If your picture of fall does not involve butternut squash and red lentils and cauliflower cooked in a coconut-creamy red curry sauce and poured over a mini-mountain of steamy rice, are we even friends?

I’m not even sure where to start. This curry is cozy beyond cozy. There’s just enough curry paste to make your tastebuds perk up, and the texture is creamy, but still with some tender veggie pieces intact, and it’s all just so yummy.

Also: it is totally vegan, gluten free, dairy free, full of vegetables, all the things. And somehow it was still the container of leftovers that I found myself reaching for all week amidst cheesy pastas and meaty leftovers.

Hello, unicorn: healthy, delicious, seriously ridiculously easy.

MAKING THE INSTANT POT CAULIFLOWER CURRY MAGIC

Everybody in!

Cook for 5 minutes and give it a stir.

The end!

OH, THE THINGS YOU CAN DO WITH INSTANT POT CAULIFLOWER CURRY

• You can serve it over rice, with naan, or just… plain, I guess? Like a stew?
• You can make it more or less spicy with the addition of hot sauce, cayenne, etc. My daughter loved the non-spicy stuff right out of the Instant Pot, but we added some heat for the adults.
• You can saute the onions and garlic first to get the most out of your aromatics. I did this once and it was great.
• You can use dried onion and garlic, because sometimes chopping all that up is just… a lot.
• You can use fresh cauliflower and squash.
• You can use frozen cauliflower and squash.
• You can add fresh ginger, fresh basil, fresh lime juice… anything to make it pop a little bit.
• You can add other vegetables – greens like spinach or kale added after cook time are especially good.
• You can add other protein like tofu or chicken.
• You can freeze it! I like to freeze it uncooked, and then just transfer the whole frozen container of stuff to the Instant Pot.
• You can use the stovetop instead – see recipe notes.

This food – this entire fall season, this back-to-cooking routine, this type of recipe – this stuff gets me REAL excited. And I didn’t expect to fall so hard and fast for one of my first fall recipes, but here we are.

Whatever you’re doing in your life right now… it’s a straight up guarantee that you could benefit from some Instant Pot cauliflower curry.