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
Lauren says
Delicious!! Made it multiple times now. Thanks
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Awesome, Lauren – glad to hear it and thanks for letting me know!
Shannan says
Thank you Neena! I was gifted an Insta Pot for Christmas, from my brother. Your step-by-step instructions were perfect. I love to cook, I have a lot of gadgets and not easily intimidated by new cooking tequneaks. But, I was terribly intimidated by Instant Pot. You calmed my nerves by spelling it all out! I’m so grateful! Bonus, the aloo gabi was delicious.
Paint the Kitchen Red says
You’re so welcome, Shannan 🙂 I’m really glad that you liked the recipe.
Paula says
Hi, have tried cooking this many times before IP and always failed ! This was the best and delicious and so quick. Would possibly increase spice content next time but pototoe and cauliflower perfectly cooked.thank you
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Hi Paula, thank you for taking the time to comment. That’s so great to hear. I just made a roasted version of this recipe last night, for a change: same spices as this recipe but followed the method of this recipe: Indian Roasted Cauliflower!
Kristin says
This was delicious and so easy. We added a bit more water (1 cup total) and incorporated cooked rice and peas at the same time we added the cauliflower. Cooked cauliflower etc. on high pressure for 5 additional minutes and it did not get mushy. Flavors blended well. We served with yogurt, mango chutney, and some curried pickled veg. Will definitely make again.
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Great – you made it a meal in one. Wow, that’s good to know that the cauliflower didn’t become mush with 5 minutes! Thank you for taking the time to share your experience, Kristin.
Dhanya says
Hi Neena,
I tried this recipe today. I followed your instructions, except for one change – I added one diced tomato after sautéing the onion-ginger-green chili mixture. My Instant Pot came to pressure to cook the potatoes, but it did not come up to pressure the second time around after stirring in the cauliflower. I think it could be because the pot became too dry and also maybe the bottom of the pot may not have been fully deglazed well?
In the end the cauliflower was little undercooked, so I added a bit more water to the pot and cooked it on Sauté mode for a couple more mins.
Thanks,
Dhanya
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Hi Dhanya, tomato is a great addition, but it could have caused some sticking to the bottom. Yes, deglazing is very important especially since the recipe uses minimal liquid. Next time, just add a few more tablespoons of water.
Barbara Alfeo says
I absolutely love your recipe! I am writing vegetarian recipe round ups on my blog in 2018 (to encourage people to try meatless monday- everyone has to start somewhere) and would love to feature you. You can check out my blog (for beginner environmentalists) at sunshineguerrilla.com. Is it alright if I share this link to your recipe?
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Hi Barbara – that’s so kind of you – that would be great if you don’t include the full recipe and provide a link back – thank you!!
Carly says
Made this today as a test for a dinner party I am having Saturday. Absolutely delicious flavors. I doubled the spices as a few of the other commenters suggested and added a bit more water. I used Yukon potatoes and didn’t peel them. I will next time. I will also cook the potatoes for 2 minutes and then the cauliflower for 2 minutes next time. But the detailed instructions you provided and the photos were absolutely fabulous. I am new to Instant Pot world and this was such a wonderful recipe to try out. I will be following your blog now!
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Thanks Carly! I’m glad you enjoyed the recipe. And thanks for letting us know the changes you made.
Pals says
Please be careful about recommending to put a folded towel over the steam vent ! Just read about a burst instant pot/ high pressure steam that burnt someone – never ever cover the steam release valve ! It should be allowed to release without any obstruction whatsoever
Vibha says
I made this today for the first time in the IP. It came out delicious and saves time, but the potatoes were a little over done/mushy. Will adjust the time next time. I also added hing/asofatida with the jeera. It has a great flavor. Once the cauliflower was done I added a tsp of amchoor/dry mango powder instead of lemon juice. Needs to be gently stirred in. Also tastes really good. Thanks for the detailed instructions.
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Hi Vibha – it’s a fine balancing act to cut the cauliflower and potatoes in such a way that both cook just right. Great additions: hing and amchoor! Thanks for your comment.
Cheryl says
Aloo Gobi is one of my favorite dishes but I’ve never made it myself. I tried this recipe in my Instant Pot and it was so delicious. I cooked mine just a minute longer and added about 1/3 cup more water. I had to force myself not to eat the whole pot! Thank you for this recipe.
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Hi Cheryl – Thank you so much for taking the time to comment and let me know. I too love cauliflower. Try it with peas too next time. It’s a common addition for this dish.
Dianne says
This was fabulous; thanks for posting it and sharing such detailed directions! I used Yukon Gold potatoes so they’d hold their shape and was careful not to cut the pieces too small. The times you suggested were perfect. I used an entire head of cauliflower and more potatoes, so increased the spices by 50%. My bulk spices retailer didn’t have an Indian chili powder, so I used what MarketSpice calls Aleppo Chili Powder, figuring that since it was from that side of the world, maybe it would be close to what you suggested. It was great. I packed up half of the completed dish for a friend and after an hour on ‘Keep Warm’ mode, we ate the rest. It was softer by then, but the vegetable chunks were still recognizable and the flavor delicious. This will be a regular dinner choice in our house. I might throw in some green peas sometimes, just to be different. Again, thank you!
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Hi Dianne – I’m glad that the timings worked for you. It is hard to get the recipe directions just right when you have vegetables that can overcook with small size changes and even 30 seconds of pressure cooking time! If you ever go to an Indian grocery store, ask for Kashmiri chili powder – it has color but is not super spicy. It’s what I use. But I think your Aleppo chili powder was probably just right too. Thanks for sharing your experience – I really appreciate it!
Marni Alexander says
Delicious! As a fairly new Instant Pot cook, I really found your instructions helpful, and did not know there was a “0” setting. The dish was delicious despite the fact that I only had powdered ginger, and did a few spice substitutions as I didn’t have all the spices. Perfectly cooked. I will be printing this and making it again.
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Hi Marni, I’m glad you like the recipe! Search for my recipe for roasted cauliflower and potatoes (not an Instant Pot recipe) in the search bar. If you like roasted veggies, you’ll like that one too. Thanks so much for taking the time to comment – means a lot!
Eric says
Good flavor but it was like mashed potatoes and slightly undercooked cauliflour for me. Disappointed but I appreciate the effort put in. Not sure what I did wrong.
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Oh, I’m sorry it didn’t work for you, Eric. Since you liked the flavor, maybe try it out again but this time adjust your cooking times. So cook the potatoes for a couple of minutes less and increase cauliflower time by a minute. I’m not sure what went wrong: type of potatoes, size of the veggies, altitude, or who knows? 🙂 Thanks for taking the time to comment, though.
susan says
This was a great recipe flavor wise, but I made a few changes the second time. I like my aloo gobi saucier than your original. I also thought the potatoes got a bit mushy. So I did (the second time) everything you suggested with the onions and spices (except I doubled the spice content to allow for sauce). Then I added my cauliflower, and layered my potatoes on top (cut just slightly larger than suggested.) Added about a cup of chicken stock and did manual for 4 minutes and let it sit after cooking at high pressure for about a minute and then let the pressure out. Still great flavor, a bit saucier than the original and I enjoyed the texture. Also, added peas because I married an english man……and well peas… Thanks!
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Susan, I’m really glad you were able take the recipe and make it your own. In my opinion, that’s the best part of cooking! , thanks for sharing your modifications to the recipe.
Katie | Healthy Seasonal Recipes says
I’ve never used a pressure cooker before so this is like reading another language. Love your step by step instructions, and the way you figured out how to keep the right texture for the cauliflower.
Jacqueline Meldrum says
I’ve not made this for ages, I am so glad I saw this for a timely reminder. It’s such a comfort dish. I am loving your instant pot step-by-steps even though I don’t have one.
Sandi G says
I love your step by step photos and instructions.
Debra C. says
Your step-by-step directions are amazing! I think you’re right, the cauliflower could easily be overcooked but by following your directions that wouldn’t be an issue – looks amazing!!
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Thanks Debra!
Mindy Fewless says
I’ve never heard of this dish but all of the ingredients sound amazing together! I’ll have to try it!
Paint the Kitchen Red says
I hope you get to try it, Mindy!
Peter says
What a delightful dish. My entire family enjoyed this one. Thanks.
Paint the Kitchen Red says
You’re welcome, Peter. I’m glad they liked it.