Madras Lentils / Daal Makhani With Brown Rice - Instant Pot

Madras Lentils/Daal Makhani 

with Brown Rice - Instant Pot

A creamy lentil dish cooked with whole black lentils and kidney beans, lightly spiced to enjoy as a chili or over rice!  My new toy, an electric pressure cooker called Instant Pot.

 Course Main Course

 Cuisine Indian

 Prep Time 10 minutes

 Cook Time 50 minutes

 Total Time 1 hour

 Servings 6

 Author Archana Mundhe

Ingredients

Ingredients for Madras Lentils/Daal Makhani:

1 cup Black Gram Beans/adzuki beans/whole brown lentils
1/3 cup Red Kidney Beans
1 tablespoon oil ghee or coconut oil
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 cup finely diced onion
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
2 tablespoon fresh ginger grated
2 cups diced tomatoes
2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoon kashmiri red chili powder
1/2 cup light cream or coconut cream or cashew cream
1 teaspoon garam masala optional for non-spicy lentils
cilantro for garnish
Rice:

1 cup brown rice
1 tsp salt

Directions:
Rinse and soak black gram beans and red kidney beans in 3 cups of water. Overnight or 6-8 hours. Drain the water after soaking and keep the beans aside.

Set Instant Pot to Sauté (more) mode. Once the "Hot" sign displays, add oil and cumin seeds. Add onions and mix well.

Add turmeric powder, fresh ginger, tomatoes, salt, red chili powder and beans. Mix well.

Add 2 cups of water.

For pot in pot rice (optional)
Rinse and drain rice. Add rice, 2 cups of water and salt in a stainless steel container.

Put a tall trivet ( I have a 2.75 inch one from amazon) over the beans.

Place rice container on the trivet.

Close Instant Pot with pressure valve to sealing. Cook on Manual(Hi) for 30 minutes followed by Natural Pressure Release.

Open Instant Pot and set to saute mode.
Carefully take out the Rice container and the trivet.
Stir in cream, add garam masala (optional) and garnish with cilantro.

Recipe Notes

Notes to make a more authentic daal makhani:

1.Add 1/2 tablespoon of cumin powder, 1/2 tablespoon coriander powder, 1 tablespoon of minced garlic along with ginger and red chili powder. 2. Add 1 tablespoon kasoori methi {dried fenugreek leaves} along with fresh cilantro in the end. 3. You can also add more or less red chili powder and garam masala to adjust the spice level.

Notes to make dairy free: 1. Replace ghee with oil 2. Use coconut cream or cashew cream(blend cashews in water)

I prefer soaking the beans overnight. If you decide to cook them unsoaked, increase the cook time to 60 minutes.