Blue Cheese Mashed Potatoes with Rosemary Recipe | We are not Martha (2024)

FAQs

How to make mashed potatoes that aren t bland? ›

For additional flavor, add some fresh herbs, such as chives, parsley, thyme or rosemary to the mashed potatoes after mashing them. You can also add some buttermilk, cream cheese or sour cream for a bit of a tangy, creamy flavor. Another great addition to mashed potatoes is to use flavored butter.

Easy enough, right? However, using the same quantity of milk and butter, but heating them separately and adding the melted butter first to the mashed potatoes, you end up with a butterier tasting potato dish. The fat absorbs into the cells of the potato, which have swelled and pulled apart from one another.

Tips for the Best Mashed Potatoes

Start cooking the potatoes in cold water: This ensures that the potatoes cook evenly. Otherwise, if you start with hot or boiling water, the outsides of the potatoes cook and soften while the middles are still hard and crunchy.

Mix large amounts of butter, garlic (powdered or fresh minced), salt into mashed potatoes: never gone wrong. Half and half to get the creaminess. Sour cream is a good topper, chives, shredded cheddar cheese, black pepper dusting.

Adding more salt, a little bit at a time, can help to balance out the flavors and improve the overall taste of the dish. Add more butter or cream: Adding more butter or cream can help to smooth out any unpleasant flavors and improve the texture of the mashed potatoes.

Not Seasoning the Water

If you leave out the salt at this point, you will get tasteless potatoes, and butter and sour cream simply can't cover the taste of a flat potato. After you mash the potatoes and add your dairy stir-ins, you can season to taste with additional salt, pepper, garlic, herbs, etc.

Using the wrong type of potato.

Avoid waxy varieties like Red Bliss and fingerling when making mashed potatoes. Because these varieties have a low starch content, they don't break down or absorb dairy as well as other starchier varieties, and often result in a gluey or gummy texture when mashed.

Always Warm the Dairy First

For the very best result every time, always gently warm the butter and milk before adding to the potatoes, rather than adding cold dairy straight from the fridge. Here's why: Warm dairy is absorbed faster and more easily, with less stirring than its cold counterpart.

I've tried milk, half and half, and other ingredients, but they just don't work as well. You need heavy whipping cream to get that rich and creamy texture, making your mashed potatoes incredibly luxurious and indulgent.

Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.

Place the pot over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat to a bare simmer. Do not cover. (Covering changes the environment in the pot and can make the potatoes turn mushy.)

Should you soak potatoes in cold water before boiling for mashed potatoes? ›

The secret ingredient is just ice-cold water.

You soak the potatoes in iced water before they are cooked. This eliminates much of the starches in the potatoes, resulting in a super light and fluffy mash. It's also like when you make rice.

There's no need to cool potatoes at all before mashing them. It's actually easier to mash them while warm. It also means better taste! Also, if you're using butter in them, the heat allows it to melt into them.

Instead of regular milk, pro chefs generally use a generous helping of buttermilk and plenty of half-and-half or (even better) heavy cream in their potatoes. If you think the bartenders up front are pouring heavy, they've got nothing on the cooks in the back who are in charge of the mashed potatoes.

Cutting Your Potatoes Too Small

Small potato pieces will absorb more water than larger pieces during cooking. Water-logged potato pieces lead to watery and bland mashed potatoes, and no one wants that! So when you're cutting your potatoes before cooking them, make sure your pieces are at least 1 1/2” wide.

You could be using the wrong potatoes. Potatoes are generally considered "waxy" or "starchy." Waxy potatoes (like white potatoes and red potatoes) are more prone to gumminess when mashed, as opposed to starchy potatoes (like Yukon Golds and russets).

Vegetable 3 - 5 servings Mashed, boiled, creamed, or Highly seasoned potatoes, baked white or sweet potatoes, all fried potatoes, potato cooked or canned vegetables and chips, all cooked vegetable juices, chopped lettuce vegetables not tolerated, as tolerated.