Perfect Punjabi-style Aloo Gobi from your pressure cooker or Instant Pot. Make this classic Indian vegan restaurant dish at home in minutes, without a lot of fuss.
INSTANT POT ALOO GOBI | PRESSURE COOKER INDIAN POTATOES AND CAULIFLOWER
Short Hindi Lesson folks. Aloo = potatoes, Gobi = Cauliflower. Now you know.
Aloo gobi is a pretty standard dish at most Indian Restaurants, but it’s actually quite a staple for home cooking as well. I wanted to make this in an Instant Pot so that I didn’t have to stand and babysit it.
This recipe makes a great dish for Ramadan! You can find more great Instant Pot Ramadan recipes in my 15 Instant Pot Ramadan Recipes post.
The problem is that you need the potatoes and cauliflower to cook within the same time. My first attempt was tasty but a complete textural disaster.
So this time, I did the obvious thing: cut the potatoes into thin slices so that they’d cook as quickly as the cauliflower did, but I also sautéd them in the pot a little longer, not only to pre-cook them but to also get some of the dark fond into the final product.
If you prefer firmer cauliflower, I’d leave the cauliflower into even larger pieces since it does tend to cook very quickly.
USING CAULIFLOWER STALKS IN YOUR ALOO GOBI | WHAT IS DANTHAL?
In the picture below, you see some green things and I’m sure you’re wondering what that those are. Well, in India, the stalks around the cauliflower are considered yummy eating, and are called danthal.
Sometimes at the bazaar, you can get just danthal and my mom used to love those. They’re actually full of flavor.
So what you do is you take the outer stalks off, strip them of their leaves, and then cut them up into pieces.
Since they’re a little tougher than the cauliflower, I put them in to cook with the potatoes.
USE THE LOW PRESSURE SETTING ON THE INSTANT POT
I cooked this on low pressure which not all Instant Pots have. If yours doesn’t have a low pressure setting, try setting it for 0 mins pressure and doing a quick pressure release.
If you’re low-carbing, leave out the potatoes and just have the cauliflower. Still very tasty.
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Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon (1 tablespoon) Oil
- 1 teaspoon (1 teaspoon) cumin seeds
- 4 cups (400 g) cauliflower florets, (about one medium cauliflower)
- 2 cups (420 g) potatoes,, sliced (about 1 large potato)
- 1/2 cup (74.5 g) Tomatoes, diced
- 1 teaspoon (1 teaspoon) Salt
- 1 teaspoon (1 teaspoon) Garam Masala
- 1/2 teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon) Turmeric
- 1/4 teaspoon (0.25 teaspoon) Ground Cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon) Ground Coriander
- 1/4 teaspoon (0.25 teaspoon) Cayenne
- 1/4 cup (62.5 g) Water
Instructions
- Heat the Instant Pot and when it’s hot, add the oil, and when the oil shimmers, add the cumin seeds. They’ll splutter like popcorn.
- Once this happens, add in the potatoes and sauté. You want the potatoes to brown and crisp a little, and you want good, brown fond at the bottom to flavor the final dish.
- At this point, add the spices and sauté briefly.
- Then add in the tomatoes and the water and scrape up all the lovely fond at the bottom. Make sure you get all the brown bits scraped off since if you don’t, you will see the BURN message. If all the water evaporates as you do this, add in another 1/4 cup of water.
- Add in the cauliflower and set your Instant Pot to Low Pressure for 2 minutes.
- Quick release the pressure and garnish with chopped cilantro, if needed.
- If you have an 8 quart, you may need to double the recipe so as to not ge the BURN message.
- For a low carb version, omit potatoes and double up on the caulilflower. In this case, you can just place all ingredients into the pressure cooker at the same time and cook as directed–no need to brown the potatoes (what potatoes? 🙂 )
Lisa
Cooked this recipe last week and it was wonderful! Loved the flavors and the texture of the veggie. I have her book and there is not a recipe i don’t like in it that i’ve tried so far.
Yvonne Self
Made this tonight. Chopped up some of the greens that are at the bottom of the cauliflower. Served it with leftover kenyan-kunde black-eyed peas over leftover white basmati rice. What a meal. Thank you again for such delicious recipes. My oldest daughter, who is on a plant-based diet, will love this.
Esther Kim
Made this last night and it was super easy. But I think I was missing a little bit of richness/fat. Do you recommend another dish to eat this with to help complete the meal?
URVASHI PITRE
So usually I do either a Rich dal like dal makhani or a meat dish to go with it.
Nick
How come this recipe does not contain onion, ginger, and garlic? Don’t these ingredients form the basis of most Punjabi style dishes?
URVASHI PITRE
They do some but I hate to make everything taste the same and made the same. Try it. It’s very authentic tasting
Eric
I made this tonight and it turned out pretty tasty (I’ll definitely make it again!) but I noticed my Instant Pot Ultra didn’t get hot enough in saute mode to make the cumin seeds “splutter like popcorn” nor to brown/crisp the potatoes at all even after sauteing them for 5+ minutes. Have you heard of anyone else having this same issue? I used exactly 1 tablespoon of peanut oil. Perhaps the recipe needs more to get the browning action going?
URVASHI PITRE
A little extra oil can’t hurt. But also do ensure that it is in sauté Hot.
Eric
Thanks. I just tested it with an infrared thermometer and on Hot it measured 135 degrees F in the center, 155 degrees F on the edges. I’m going to contact the company to find out if that’s normal.
URVASHI PITRE
That doesn’t sound right does it? It should be hotter in the center I would think? Very curious to know what you hear back
Mati
Have you tried parboiling potatoes, or using leftover cooked whole potatoes?
Also, if I use canned tomatoes, should I just use the liquid from the can instead of water?
Thank you!
URVASHI PITRE
Yes to canned tomato water. I haven’t tried with parboiled potatoes but it should work given the short cook time
angie
If I use cumin powder instead of cumin seeds do you think it will affect the flavor?
URVASHI PITRE
Yes it will. But I don’t know that it will be bad? Maybe just different
Kalypso
I made this tonight without potatoes but I threw in a cup or so of frozen peas. My PC doesn’t have a low setting, so I just did a minute with QR. I did cut the florets quite large and the texture came out perfect. Everyone loved it!
Kelsey
Should the tomato be fresh or canned? Or would it not make a difference?
URVASHI PITRE
Get the best ones you can. In the winter canned are better.