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Save time and money by making Instant Pot Broccoli part of your weekly dinner rotation. It’s so easy to whip up this tender broccoli for a fast and healthy side dish.
If you’re looking for a healthy side dish that is ready in a flash, you can’t go wrong with this Instant Pot Broccoli! Cooked perfectly al dente every time, you’ll love the fact that you can simply push a button and walk away.
If you are new to pressure cooking and the Instant Pot, check out this post on recipes for Instant Pot beginners.
How Long Does it Take to Steam Broccoli in the Instant Pot?
When you cook pressure cooker broccoli, you’re setting the Instant Pot to cook for 0 minutes. Yes, 0 minutes!
In the time it takes to come up to pressure and depressurize, your broccoli is perfectly cooked. Magic!
In total, it takes 12 minutes total to cook broccoli in the Instant Pot. And that includes the time to get up to pressure and depressurize.
You’ll find similar cooking times for Instant Pot Cauliflower and Instant Pot Asparagus.
How to Make Instant Pot Broccoli {Step by Step}
*I’ll walk you through it here with some photos and tips, and you’ll also find a printable recipe card at the bottom of the post with exact measurements, etc. You can click “jump to recipe” to skip down.
Start by cutting and trimming the broccoli to a mostly uniform size. This will help everything cook evenly.
Add 1 cup of water to the Instant Pot insert and then place a steamer basket inside it.
I do not have a fancy steamer basket (in the photos below you’ll notice it is broken and missing a piece), but rather a basic metal steamer insert. If you are looking for a basket, this one is very popular.
Place broccoli in the basket. Lock the lid into place and set the steam release handle to “Sealing”. Press Manual>High Pressure>0 minutes.
When it has finished cooking, carefully flip the steam release handle to “venting” and allow pressure to be released. Remove the lid and season to taste.
Pro Tips/Recipe Notes
- As soon as the Instant Pot finishes cooking, flip the vent to “venting”. Allowing the Instant Pot to sit longer can lead to mushy broccoli.
- If you increase or decrease the amount of broccoli, the cooking time and water added will remain the same. That being said, increasing the volume of broccoli means the Instant Pot will take more time to come up to pressure. To prevent the broccoli from getting too mushy, use very hot water in the insert to allow it to come to pressure faster.
- Aim for cutting the florets to a uniform size if possible. It will allow for more consistent cooking.
- Optional: place steamed broccoli on a sheet pan under the oven’s broiler on high for 1-3 minutes to add some delicious char.
Frequently Asked Questions
You can use the metal trivet that came with your pressure cooker, but you’ll want to make sure the pieces sitting directly on the trivet are larger to prevent them from falling through.
I do not recommend cooking the broccoli directly in the water. The broccoli gets mushy and you have the potential for a burn notice due to using so little water.
A sprinkle of garlic salt, everything but the bagel seasoning, Montreal steak seasoning, or a little freshly grated Parmesan are all delicious on top of steamed broccoli.
If you prefer to go the “saucy” route, check out our gluten-free cheese sauce recipe or yogurt ranch dressing.
Technically you can, but I do not recommend cooking frozen broccoli in the Instant Pot. If that is all you have to work with, try the “steam” setting if your pressure cooker has it, or use low instead of high pressure.
Set the Instant Pot for 0 minutes and use very hot water in the insert to allow it to come to pressure faster. Instead of steaming it, I would recommend making Roasted Frozen Broccoli.
HOW TO STORE AND REHEAT Instant Pot Broccoli
Steamed broccoli is best eaten soon after cooking, but sometimes you need to do a little meal prepping.
Storing Leftovers: Allow the broccoli to cool and store leftovers in an air-tight container in the fridge for 1-3 days. We love these Snapware glass spill-proof containers.
Reheating Leftovers: You can microwave the cooked broccoli but that can lead to fairly soggy veggies.
Instead, I love to reheat steamed broccoli in our air fryer at 390˚F for 3 minutes. It heats and crisps the broccoli at the same time.
Freezing Leftovers: I do not recommend freezing this dish.
What to Serve With Instant Pot Broccoli
There are so many options! I’m a sucker for a perfect Dry Brine Chicken, Paleo Salmon Cakes, or Air Fryer Frozen Shrimp.
You can also use it as the key ingredient in our Broccoli Mac and Cheese.
This instant pot broccoli recipe is also delicious served alongside Lemon Garlic Pasta, Ham and Swiss Quiche, Air Fryer Chicken Cordon Bleu, Instant Pot Chuck Roast, Air Fryer Cornish Hens, and Instant Pot Beef Tips.
More Delicious Side Dishes You’ll Love
WEIGHT WATCHERS POINTS
One serving of pressure cooker broccoli has 0 WW Freestyle SmartPoints.
Instant Pot Broccoli
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup water
- 2 lbs broccoli {cut into florets}
Instructions
- Pour 1 cup of water in the Instant Pot insert. Place a steamer basket or trivet in the insert.1 cup water
- Place broccoli in the basket.2 lbs broccoli
- Lock the lid into place and set the steam release handle to “Sealing”. Press Manual>High Pressure>0 minutes.
- When it has finished cooking, carefully flip the steam release handle to “venting” and allow pressure to be released.
- Remove the lid and season to taste.
Notes
- If you increase or decrease the amount of broccoli, the cooking time and water added will remain the same. You need at least 1 cup of water and the cooking time will always be “0” minutes.
- As soon as the Instant Pot finishes cooking, flip the vent to “venting”. Allowing the Instant Pot to sit longer can lead to mushy broccoli.
- Aim for cutting the florets to a uniform size if possible. It will allow for more consistent cooking.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Yes all the broccoli -this is sooo delicious and I love the idea of roasting at the end for my extra crunch!!!
My kids disagree with you to “yes to all the broccoli”, but you have my vote. 🙂
Perfectly steamed broccoli (and purple cauliflower)! Am a huge fan (of both the recipes and the snark.) 😉 So as not to be TOO healthy, I served it with a little ghee and parmesano reggiano. Melty goodness.
Ghee and cheese is my love language, Nancy. 🙂
I’m beyond a big fan of your roasted broccoli recipe and it’s my two kids’ favorite veggie preparation. I tried this recipe following the same steps and amounts and ended up with an overcooked mush with a distinctly sickly pallor and a film of burn on the bottom of the pot. This was actually my very first attempt at using an Insta Pot, by the way. So was it user error? Sentient Insta Pot out to convince me my newest kitchen addition wants to be set free?
Megan, with you being an Instant Pot newbie, it might be hard to troubleshoot what happened (simply because you don’t know the terminology, have the history behind other dishes, etc.). With that in mind, here are a few things that could have gone wrong: 1) was the broccoli in small pieces? 2) did you do a quick release as soon as it finished cooking? 3) did you figure out how to do a “0” minute cook time? 4) did you cook the amount of broccoli called for or did you try to make less?
If you’d like, you can email me a photo of the front of your Instant Pot controls. Different models have different functions (why they do this, I will not know!) and maybe something went wonky there.