Give potatoes the night off and try Instant Pot Mashed Cauliflower–an easy and healthy low-carb side dish! 
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If you’re trying to eat a more low carb diet, this recipe is for you. If you don’t really care about how many carbs you have and just love delicious food, this recipe is also for you.
I bought an Instant Pot pressure cooker (affiliate link) almost a year ago now, and it’s been a slow process learning how to use it and feeling comfortable enough to share recipes with you. This is only the second Instant Pot recipe on Happy Healthy Mama, but I’m finally at a point where I am ready to share more recipes with you. (This recipe for Creamy Lentils is the first one I shared and it’s a favorite over here.)
This Instant Pot Mashed Cauliflower recipe is a great one to kick off the Instant Pot recipes streak I’m about to go on. It makes a quick and easy side dish that is as perfect for a weeknight as it is for your Thanksgiving table.
I’m not going to tell you that Mashed Cauliflower tastes just like mashed potatoes. That’s silly. It tastes like cauliflower, but it’s good in its own right. You definitely get the texture and mouth feel of eating mashed potatoes, so if you’ve been banned from eating mashed potatoes, this really is a nice substitute.
I used my food processor to make the cauliflower silky smooth. If you want to be technical about it, it’s really more of a cauliflower puree than mashed cauliflower. Whatever you want to call it, it’s lovely.
Spiked with butter, garlic, and parmesan reggiano cheese, you are going to love this. Tim and I loved this so much, I knew I had to post the recipe. But I have to have total transparency here, and my kids were pretty meh about this recipe. Meghan ate some but said, “I like the regular way you make cauliflower better.” (She’s referring to Simply Roasted Cauliflower) and Luke was totally against the whole concept of mashed cauliflower.
You can’t really judge how your kids will like this Instant Pot Mashed Cauliflower based on mine. My kids are strange and hate things like regular things kids usually like, such as spaghetti, but like weird things most kids don’t like spinach with lime juice and avocado sandwiches. So take the information with a grain of salt.
All I know is that Instant Pot Mashed Cauliflower will be making its way to our table often because Tim and I can’t get enough. Like many foods over the years, I’m sure my kids will learn to enjoy it eventually.
Will you let me know if you try this? I can’t wait to hear what you think!
If you’re looking for more healthy instant pot recipes, I’ve got a list of over 100 great ones right here–> Healthy Instant Pot Recipes You might also love my Cauliflower Fried Rice recipe!
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Instant Pot Mashed Cauliflower
- Total Time: 28 minutes
- Yield: 4-6 servings 1x
Description
This Instant Pot Mashed Cauliflower recipe is a low-carb, creamy and delicious side dish!
Ingredients
- 1 large or 2 small cauliflower crowns*, core removed and roughly chopped
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 3/4 cup parmesan reggiano cheese
Instructions
- Add trivet/steamer basket, cauliflower, and chicken stock to your Instant Pot.
- Close the lid and set the valve to sealing.
- Use the manual setting to cook on high pressure for 3 minutes.
- Use the quick release function to release the pressure.
- Transfer the cauliflower to a food processor. Add the butter, salt, garlic powder, and cheese and process until silky smooth.
- Serve immediately** with additional melted butter and freshly cracker pepper, if desired.
Notes
*Different sized cauliflower crowns make a difference, so if your crown is especially small, use two small ones.
**I have successfully made these ahead of time and reheated them.
Nutritional information is based on 4 servings.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 18 minutes
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/4 of recipe
- Calories: 186
- Sugar: 4 grams
- Fat: 11 grams
- Carbohydrates: 7 grams
- Fiber: 0 grams
- Protein: 11 grams
If you make this Instant Pot Mashed Cauliflower recipe, or any Happy Healthy Mama recipe, I would LOVE to see it! Please take a pic and share it on Instagram or the Happy Healthy Mama Facebook page and tag me @happyhealthymama ?
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Very good using fresh cauliflower and then a potato masher. Love the garlic flavor.
Thank you.
I made this recipe as part of a meal prep for hamburger steak and green beans. It was soooo good! I couldn’t believe how easy it was to make!!!
So happy to hear that Barbara!
Woohoo! Made a dinner in 4minutes and it’s delicious! I put 1 table spoon of butter inside and a little bit of olive oil on top when serving. Thank you for this recipe!
These having amazing flavor, but mine seemed kind of thin. What did I do wrong?
Did you add the broth from the Instant Pot. I don’t use that.
Cauliflower mash is great. I use goat cheese and a bit stronger cheese to bump up the taste.
Soooo delicious and so easy to make! Everyone LOVED it! Will definitely become a staple side-dish in rotation at my house.
Yay! So happy to hear this. 🙂
Delicious! I loved it and my 3 kids loved it. I did add a tablespoon of sour cream and used KeriGold butter. My new favorite side dish. Thank you!
So glad it was a hit! 🙂
I already have a couple bags of frozen cauliflower on hand. Do you think a 16 oz bag would work as an equivalent for the fresh in your recipe?
If cooking from frozen I’d keep the time the same (or maybe 2 min instead of 3) and if thawed I’d do 1 minute. I haven’t tried this, though, so I’m not sure! I just feel like frozen cauliflower doesn’t need as much time as fresh. I would probably use both bags to equal about the same amount.
Great! Thank you for your response.
I think if you use frozen cauliflower, you would need to wring the liquid out of the cauliflower by putting it into a clean tea towel and twisting the towel until all liquid is removed.
Why the chicken stock if you don’t use it in the process of blending it?
You need liquid to cook the cauliflower in the Instant Pot and the stock adds more flavor than water. Water would work, too, but I like it better with the flavor that the stock gives it.
Wow! The best cauliflower mashed. I only had can Parmesan cheese but it was still tasty. Smooth and creamy and Keto friendly.
So happy to hear this!
Do you purée only the cooked cauliflower it do you add some of the broth as well?
I don’t add the broth, just the cauliflower.
just perfect! creamy and easy.just out of curiosity what is on the picture, pepper , nutmeg? was wondering should I add any any amount if so? thanks for the great recipe
It’s just freshly ground black pepper. 🙂 I did it for color in the picture, but if you like pepper it’s a nice addition!
Perfect… I also added two cloves of garlic into the pot with the cauliflower
Thanks for the feedback, Donna!
Great side dish! I did add about 1TB cream cheese (reduced butter to 1 TB) and used water instead of broth. So easy, yummy, and easily mashed with a hand masher, making clean up even faster. We eat a lot of cauliflower and I must admit I have been tiring of the roasted version. So thank you tons!
Wow! I loved this! No more mashed potatoes for me. Turned out perfect. Creamy and delicious. Will recommend this recipe to all my instant pot friends.
Yay! So happy to hear this Tracy! And I really appreciate you sharing. 🙂
This is a fantastic dish! I never had anything like it. It was easy to make, too. I am going to try making it next with parmesan rinds tossed in . (I also tried your Instant Pot creamy lentils, but it continued to burn, even after I used over a cup of water. I believe I followed the instructions to the letter.)
I’m so glad you liked this! I’m sorry the lentils didn’t work out for you. It seems to be a hit or miss with a lot of people and I can’t figure out what makes it not work for some people.