Instant Pot Cauliflower Potato Salad

This Instant Pot Cauliflower Potato Salad recipe is a great low carb recipe to make for your next summer BBQ. We added unflavored Greek yogurt for extra protein, but you can stick with mayonnaise if you’d rather. This shareable recipe is perfect for your next BBQ or pot luck.

It’s always good to have a high veggie, low carb potato salad for everyone to enjoy. Whether you’re following a keto diet, looking to get more veggies into your day, or just looking for a change from the traditional potato salad, you’re going to love this faux potato salad recipe. It uses fresh cauliflower in place of potatoes. You get a similar texture without all of the carbs.

Where’s the recipe?

Recipes here at My Crazy Good Life are written so that anyone can make them. If you’re new to the kitchen, read through the post below before heading to the printable recipe. You’ll find lots of ingredient information, recipe tips, and even healthy eating information for several popular diets.

If you feel more comfortable in the kitchen, head straight to the printable recipe at the bottom of the post. You’ll find simple instructions for making this Instant Pot Cauliflower Potato Salad recipe.

Ingredients in Cauliflower Potato Salad

• Hard boiled eggs I love making these right in my Instant Pot. There’s even a way to make hard boiled eggs without the shells, and it saves a ton of time because you don’t have to peel them.
• Cauliflower You’ll be chopping this before you use it.
• Celery I love the crunch that celery adds to any potato salad–this one is no exception.
• Red onion If you don’t have red onion, any colored onion will do–even green onions.
• Plain Greek yogurt You definitely want unflavored here. 2% is best, whole will make your salad super thick and non fat will make it thin.
• White Vinegar
• Mustard (traditional mustard in a bottle, not dry) You can use regular or dijon mustard here.
• Pepper

Optional ingredients: If you have a specific memory of a classic potato salad that you’re trying to replicate, you might want to add one or two of these optional ingredients:

• 1/4 cup chopped dill pickles
• 1 tbsp fresh dill
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
• 1 tsp garlic powder

How to make Instant Pot Cauliflower Potato Salad

These directions work for any electric pressure cooker.

1. Hard boil your eggs using your favorite Instant Pot method. I prefer either the 5, 5, 5 method or using the pot in pot method and cooking the already cracked eggs. I love that I don’t have to spend time peeling the eggs with the pot in pot method! When your eggs are done cooking, set them aside in an ice bath or the fridge to cool.
2. Chop the fresh cauliflower florets into 1 inch pieces. These are pretty large chunks because we don’t want it to overcook.
3. Add 1 cup of water to your Instant Pot, then place a trivet or steamer basket down and put the cauliflower on top of it. This helps to keep the cauliflower up above to water so it can steam and not boil.
4. Place the lid on the Instant Pot and turn the pressure valve to Sealing. Turn your time to 2 minutes and press the Manual button. Stay close to the pot because you’ll want to release the pressure by turning the pressure valve to Venting. There will be a strong spray of steam that comes out of the pot. This is called a manual pressure release or quick release in the Instant Pot world.
5. Test the feel of your cauliflower by sticking a fork into a piece. If you feel that it could use some more cooking, go ahead and close the lid and let it sit for another minute or two. There is no way to tell you exactly how long your cauliflower will take, because each pot is different and everyone cuts their pieces slightly different.
6. Carefully lift the cooked cauliflower out of the pot and drain it using a colander. Rinse the cauliflower in cold water to stop the cooking process. Place the cooked and drained cauliflower in a large mixing bowl.
7. Chop the cooled eggs, celery, and onion. Ensure that all of your ingredients are cooled.
8. Add the remaining ingredients, including Greek yogurt, white vinegar, mustard, and pepper to the bowl. Mash together using a fork or an electric mixer until desired texture is reached.

How to make this Salad on the Stove Top

If you don’t have an Instant Pot, boil water and a large pinch of salt and add your cauliflower. Cook for 3-4 minutes or until it feels soft enough for your salad. Follow the rest of the directions as written.

Recipe Tips

• Not overcooking the cauliflower is important for this recipe to have the texture of real potato salad, which is why I recommend cooking it for the lowest amount of time and slowly adding time on. I recommend not using cauliflower rice for this recipe, as it will be too mushy.
• You can cook eggs in the Instant Pot a few ways. I definitely recommend cracking your eggs first so you can save time like in my egg salad recipe. If you’d rather cook your hard boiled eggs in the shell, you can do that too!

Healthy Eating Plans

This is a healthy and delicious side dish for all of your summer picnics.

21 Day Fix/Portion Fix

• Container Count for Entire Recipe: 5 green containers (depending on the size of your head of cauliflower), 4 red containers
• Per 1 cup serving: 1 green container, 1 1/4 red container

Weight Watchers

• Using fat free Greek yogurt, each 1 cup serving of this Cauliflower Potato Salad is 0 Blue Plan Points | 0 Purple Plan Points | 2 Green Plan Points
• The points for the new 2022/2023 points plan is 0.

More Low Carb Recipes

• Instant Pot Chicken Lo Mein Zoodles (20g per serving)
• Buffalo Cauliflower Mac and Cheese (15g per serving)
• Buffalo Cauliflower Dip with Chicken (12g per serving)
• Instant Pot Turkey Breast (1g per serving)
• Fresh Veggie Spring Rolls with Easy Peanut Sauce (8g per serving)

4.80 from 10 ratings

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Instant Pot Cauliflower Potato Salad

Created by: Becca Ludlum

Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 15 minutes mins

Chill time 2 hours hrs

Total Time 2 hours hrs 30 minutes mins

Approximate Serving Size: 1 cup

Servings 5

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Instant Pot Cauliflower Potato Salad is an easy summer picnic recipe! Use cauliflower in place of potatoes in this low carb side dish.

Equipment

• Instant Pot 6 qt
• Kitchen Knife
• Cutting Board

Ingredients 

• ▢ 4 eggs hard-boiled
• ▢ 1 head cauliflower
• ▢ 2 stalks celery diced
• ▢ 1/2 red onion diced
• ▢ 1 1/2 cups Greek yogurt (or mayo if you'd rather)
• ▢ 1 tbsp vinegar white
• ▢ 1 tbsp mustard
• ▢ 1/4 tsp pepper

Instructions

• Hard boil your eggs using your favorite method. When your eggs are done cooking, set them aside in an ice bath or the fridge to cool. 4 eggs
• Chop the cauliflower into 1 inch pieces. These are pretty large chunks because we don't want it to overcook. 1 head cauliflower
• Add 1 cup of water to your Instant Pot, then place a trivet or steamer basket down and put the cauliflower on top of it.
• Place the lid on the Instant Pot and turn the pressure valve to Sealing. Turn your time to 2 minutes and press the Manual button. Stay close to the pot because you'll want to quick release the pressure by turning the pressure valve to Venting.
• Test the feel of your cauliflower by sticking a fork into a piece. If you feel that it could use some more cooking, go ahead and close the lid and let it sit for another minute or two. There is no way to tell you exactly how long your cauliflower will take, because each pot is different and everyone cuts their pieces slightly different.
• Carefully lift the cooked cauliflower out of the pot and drain it using a colander. Rinse the cauliflower in cold water to stop the cooking process. Place the cooked and drained cauliflower in a large mixing bowl.
• Chop the cooled eggs, celery, and onion. Ensure that all of your ingredients are cooled. 2 stalks celery, 1/2 red onion
• Add the remaining ingredients including Greek yogurt, white vinegar, mustard, and pepper to the bowl. Mash together using a fork or an electric mixer until desired texture is reached. 1 1/2 cups Greek yogurt, 1 tbsp vinegar, 1 tbsp mustard, 1/4 tsp pepper

Notes

Recipe Tips

• Not overcooking the cauliflower is important for this recipe to have the texture of real potato salad, which is why I recommend cooking it for the lowest amount of time and slowly adding time on. I recommend not using cauliflower rice for this recipe, as it will be too mushy.
• You can cook eggs in the Instant Pot a few ways. I definitely recommend cracking your eggs first so you can save time like in my egg salad recipe. If you’d rather cook your hard boiled eggs in the shell, you can do that too!

Healthy Eating Plans

This is a healthy and delicious side dish for all of your summer picnics.

21 Day Fix/Portion Fix

• Container Count for Entire Recipe: 5 green containers (depending on the size of your head of cauliflower), 4 red containers
• Per 1 cup serving: 1 green container, 1 1/4 red container

Weight Watchers

• Using fat free Greek yogurt, each 1 cup serving of this Cauliflower Potato Salad is 0 Blue Plan Points | 0 Purple Plan Points | 2 Green Plan Points | 2023 points: 0

Nutrition

Serving: 0g | Calories: 140kcal | Carbohydrates: 10g | Protein: 14g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 135mg | Sodium: 159mg | Potassium: 456mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 304IU | Vitamin C: 57mg | Calcium: 136mg | Iron: 1mg

Make This Recipe?

Make sure to follow on Pinterest @bludlum and on Instagram @beccaludlum