This Aloo Gobi Instant Pot recipe is a classic Indian dish perfectly seasoned and it makes a wonderful vegetarian main dish or a side dish for an Indian-themed meal. This Indian potatoes and cauliflower recipe is so quick and easy, you can have it on the dinner table within minutes.
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Aloo gobi is a very popular dish at Indian restaurants, and it’s a cauliflower curry that’s simple enough to be made in Indian homes every day. Aloo Gobi (pronounced aa-loo go-bee) is translated from Hindi as ‘Potatoes Cauliflower’.
The main challenge with making pressure cooker cauliflower is that it can easily be overcooked. Cauliflower releases liquid and cooks very quickly in the Instant Pot. So, it tends to get soggy if overcooked.
My goal was to create a perfect Indian cauliflower dish in the pressure cooker without overcooking the cauliflower. I had to get the quantity of water just right!
You can make an aloo gobi curry with more gravy, or you can make it drier. I like to make the drier version.
I also provide stovetop directions in the recipe card.
➡ I have two other cauliflower recipes. Try air fryer cauliflower or Indian spiced oven roasted cauliflower.
Ingredients and Tips
🧂 Ingredients You’ll Need for Instant Pot Cauliflower Curry
More details in the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post
💡 Ingredient and Recipe Tips for Aloo Gobi
🥗 Vegetables: Cut cauliflower florets into 1¼ x 1-inch pieces – not too small to prevent overcooking. Dry thoroughly with a salad spinner. Cut potatoes into 1¼-inch cubes. Pro tip: Add ½ cup frozen peas with the cauliflower for extra variety.
🌶️ Spice Level: Increase cayenne or Kashmiri chili powder to 1 teaspoon for more spice. Use curry powder instead of individual spices to simplify the aloo gobi recipe.
🥣 Garam Masala: For a fresh, vibrant flavor, use my homemade garam masala recipe.
🥘 Deglaze: Don’t skip deglazing! Those brown bits (if not burnt) add unique caramelized flavor.
⏱️ Cook Time: Yes, 0 minutes works! If your Instant Pot doesn’t have this option, program for 1 minute on high pressure and cancel as soon as it starts counting down. Or pressure cook for 2 minutes on low pressure.
💦 Water: Add more water for a saucier dish. Use Sauté mode to reduce excess liquid.
🔥 Avoid Burn Message for Aloo Gobi Pressure Cooker Method:
- Deglaze thoroughly after sautéing onions
- Cool pot briefly after sautéing
- Add an extra ¼ cup of water.
❓ FAQs
Double all ingredients, but keep the cooking time.
Add more chopped or sliced green chilies, cayenne pepper, or chili powder. You can also increase the flavor by increasing the quantity of all powdered spices.
Pressure cook the potatoes for 2 to 3 minutes only.
Pressure cook the cauliflower for an additional minute, cut the cauliflower into smaller pieces, close the lid, and let the cauliflower steam for a bit in the residual heat after cooking is complete.
To get more gravy, add extra water – about ¼ cup.
This is an aloo gobi without tomato, but you can add about ½ cup of diced tomatoes on top of the potatoes without stirring them in. You may need to add an extra ¼ cup of water to help you avoid the burn message.
How to Make Aloo Gobi
⏲️ Instant Pot Method
- Heat oil and add cumin
- Saute onions
- Saute spices and add potatoes
- Pressure cook
- Do a quick pressure release
- Add cauliflower
- Pressure cook
- Do a quick pressure release
- Select Saute mode and add ghee and heat till melted. Add cumin seeds and saute for 10 seconds, till fragrant.
- Stir in onion, ginger, jalapeno (if using). Cook until onion is golden brown, about 3 to 4 minutes. Turn Instant Pot off by pressing ‘Cancel’.
- Stir in turmeric, chili powder, coriander, garam masala, and salt, and fry on residual heat till fragrant, for about 1 minute. Be careful not to burn.
- Deglaze with ½ cup water and stir to scrape up all the brown bits. Add potatoes.
- Close the lid.
- Select Pressure Cook mode and cook on high pressure for 3 minutes.
- The display will go from On to 03:00. The float valve will go up after a few minutes. The display will count down to 00:00.
- Do a quick pressure release.
- Once the float valve goes down, the lid can be opened.
- Add the cauliflower pieces to the Instant Pot. Close the lid and pressure cook for 0 minutes on high pressure (See recipe card notes) or 2 minutes on low pressure. Do a quick release of pressure and open the lid.
♨️ Stovetop Method
- Saute onion, ginger, and jalapeno in ghee.
- Stir in spices and saute briefly.
- Cook the potatoes till half-done.
- Add the cauliflower and cook till done.
- Season to taste and garnish with cilantro.
Instant Pot Aloo Gobi | Indian Cauliflower and Potatoes
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon ghee or butter
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 cup onion chopped
- 1 tablespoon ginger minced
- 1 jalapeno pepper seeded and sliced (optional)
- ½ teaspoon turmeric powder
- ½ tsp Kashmiri chili powder or cayenne pepper (to taste)
- 1 teaspoon coriander powder
- ½ teaspoon garam masala preferably homemade
- ¾ teaspoon salt or to taste
- ½ cup water
- 2 cups potatoes cubed into 1 ¼ inch pieces
- 1 small head of cauliflower cut into 1- inch wide pieces (about 4 cups)
- 2 tablespoon cilantro chopped
Instructions
Instant Pot Instructions
- Select Saute, add ghee, and heat till melted.
- Add cumin seeds and saute for 10 seconds, till fragrant.
- Stir in onion, ginger, jalapeno (if using).
- Cook until onion is golden brown, about 3 to 4 minutes.
- Press Cancel.
- Stir in turmeric, chili powder, coriander, garam masala and salt, and fry on residual heat till fragrant, about 1 minute. Be careful not to burn.
- Deglaze with water and stir to scrape up all the brown bits.
- Add potatoes and close Instant Pot.
- Pressure cook on High Pressure for 3 minutes.
- Do a quick release of pressure. [Read More: The Different Pressure Release Methods]
- Stir in Cauliflower.
- Close Instant Pot again and pressure cook on High Pressure for 0 minutes or low pressure for 2 minutes. [See Note 1]
- Do a quick release again.
- Carefully stir to incorporate any brown bits into the dish.
- Garnish with chopped cilantro.
Stovetop Instructions
- Heat a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add ghee and let it melt.
- Stir in onion, ginger, and jalapeno (if using). Saute until onion is golden brown, about 3 to 4 minutes.
- Stir in turmeric, chili powder, coriander, garam masala and salt, and saute for about 1 minute.
- Add the potatoes and a few tablespoons of water. Cover and simmer on medium-low heat for ten minutes (or until potatoes are half-cooked).
- Add the cauliflower and cook for another 10 minutes or until the vegetables are cooked to your liking. Add more water as needed to prevent sticking.
- Season to taste and garnish with cilantro.
Notes
- Prep time does not include steps that are already accounted for in the ingredient list, e.g. chopped onions, minced garlic, cubed potatoes, etc.
- Add tomatoes if you wish. For Instant Pot version, add tomatoes on top of potatoes and don’t stir. For stovetop, stir the tomatoes into the onion mixture, then add the potatoes.
- Optional: squeeze lime juice over aloo gobi at the end of cooking to give it a slightly tart flavor.
- If your cauliflower is large, you can increase the spice quantities as needed.
- This recipe is quite dry. If you like aloo gobi to have some gravy, add an extra ¼ cup of water.
- Note 1: If your Instant Pot doesn’t have the option to pressure cook for zero minutes, program it for 1 minute, and as soon as the display goes from On to 00:01, press Cancel.
Nutrition
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I am not a certified nutritionist. I provide my best estimate of nutritional information merely as a courtesy to my readers. If you depend on nutritional information for dietary or health reasons, I suggest using your favorite online nutrition calculator to confirm the nutritional value of this recipe based on the actual ingredients that you use.
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More Cauliflower Recipes
Gabby says
I love this recipe! I double the water because I like it a bit saucy. I just have one problem, sometimes when I’ve finished pressure cooking the cauliflower, the bottom of the instant pot is scorched. Does anyone have any tips on how to prevent that? I was thinking maybe I shouldn’t mix in the cauliflower, just let it rest on top and mix it all together afterwards.
Neena Panicker says
Gabby, I think it might be the spices that are causing the issue. I’m surprised that even doubling the liquid is not helping! The only solution I can think of is to add more liquid.
Maria says
This is delicious!!! I had this at a restaurant a little bit ago and fell in love with it. Thanks for such a well written recipe. I will definitely add it to my dinner rotation.
Paint the Kitchen Red says
I’m so glad you liked it – thank you for taking the time to comment and rate the recipe. Much appreciated.
Rose duBois says
Thank you for this wonderful techniques Neena. I’ve not had much luck prior with veggies in the Instant Pot. I like them Al dente and they always came out too mushy for my taste. I wanted to do a S Indian dish so I modified the spices and added cabbage (with the cauliflower). I also added carrots with the potatoes. Absolutely delicious!
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Thank you, Rose! I’m glad you liked it.
Barbara Aquaro says
This was a very good Instant Pot recipe
for Gobi Aloo. Thank you!
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Hi Barbara, thank you so much for commenting. I’m very glad you liked the recipe 🙂
Mona says
Hi! If I make this without aloo, how would you cook the cauliflower?
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Mona, I would just cook it for 0 to 1 minute, depending on how well done you like it.
Saaz pettitt says
Finally I found an aloo gobhi recipe which
Cooks both aloo and gobhi perfectly. Thanks Neena, for your superb instructions. I can only imagine how much effort you must be putting in to get these instructions so perfect!
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Thank you, Saaz! Your comment really makes it worthwhile, because sometimes I wonder if I put too much detail into my directions 🙂
Shristi says
This was delicious! I was intimidated and put off trying this recipe for a while. I have such a hard time getting cauliflower to taste great on the stove top, plus it takes forever. But this will be my new favorite way to cook cauliflower!
I added a little extra water at the end because I like it a little mushier, but besides that, I followed everything else. Thank you Neena for the last few years of great IP recipes! 🙂
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Hi Shristi, you’re one of my first readers and I hope you know how much I appreciate you! Insert heart emojis here 🙂