Make this recipe with any kind of potato – leave the skin on for extra fiber and protein or peel it off before starting. It’s up to you. The pressure cooker will tenderize the skins so they’ll add color, but they will be barely noticeable texture-wise.
We’re actually using two cooking methods in this recipe. The potatoes boil in the cooking liquid, and the cauliflower steam on top. Instead of dumping out the cooking liquid – as you might when making this dish conventionally – we’re keeping all the nutrients and veggie juices and mashing them back into the potatoes. Sneaky, healthy!
But.. where’s the garlic?
Even though garlic is the first ingredient in the title of the recipe, it’s actually the last ingredient in the pressure cooker. In fact, we add it after pressure cooking the other veggies.
That’s because garlic is one of those ingredients that doesn’t do really well in the pressure cooker. All of its flavor just seems to disappear under pressure. So, if you want a really strong garlic flavor in a pressure cooker recipe, you add it right at the end. The heat of the food will flash-cook it (so it won’t actually be raw) but it will still impart a very strong garlic flavor to the recipe.
Enjoy!
Pressure Cooker | Accessories | Pr. Cook Time | Pr. Level | Open |
---|---|---|---|---|
3 L or larger | none | 5 min. | High(2) | Normal |
(per serving)
- Serves: serves 4 as side dish
- Serving size: ¼th
- Calories: 249.1
- TOTAL Fat: 0.6g
- TOTAL Carbs: 55.9g
- Sugar Carbs: 3.86g
- Sodium: 615.9mg
- Fiber Carbs: 7.2g
- Protein: 7.5g
- Cholesterol: 0.0mg

- 1½ cups water
- 2 pounds (1 kilo) potatoes, sliced into 1" pieces
- 8 ounces (250g) cauliflower florets
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- To the pressure cooker add the water, and potatoes sprinkled into an even layer.
- On top, sprinkle the cauliflower florets.
- Close the lid and set the valve to pressure cooking position.
- Electric pressure cookers and stove top pressure cookers: Cook for 5 minutes at high pressure.
- When time is up, open the pressure cooker with the Normal release - release pressure through the valve.
- Sprinkle in the salt and the raw garlic.
- Mash and serve!
CONTINUE…
Did you master this recipe? Here are three more to try!
I find 1 cup of water to be sufficient for my 6 quart Instant Pot IP Duo. However, if I’m using thicker liquids, i.e., tomato puree, I use more liquid as some of the puree is solids.
I’d use a whole head of cauliflower and only 1 cup of water in this recipe. The cauliflower contains a lot of water inself and you don’t want to wind up with soup. Fewer calories per serving and I don’t have a leftover half cauliflower rotting in the vegetable bin.
Well done and useful video!
You’re right Andrew – you’re already ahead of the game. The next lesson will address how veggies can replace some of the cooking liquid in a recipe.
Glad to read you were able to adjust this recipe to your needs!
Ciao,
L
Great recipe! I would pour off the water after cooking, and then use milk, cream, or a mix of milk and cream or water for mashing. Maybe a little cream cheese or shredded cheddar or could even use almond milk in place of the milk or cream. You’d get a creamier, richer result. You could go half and half with the cauliflower and potatoes for lower carbs too.
Personally, I like to keep the cooking liquid because it’s full of cauliflower veggie juice – but the cream definitely adds a nice touch, Frank!
Ciao,
L
i poured off about a quarter cup of the water and used about a quarter cup evaporated milk. I added parmesan cheese, a little butter and rosemary, salt and pepper too. I doubled or tripled the amount of potatoes and cauliflower but kept the liquid the same and it worked great.
How would you adjust the cooking liquid if you only want to cook 1 lb of potatoes at a time? Thanks in advance for your answer.
Janis, if you watch the video a little further – we discuss what to do if you cut this recipe in half. You can skip right to that part by clicking here:
http://www.hippressurecooking.com/minimum-liquid-pcs/
Ciao,
L
This was excellent, and thank you so much.
I cooked about 640 g. of potato (not peeled, but “new” potatoes) and 500 g. cauliflower. I used 1 1/2 cup stock instead of water. I also added 4 small, whole garlic cloves in with the mix, and when it was done I microplaned one last clove of garlic onto the cauliflower. It heated up perfectly and I didn’t have a bitter, raw garlic taste in the mash.
There was so much liquid though, but that was OK because I strained out the potatoes and used the excess liquid in the gravy that I was making. All round, very good.
Excellent recipe – 4 stars only because some people might not be able to judge the quantity of liquid needed. I wish that I could give 4.5 stars, because it is a great recipe.
Jane, you’ll learn in the next lesson that vegetables add cooking liquid – so using fewer potatoes (less starch) and more cauliflower (more liquid changed the “structure” of the recipe. However, I’m glad that you were confident enough to play around with it – and now that you know what happened, you’ll have a better experience with your next mash.
Ciao,
L
I used broth instead of water, left the skins on the potatoes. I used less liquid and added some Greek yogourt after for creaminess. Delicious.
Replacing potatoes with cauliflower lowers the carbs and makes this great for diabetics.
Thank you!
i would like to know if this would work with only cauliflower and adjusting the water. everytime i try to make the low carb cauliflower mash instead of potatoes i end up with baby food puree.
That’s because cauliflower don’t contain enough starch to hold together – you need that to make a “mash” into a puree. So no matter how little water you use, even if you just steam the cauliflower, it will never hold together into the mash-like consistency.
For example, I use all cauliflower and one potato to make my cream of cauliflower soup!
I looked at some low-carb recipes online for cauliflower mash – and they all use cheese, cream or some other kind of fat in their recipes to make a proper mash. So, you might want to start there, but pre-cook, steam or otherwise boil your cauliflower in the pressure cooker.
Ciao,
L
I love this! One of the first recipes I made with my IP, and I keep coming back to it! Simple and quick, and I love the tip about adding the garlic in last. Thanks so much!
I’m just starting to learn how to use a pressure cooker and convert recipes. Thank you for your clear, simple lessons!
I’m trying to figure out an easy way to print your recipes. I’d like to be able to use just one sheet of paper and print the actual recipe, not the intro text at the beginning of the post. Any recommendations?
Carment, If you click on the little picture of the printer (next to last icon on the right) under the heading “Sharing is Caring” you’ll be taken to a page where you can click-away any part of the page you don’t want (pictures, paragraphs, titles, etc.).
Ciao,
L