How to steam cauliflower in the Instant Pot * Plant Based Recipes: Garden + Kitchen

I am working on two new recipes that use a garlic “cream” sauce made with cauliflower. I wanted to quickly cook the entire 8 cups we got off one head of cauliflower. So I wanted to steam the batch in the Instant Pot: and boy is it quick and easy. Don’t need to stand over the stovetop, find and heat a massive pot of water.

Cauliflower inside the instant pot, all steamed and ready to eat. — Making steamed cauliflower in the instant pot is a simple and efficient way to cook a huge batch all at once.

We again used the “pot in pot” method of cooking with the Instant Pot, using an inner stainless steel pot inside the Instant Pot. You don’t necessarily need to cook it this way, although it seems to be fairly reliable in practice.

Here’s what you need to do:

Add 1 cup of water to the bottom of the Instant Pot.
Put the inner pot or steamer basket into the Instant Pot, and add your cauliflower florets.
Set your Instant Pot to high pressure, manual, for 0 (zero) minutes, and when your instant pot beeps then do a quick release.

Note: The Instant Pot will take about 10-15 minutes to come up to pressure.

And then a whole bunch of steamed cauliflower is ready to go for your dinner, or next recipe. Looking for something good to make with all this cauliflower? How about a garlic cream sauce?

The Instant Pot is efficient way to make a large batch of steamed cauliflower.

Why make this cauliflower in an instant pot? This is handy for when all of the elements on the stove are being occupied (or there isn’t enough room for a giant pot since you’re making a large batch), you don’t want to stick around to “babysit” the stovetop (kids or animals around), you want very consistent and repeatable results, you are busy and need to walk away (you don’t have to be around to finish the cooking).