Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Cauliflower in the Pressure Cooker


I bought a cauliflower at the market the other day.   I love cauliflower.

I love it in things, on the side of things, alone.  I love it with hollandaise, baked with a bechamel, with a cheese sauce or with chunky, buttered, bread crumbs sprinkled on it. I like it roasted, boiled or baked.

It takes a bit more commitment that I like to cook it sometimes, there's the pot and the water and the timing and the draining and it just takes   forever.  You have to keep poking it, testing it, is it done? is it all done?  It's a pain. Sometimes, the house starts to smell like cauliflower.  That's not a problem for ME but it is for the men I live with.

I realized I had to cook or lose the cauliflower today so I stood with it in my hand, hoping for some inspiration.  While I was looking at it, my eyes looked up to the pressure cooker that lives on the top of the fridge.  BINGO! Let's pressure cook it!  I haven't pressure cooked many vegetables because, well, it seems silly.  I have done corn, which is the best but I needed to try something else.

I have never, ever, cooked a more perfect cauliflower.  Crisp tender cooked but not mushy or slimy.  The most perfect PERFECT way to cook cauliflower.  I'll NEVER ever ever cook it any other way again.  Oh and did I mention, 3 minutes?  THREE minutes????  wow.

Pressure Cooked Cauliflower

*There's no choice between instructions today.  It's long form all the way this time: 

Separate one whole cauliflower into large florets.  Chop the stem into 1/2 inch pieces.
Put 1 cup of water, a trivet and florets in pressure cooker
Lock and Load
THREE MINUTES!  (3 minutes)
Speed release
Eat or drain and rinse with cold water to stop cooking and save for other uses.

     

  

 

WOW

try this... now!  

/enjoy


16 comments:

  1. My electric pressure cooker sets "Vegetables" automatically at 5 minutes, and my head of Cauliflower came out PERFECT! Thanks for your recipes, I will use them again and again!!!

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  2. Thanks, Tracy. This is the best base recipe for pressure cooker cauliflower I have ever found. I used your instructions to cook the cauliflower but seasoned it with some champagne mustard, garlic and basil. I used chicken broth rather than water because I was out of white wine. Then I used a fork to mash it slightly (it was a bit too firm to completely mash, which is just the way I like it!) and mixed it with hollandaise sauce. My husband loved it. This was a special dinner for my husband's birthday and it was cooked perfectly, which is what this recipe was about. If there were "star options" I would have given it 5 stars for preparation. I will be back to your site for more ideas as I really like how you make everything easy and uncomplicated.

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  3. Thank you so much, this was my first try using my new pressure cooker. It was perfect!.

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  4. i just did this with two large heads of cauliflower, 1 cup chicken stock, 3 cloves of garlic, a little salt to taste, and then blended with immersion blender for faux mashed potatoes. came out really good. 3 minutes at high pressure and immediate pressure release. still looking for a slightly thicker consistency, might be able to cut the stock even more.

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    Replies
    1. Excellent. If you steam it/them on a rack then take them out, transfer the liquid to another vessel then pop the cauli back in the hot cooker and blend adding liquid as you need you can hit the right texture.

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  5. I just got my Amazon Prime Instantpot and tried this with a smallish head of cauliflower. OMGoodness! This is life changing. Thank you.

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    Replies
    1. oh that just delights me!!! I'm working on a bunch more pressure cooker recipes, so check back and let me know how they work for you!!!

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  6. Why are you using a trivet? The description I see says it's something to place between a hot serving dish/pan and a table. I always thought the purpose of those was to prevent the table from being damaged.

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    Replies
    1. The trivet keeps the cauliflower out of the water inside the pot so it steams instead of boils. The trivet also makes it easy to remove.

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  7. When do you put cheese sauce on it?

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    Replies
    1. i dont, euewww :D Make the cheese sauce separately and when it's cooked, ladle it over the whole cauli on a platter

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  10. Pressure cooking is worth trying out as it produces delicious and healthy food in a lot less time than ordinary cooking. Risotto takes only five minutes to prepare, a stew takes less than sixty minutes.Buy best puttu maker online India

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