An easy peasy Instant Pot Indian beef curry recipe, well flavored with spices. An authentic Kerala style beef curry pressure cooked in an Instant Pot. It goes well with chapati, parotta/paratha, pathiri (rice bread), any rice variants ( pulao, ghee rice, regular rice), appam (rice pancake) or any other Indian breads. This curry works out well for Paleo/Gluten-free/Keto lifestyle. It can accompany low carb cauliflower rice.
Check out other beef recipes:
Instant Pot Beef Fry
Beef curry with potato and coconut milk
Beef Fry
Beef Biriyani
Beef and Tapioca Biriyani
If you are new to Instant Pot, it's a multi-purpose cooker. It can operate as a pressure cooker, slow cooker, rice cooker, yogurt maker, saute pan, steamer, and food warmer. In this recipe, I used it as a Saute Pan and a pressure cooker. I don't use a non-electric pressure cooker anymore. Instant Pot is incredible and makes your life easy. I use Instant Pot DUO80.
Ingredients
- 2 lb beef
- 1 number onion (large size)
- 3 number green chilly
- salt
- 2 sprig curry leaves
- 1 cup water
- 3 tablespoon coriander leaves or cilantro leaves
Grind
- 1 ½ tablespoon ginger (crushed/paste)
- 1 ½ tablespoon garlic (crushed/paste)
- ½ teaspoon pepper powder
- 1 tablespoon chilli powder
- 1 ½ tablespoon coriander powder
- ½ teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1 teaspoon garam masala
- 1 teaspoon fennel powder
- 1 tablespoon vinegar (optional)
Instructions
- Prepare Ingredients - Cut beef into 1.5" cube pieces. Chop onion into small pieces. Slice green chilly.
- Grind together ingredients listed under grind section - ginger, garlic, pepper powder, chilli powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder, garam masala, fennel powder, vinegar.
- Heat 1 tablespoon oil in the Instant Pot on SAUTE mode MORE setting. When oil is hot, add the sliced onions, green chillies, curry leaves, and salt. Adding salt helps the onion to get cooked fast. Saute it until onions are lightly brown. When the onion starts sticking to the pot, change the Instant Pot setting to SAUTE mode LOW setting. Refer notes on how to change the setting.
- Add the prepared grinded mixture and fry well. Continue in the SAUTE mode LOW setting. Add oil, as needed.
- Add water and add enough salt to the gravy. Mix well. Then add beef and mix it. Close the Instant Pot lid, move the valve to SEAL and cook on MANUAL HIGH-PRESSURE setting for 8 minutes. Refer the notes on time setting.
- Once the timer goes off, either do a NATURAL PRESSURE RELEASE or a QUICK PRESSURE RELEASE after 10 minutes. Refer notes for instructions on natural and quick release.
- Switch the Instant Pot to SAUTE mode NORMAL setting. Onion gets mashed into the gravy, by this time. Add coriander leaves and boil till gravy has thick consistency as you desire. If you want to make it spicier, add some more pepper powder at this time. ** Coriander leaves are optional.
- Serve it with boiled rice, neychoru/ghee rice, appam, parotta, puttu or chappathi. Enjoy 🙂
Notes
- Instant Pot SAUTE mode setting: You can vary the temperature of the SAUTE mode by using the ADJUST button to cycle through the modes of LESS, NORMAL, and MORE. This is equivalent to low, medium and high heat. Note that the temperature mode must be adjusted within 10 seconds of pressing the SAUTE button. If you want to change the heat setting of SAUTE mode from HIGH temperature to LOW temperature, CANCEL the current SAUTE function. Then program again on SAUTE mode LOW setting. Be cautious, in SAUTE mode, you are not supposed to use Instant Pot lid.
- Instant Pot Pressure Cook Time Setting - I used 1.5 " beef pieces. 8 minutes of pressure cooking time was more than enough for me. If you are using beef with bigger pieces, you should increase the pressure cooking time to 10 minutes or even more.
- Instant Pot Natural & Quick Pressure Release - For natural pressure release, allow the float valve to drop off without doing anything. It would take some time, around 30 minutes or so. For quick pressure release, once the timer goes off, leave it as it is for 10 minutes. Then turn the valve from sealing to venting and allow the steam to release the pressure until the float valve drops off.
- Non-Electric Pressure Cooker - If you want to use a non-electric pressure cooker, pressure cook up to 2 whistles or until beef is cooked. Instant Pot just makes your life easier.
I tried it and came out very well. Very tasty! Thanks Jane!
Thanks for trying it out, @jincy_joseph Can you contribute a picture? Happy to hear that you loved it
Yet to try this recipe. Curious to know…how is instant pot easier to use than a regular pressure cooker? Is it the cleaning, cooking time ? I understand it is multi purpose…On the fence about buying one
You won’t regret it, I’m sure. Cooking in Instant Pot is much more comfortable. Like in a regular cooker, you don’t have to count the whistles. In an Instant Pot, once it finishes the programmed time, it goes to the Keep Warm mode. In short, your presence is not needed, once you have scheduled the time. Cleaning is much easier. Cooking time is slightly less than the regular pressure cooker.
Thank you for the response. Marry Christmas!
Merry Christmas!! ha ha …typos
What type of Mixi/grinder/blender do you use to wet grind? I’m having a tough time trying to buy one.Please help. Thanks
My son who is just starting to cook and dabble in following recipes tried this recipe out. I was there to provide support. Really easy recipe and the result was excellent. I don’t use the Instant Pot a lot, but now I will use it more after seeing how easy and the wonderful results.
Thanks a lot for trying it out!! Happy to hear that you liked it.
This came out very well, absolutely delicious. I transferred to a wide shallow pan at the end to reduce the gravy on the stove top. Went together well with “mother’s” brand line pickle
Super recipe works very well in 6qt instant pot.
Thanks a lot for trying it out and uploading the pic!