Green peas masala recipe with step by step photos – an almost restaurant-style delicious recipe of green peas curry. Almost restaurant like as the recipe does not have onions and garlic. Though, if you want you can add onions and garlic. Makes for a comforting meal when paired with some roti, naan or rice.
This matar masala recipe does not use butter or cream like most of the restaurant style recipes I have posted. Cashews and milk powder are added to make this gravy creamy, smooth and slightly sweet. I made the gravy a bit spicy, but you can always add the amount of spices as per your tastebuds. The gravy tastes similar to Paneer butter Masala gravy.
Usually I combine peas with other veggies to make dishes like Aloo Matar, Matar Paneer or gobi matar. But at times I just make a gravy like this recipe or make a dry peas curry. For best taste use fresh green peas. However, you can also use frozen green peas if they are not in season.
Serve peas masala with roti, naan or phula. You can also serve green peas masala with jeera rice or saffron rice or ghee rice.
How to make Green Peas Curry
Preparation
1. First soak 10 to 12 cashews in warm water for 20 to 30 minutes. Use whole cashews.
2. When the cashews are soaking, steam the fresh peas in a pan or a steamer till they are tender and softened. You can steam them in a steamer or a stovetop pressure cooker or in the Instant Pot.
If cooking in a pressure cooker, then cook for 2 whistles adding water as needed. You can also use frozen peas.
3. Later drain all the water from the cashews. Add the cashews together with 1.5 cups chopped tomatoes in a blender or grinder jar.
4. Without adding any water, grind to a fine and smooth paste. Keep the tomato-cashew paste aside.
Make Masala Base
5. Heat 3 tablespoons oil in a pan. Lower the heat and then add the whole garam masala or whole spices:
- 1 tej patta
- 2 cloves
- 2 green cardamoms
- 1 inch cinnamon
- 1 or 2 single strands of mace (optional)
Fry for some seconds on low heat till the spices become fragrant.
6. Then add 1 to 1.5 ginger+green chili paste and a generous pinch of asafoetida (hing). Stir and sauté on low heat till the raw aroma of ginger and green chilies go away.
7. Now add the tomato-cashew paste.
8. Stir and mix the paste well.
9. The mixture splutters a lot while sautéing, so cover the pan with a lid and cook this masala mixture, till it stops spluttering on a low heat.
10. Meanwhile in a small bowl whisk 2 tablespoons of fresh whole milk curd (yogurt) till smooth.
11. Stir and sauté the masala paste on a low to medium heat, till it thickens and you see oil specks on top and oil releasing from the sides.
12. Then add the below listed ground spices:
- ½ teaspoon turmeric powder
- ½ to ¾ teaspoon red chili powder (add as per taste)
- 1 teaspoon cumin powder
- 1 teaspoon coriander powder
- ½ teaspoon garam masala powder
12. Stir and sauté for a minute.
13. Now lower the heat or you can opt to turn the heat off. Add whisked or beaten curd (yogurt).
14. As soon as you add the curd, stir quickly with a ladle or spatula so that the curd does not split.
15. Stir the curd very well with the whole mixture. Remember to add beaten curd on a low heat and keep on stirring quickly and continuously till the entire curd is mixed and incorporated evenly in the masala paste.
16. Add 1 cup water. Stir and mix thoroughly to make an even gravy.
Make Green Peas Masala
17. Then add the cooked green peas.
18. Season with salt as needed.
19. Stir and mix everything very well.
20. Add 2 tablespoons milk powder.
Instead of milk powder, khoya or mawa (milk solids) can be added. But remember to add khoya and sauté it after the tomato-cashew paste is cooked through.
21. Stir and again.
22. Bring the peas masala curry to a simmer on a low to medium heat. About 5 to 6 minutes on a low to medium heat after you add the milk powder.
23. Lastly add ½ teaspoon kasuri methi (dry fenugreek leaves), which has been crushed. Stir the curry and switch off the heat.
Garnish with coriander leaves and serve green peas masala with chapati, tandoori roti, naan or roomali roti.
You can also serve green peas curry with steamed rice or jeera rice or biryani rice or ghee rice.
More curry recipes
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Green Peas Masala | Green Peas Curry
Ingredients
for tomato-cashew paste
- 3 tomatoes (medium to large) – 250 grams tomatoes or 1.5 cups chopped tomatoes
- 10 to 12 cashews
other ingredients
- 1 cup matar or 140 grams matar (peas)
- 1 to 1.5 teaspoon ginger+green chili paste or ½ inch ginger + 1 to 2 green chilies – crushed to a paste in a mortar-pestle
- 2 tablespoon Curd beaten (yogurt)
- 2 tablespoon milk powder or dairy whitener
- 1 generous pinch asafoetida (hing)
- ½ teaspoon turmeric powder
- ½ to ¾ teaspoon red chili powder
- 1 teaspoon cumin powder
- 1 teaspoon Coriander Powder
- ½ teaspoon Garam Masala
- ½ teaspoon kasuri methi – crushed (dry fenugreek leaves)
- 1 cup water
- 3 tablespoon oil
- salt as required
whole spices
- 1 tej patta
- 2 cloves
- 2 green cardamoms
- 1 inch cinnamon
- 1 or 2 single strands of mace – optional
Instructions
Preparation
- First soak 10 to 12 cashews in warm water for 20 to 30 minutes.
- When the cashews are soaking, steam the fresh peas till they are cooked completely. You can steam them in a steamer or pressure cooker. If cooking in a pressure cooker, then cook for 2 whistles.
- Later drain the water from cashews and add the cashews along with 1.5 cups chopped tomatoes in a blender or grinder jar.
- Without adding any water, grind to a fine and smooth paste. Keep the ground tomato-cashew paste aside.
Making masala base
- Heat 3 tbsp oil in a pan. Then add the whole garam masala – 1 tej patta, 2 cloves, 2 green cardamoms, 1 inch cinnamon, 1 or 2 single strands of mace (optional). Sauté till the spice become fragrant.
- Then add 1 to 1.5 ginger+green chili paste and a generous pinch of asafoetida. Stir and fry on low heat till the raw aroma of ginger and green chilies go away.
- Now add the tomato-cashew paste. Stir and mix the paste well.
- The mixture splutters a lot while sauteing, so cover the pan with a lid and cook this masala mixture, till it stops spluttering.
- Meanwhile in a small bowl whisk 2 tbsp of fresh full fat curd till smooth.
- Stir and saute the masala paste on low to medium heat, till it thickens and you see oil specks on top and oil releasing from the sides.
- Then add the ground spices – turmeric powder, red chili powder, cumin powder, coriander powder and garam masala powder.
- Stir and sauté for a minute.
- Now lower the flame. Then add beaten curd.
- As soon as you add the curd, stir quickly with a ladle or spatula so that the curd does not curdle.
- Stir the curd very well with the whole mixture. Remember to add beaten curd on a low flame and keep on
- Stirring quickly and continuously till the entire curd is mixed incorporated in the masala paste.
- Add 1 cup water.
making green peas masala
- Then add the cooked green peas. Season with salt. Stir everything very well.
- Add 2 tbsp milk powder. Instead of milk powder, khoya can be added. But add khoya and saute it once the tomato-cashew paste is done. Stir again.
- Bring the green peas masala curry to a simmer on a low to medium flame.
- Lastly add 1/2 tsp kasuri methi, which has been crushed. Stir and switch off the flame.
- Garnish with coriander leaves and serve peas masala with chapatis, tandoori rotis, naan. You can also serve green peas curry with jeera rice or saffron rice.
Nutrition Info (Approximate Values)
This Green Peas Masala recipe post from the archives, first published in March 2015 has been updated and republished on November 2022.
thanks for your reply.so If I understood right on karela sabzi you meant if we don’t rinse in water then you can squeeze but I guess rinsing is important as karela will have salt on them let me know, thanks
I will try chole by adding black salt do you think chana dal or mashing chana will help me to achieve that taste.
For palak paneer can I prepare palak puree with ginger garlic and green chillies way in advance if yes how many day earlier is good? do you think it will give same taste in palak paneer please let me know, thanks
right simmi. there is not much salt on the karela as the salt gets dissolved in the bitter juice and gets squeezed out. i have never added chana dal in chole. i just mash a few of the chickpeas with the spoon as this helps in thickening the gravy. also mashed potatoes can be added to thicken the gravy. but this is helpful when you make chana or chole in large quantities.
for palak paneer, i would suggest to make the puree fresh. the taste will change a lot if you refrigerate the puree. at the most 1 day is fine.
Hi Dassana Dear
I wanted to leave comment on karela sabzi which I want to try but there is no option for me to leave a comment I have question on karela sabzi ; once you wash the chopped and salted karela by rinsing them in fresh water then you have to squeeze water too but doing that do you think karela will break as they are cut in long piece please advise, thanks
by the way I tried your bhindi bhaji it was great except the fact I didn’t like the taste of saunf in it but thats just personally me anyway on the whole it was very nice.
also you have so many recipes on chole (white chana) I will try your punjabi chole for sure but does that give same taste as street vendors coz when you eat chole from street vendors it has some very peculiar taste which is hard to explain but very nice i don’t know whether by mashing the chana or adding chana dal can give that taste have you ever come across that type of chana if yes let me know what can be adding in chole to get that authentic taste, thanks
welcome simmi. no need to squeeze the karela pieces. if you don’t rinse in water then you can squeeze. taste is a matter of personal preference so thats fine. i also don’t like some ingredients in dishes. the punjabi chole recipe with roasted spices comes very close to the street vendors chole. i also suggest to only add black salt in chole. it makes a difference in the dish.
Thank you for this wonderful recipe! In fact thank you for taking the time to share all your wonderful recipes on this website! I made this gravy for my pregnant wife and we both loved it. Didn’t have milk powder so I substituted it with some left over coconut milk. Delicious! Thank you again!!
welcome srini. glad to know this. thanks for sharing your positive feedback.
Omg ur recipes are mindblowing!! They saved my marriage ;)…. Everything turns out perfect.. My search for the perfect recipes is finally over.. Thanks a tons for sharing them!!
Will be trying this recipe today, but I don’t have milk powder or khoya.. So any other substitute?
thanks dhaara for sharing this sweet feedback. add 2 to 3 tbsp of fresh cream (or amul cream if you live in india). wishing all the best for your future.
Hi Dassana,
I came across your site few days back.
In fact, I think, You did such a great job sharing your beautiful recipes to the world. (I’m gonna try Neer Dosa tomorrow.)
Thank You.
welcome gitesh. thanks for your kind words.