the tofu and a third of the veggies. Chop up the tofu into bite-sized pieces.
Add the canned coconut milk into the Instant Pot and use an immersion blender to blend until it's smooth. Then add in the chopped tofu and the reserved veggies. Enjoy with rice, naan, and a garnish of chopped cilantro (coriander leaves) if desired. Keeps in the fridge up to 3 days.

Notes

You can use whatever colors of peppers you want, or whatever you have on hand. If you don't use any red peppers the end result may not be as orange/reddish as in my photos but it will still taste good!
It's important to use a good quality canned coconut milk. Cheaper cans will just make the runnier without adding richness.
For a vegetarian version of Instant Pot butter chicken, use paneer instead of tofu. Just add it at the end, don't cook it with the veggies.

Nutrition