Name: Easy Mashed Potatoes
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 3
Cuisine: Vegetarian
Ingredients: 3 medium-sized potatoes, peeled; 2 tbsp shredded cheese; 2 tbsp butter; 1-2 garlic cloves, minced; salt and pepper

Easy mashed potatoes! If it isn’t the most mouthwatering side dish ever, I don’t know what is. It goes with everything – fish, meat, calamari, salads, even tofu. There’s nothing as comforting as a generous dollop of smooth, creamy potato mash.

To celebrate this beloved side over here, today I’m sharing not one, but two recipes for easy mashed potatoes. Yes, there are definitely more than one way to mash potatoes and to make friends by bribing them with this side.

I want to keep this post short, so let’s get straight to it.

Mashing Potatoes Tips

Use a potato masher. Yes, this dish is so popular, people actually made a utensil specifically for it. Use it – it makes mashing potatoes a super easy task!
Do not use an immersion blender. I’ve done this mistake in the past – the potatoes turn too liquidy and smooth for my taste, kinda like soup.
Drain well. You do not want to have water in your mashed potato – it will make it less creamy and definitely affect the texture.
Mash while the potatoes are still hot! Once all your potatoes are perfectly cooked, don’t wander around. Drain them thoroughly, add the rest of the ingredients and mash while they’re still super hot. This way everything easily melts together as if it was meant to be. And use the pot you cooked them in, no need for more dishes – you can still transfer them to a fancier dish when serving.

How To Boil Potatoes For Mash

Boiling potatoes to make mashed potatoes is actually pretty easy and you can’t do much wrong. I personally prefer to peel and chop the potatoes in slices to boil them as it reduces the cooking time.

However, you can also choose to boil your potatoes with their peels on, especially when using organic and new potatoes with thin skins. This will actually up the fiber content of your mashed potatoes, but will be a bit less smooth than peeled boiled potatoes.

: before boiling

: after boiling

Whichever one you choose:

slice the potatoes
add them to a pot with filtered water and a pinch of salt
bring to a boil (you can speed this up, by covering with a lid)
reduce heat and let potatoes cook uncovered for about 20 minutes or until potatoes are fork tender

Use a colander and drain the liquid, leaving only cooked hot potatoes in the pot. Do not rinse!

drained cooked potatoes

Easy Mashed Potatoes Two Ways

Now that you’ve got the cooked potatoes, it’s time to make the potato mash.

I don’t know about you, but I love experimenting with recipes and trying out new things. (Which is probably why I made a blog about it). When it comes to mashed potatoes, there are many ways to make them, here are two of my favorites:

easy Mashed Potatoes With Milk And Butter

Add half of the milk, butter and salt to the hot cooked potatoes and mash using a potato masher. You can also use a fork, but it would involve a bit more work. Once all the milk is absorbed, add the rest of the milk and keep mashing until you get a creamy, fluffy consistency.

Easy Mashed Potatoes With Garlic And Cheese

Now, if you love garlic and cheese, this one’s for you! We won’t be using any milk, but cheese, butter and garlic. This is actually my current favorite way to make mashed potatoes.

So, to the hot, fork-tender boiled potatoes add shredded cheese of choice (Parmesan, mozzarella or cheddar will all work), butter and a few cloves of minced or pressed garlic.

Start mashing and keep mashing the potatoes until everything blends together nicely and you get a creamy, smooth consistency.

And that’s how you make your own delicious mashed potato for dinner, parties, whenever, wherever!

Optional Additions

Now if you want to spice things up or want to experiment with different flavors, here are a few ways to change up your mashed potatoes:

add in a different type of cheese
add in fresh herbs
Throw in some cooked cauliflower. If there’s one bad side of mashed potatoes it’s their high glycemic index. So if you’re craving them, but want to reduce your carbohydrate intake, you can cook the potatoes with some cauliflower and mash them together. Once you add the butter, garlic and cheese to them it all becomes absolutely divine!

What To Serve With

These two easy mashed potato recipes are a great side dish for meat, fish and seafood, sauteed vegetables like asparagus, broccoli or fresh salads. As mentioned earlier, they actually go perfectly with pretty much anything that needs a side dish.

More Easy Potato Recipes

Well, I hope you’re happy with these easy mashed potatoes recipes and you try both of them. Make sure to let me know which one you like best! Also if you’re looking for more ways to cook potatoes, make sure to try these easy potato recipes: