Delicious crispy and flavoursome air fryer frozen cauliflower. Cooks quick and is easy to mix and match with your favourite seasonings.

This roasted frozen cauliflower is our go to veggie side dish and we always have spare bags of cauliflower in the freezer for quick dinners.

Did You Know? This frozen cauliflower recipe is so so popular with our air fryer readers that it features in our popular air fryer cookbook The Complete Air Fryer Cookbook. Perfect for beginners with 140+ everyday recipes and how to knowledge. You can get a copy here and read the amazing reviews.

Air Fryer Frozen Cauliflower
Air Fryer Frozen Cauliflower
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Frozen Cauliflower In Air Fryer

Are you put off by frozen veggies? Are you always the one that cooks fresh and assumes that frozen veggies are tasteless and pointless?

Well, before you nod your head, note that we were like that, well beyond frozen peas and frozen sweetcorn for many, many years.

Then our readers asked us to experiment for them and bring them lots of basic recipes that they could rinse and repeat with frozen veggies both in the instant pot and in the air fryer.

I fell in love and we were soon buying frozen vegetable bags in bulk and it is nice to throw a bag of veggies into a kitchen gadget and have an easy dinner option.

Out of the many frozen veggies we cooked our true favourite was always air fryer frozen cauliflower along with air fryer frozen broccoli and air fryer frozen brussel sprouts.

It is totally about the ease of it and how delicious it is.

If you have not cooked frozen cauliflower in air fryer before, then you are in for a real treat today.

Today we are talking everything frozen cauliflower from frozen cauliflower in air fryer to can you roast frozen cauliflower, ninja foodi cauliflower and what to do with frozen cauliflower.

Beyond our air fryer frozen cauliflower recipe, we have many more frozen veggies for you to try including: instant pot frozen veggie soup, instant pot frozen broccoli, and let’s not forget about our instant pot frozen vegetables guide.

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Can You Roast Frozen Cauliflower?

Yes, you can roast frozen cauliflower and its delicious. The thing about frozen cauliflower (and frozen broccoli too), is that they are already blanched for freezing, meaning that when you roast frozen cauliflower, it doesn’t take as long as it has ALREADY been partly cooked.

You can then lay some frozen cauliflower on a baking tray and cook from frozen. But we have a better way….

Can You Air Fry Frozen Cauliflower?

Yes, you can cook frozen cauliflower in the air fryer and its delicious. I call it better than roasting cauliflower from frozen in the oven, because it is faster, easier and the cauliflower can have a perfect crispy texture on it.

Best Way To Cook Frozen Cauliflower?

I have used many kitchen gadgets and traditional methods to cook frozen cauliflower and I am always back at the air fryer frozen cauliflower method.

The close second is to also use a pressure cooker.

By this I mean steaming instant pot cauliflower first, from frozen and then finishing it off in the air fryer. This just makes it quicker, but produces the same results as this air fried frozen cauliflower recipe.

What About Ninja Foodi Cauliflower?

Now this an even better idea.

Frozen cauliflower in ninja foodi could work like the instant pot and then air fryer method. You would cook Ninja Foodi cauliflower first with the pressure cooker button and then finish with the air fryer lid. The biggest benefit is that everything happens in one cooking pot.

What To Do With Frozen Cauliflower?

I often have a simple way of enjoying my frozen cauliflower. Seasoned with some salt and pepper and served with some air fryer frozen salmon for lunch.

But there are a lot of great things you can do with your frozen cauliflower:

Make an air fryer cauliflower cheese – new tomorrow on Recipe This is our air fryer cauliflower cheese. This is made with frozen cauliflower florets and is so delicious.

Make breaded cauliflower. You can air fry frozen cauliflower and then bread it like we bread our air fryer spam fritters or our air fryer KFC chicken. Or take the easy option and instead buy it ready made and make frozen breaded cauliflower in air fryer.

Or for more cooking frozen cauliflower, you can use it in any recipe that you would normally use fresh cauliflower for.  

Frozen Cauliflower Air Fryer Ingredients

Frozen Cauliflower Air Fryer Ingredients

Florets – Lets start with the frozen cauliflower florets. I have a big bag of them that I buy, and I roughly cook half a bag at a time. I aim to have one single layer of frozen cauliflower in the air fryer. So, no need to weigh it, just use your own personal judgement.

Oil – If you would like air fried frozen cauliflower that is crispy, then you will need some extra virgin olive oil. I have tried other oils, but they don’t do a good enough job.

Seasonings – Then for a basic seasoning if you just want an easy fix then salt and pepper is perfect. But you can mix and match the seasonings based on personal choice. In our complete air fryer cookbook we have a delicious blend over the cauliflower that tastes good and gives it a great colour.

Can You Recommend An Air Fryer?

I often get asked which air fryers I recommend and which one I use. In 95% of our air fryer recipes, we use either the Philips Air Fryer XL or the Cosori XL because they are the best ones, we have found out of many air fryers we have tried over the years. You can click on the links above and read up on them. But if you would rather have a dual air fryer we recommend this Ninja Dual (make sure you order the right one as not all are good) or the Philips Dual.

How To Cook Frozen Cauliflower In Air Fryer?

air-fryer-frozen-cauliflower-step-by-step
  • Load. Let’s cook frozen cauliflower. Place your frozen cauliflower florets in a single layer in the air fryer basket. Try to aim for a similar size to avoid some cauliflower being overcooked and some just cooked.
  • Cook. Next air fry frozen cauliflower for 15 minutes at 180c/360f.
  • Spray. Then use a fork to check the cauliflower is defrosted and fork tender. Then spray with olive oil spray and season.
  • Cook. Air fry cauliflower for another 12 minutes at 200c/400f or until crispy to your liking.

And that is how easy air frying frozen cauliflower is.

How Long Do You Cook Cauliflower In An Air Fryer?

We did roast cauliflower from frozen in the air fryer in 27 minutes. Though note this was made up of 15 minutes to cook the cauliflower and 12 minutes to make the cauliflower nice and crispy.

How Long Do You Cook Cauliflower In An Air Fryer
Note this is the fork tender picture of the frozen cauliflower after the initial 15 minutes. Perfectly cooked but not crispy.

Remember, I mentioned in the best way to cook frozen cauliflower the pressure cooker + air fryer method. This is useful as a time saver as you would do a zero minute pressure cook of the frozen cauliflower and then crisp it up in the air fryer and this will cut down the cook time by a good 10 minutes.

Listen To Air Fryer Frozen Cauliflower

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More Cauliflower Recipes To Try

af frozen cauliflower

This frozen cauliflower air fryer recipe is an updated post and was originally shared on Recipe This in 2020.

Learn how to cook frozen cauliflower in air fryer below, note you can print it out with or without photos, adjust servings, or click between metric and imperial depending on where you are in the world.

Though before you do, don’t forget to subscribe, and grab your FREE VIP Pass to Recipe This. You will get access to our latest recipes first, you will be able to request recipes, you will have access to free mini courses, free air fryer ebooks and useful air fryer cook time charts and so much more.

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5 from 1 vote

Air Fryer Frozen Cauliflower

Delicious crispy and flavoursome air fryer frozen cauliflower. Cooks quick and is easy to mix and match with your favourite seasonings.
Prep Time: 3 minutes
Cook Time: 27 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
Servings: 4

Ingredients 

Kitchen Gadgets

Instructions 

  • Let’s air fry frozen cauliflower. Place frozen cauliflower florets spread out in the air fryer basket. Air fry for 15 minutes at 180c/360f.
    How To Cook Frozen Cauliflower In Air Fryer?
  • Check that the cauliflower is now defrosted, warmed through and fork tender.
    How To Cook Frozen Cauliflower In Air Fryer?
  • Spray the cauliflower with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
    How To Cook Frozen Cauliflower In Air Fryer?
  • Air fry cauliflower for a further 12 minutes at 200c/400f or until crispy to your liking.
    How To Cook Frozen Cauliflower In Air Fryer?

Video

YouTube video

Notes

Seasonings. For the best cauliflower season to your own personal choice. We love frozen cauliflower with salt and pepper. But you can add anything. A sprinkle of cajun seasoning is my favourite for something different.
Thanks for reading frozen cauliflower in air fryer recipe on Recipe This. We have many more air fryer recipes for you to check out next. Though if you would like to try more delicious sides do try our air fryer roasted potatoes next.

Nutrition

Calories: 42kcal | Carbohydrates: 8g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 0.5g | Saturated Fat: 0.2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.1g | Sodium: 51mg | Potassium: 505mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin C: 81mg | Calcium: 37mg | Iron: 1mg
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About Recipe This

Hi! I am Sam and along with my chef hubby Dom we love sharing with you easy everyday recipes using kitchen gadgets. We are also the authors of The Complete Air Fryer Cookbook, an amazing air fryer cookbook filled with 140+ everyday air fryer recipes.

Beyond the air fryer we also love the instant pot, slow cooker, soup maker, ninja foodi, pie maker and several other kitchen gadgets.

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4 Comments

  1. 5 stars
    Thanks for this recipe but if you want to try this just be careful as frozen cauli does have a tendency to crumble but this came out great, i had mine with a sprinkle of cheese and breadcrumbs 🙂

  2. This sounds great but what if you don’t own a instant pot? I would follow your recommended way of cooking but I don’t have a instant pot and do not really want to buy one.

    1. Hi Linda,

      If you don’t have an instant pot/electric pressure cooker I would recommend you follow this recipe instead: http://recipethis.com/air-fryer-frozen-broccoli/.

      Its based around broccoli rather than cauliflower and shows how to cook it 3 different ways including just in the air fryer. You can then follow the same system for cauliflower.

      Kind regards

      Sam
      X