The Best Vegan Mashed Potatoes Start With Yukon Golds
There’s only one Thanksgiving dish that can’t be made vegan: turkey. The rest are surprisingly easy to modify, and the easiest is mashed potatoes. Non-vegans are always reluctant to sacrifice dairy, but if you choose the right leg for your mash (and grab one of those fancy new margarines), you’ll find that you don’t need cream to make a creamy mash.
How to Choose the Right Potatoes for Vegan Mashed Potatoes
The “proper” potato is Yukon Gold or other yellow or gold-colored potatoes with similar starch content. Yukons and their ilk contain less starch than the tough-skinned big reds and cook firm and creamy rather than dry and fluffy. Mashed potatoes made from Yukons are inherently creamier than mashed potatoes made from high-starch potatoes, eliminating the need for cream.
Don’t mash the rice
They’ve become known as “mashed potatoes,” but riced potatoes will always have a better, creamier texture. Potato mashers often leave behind large chunks that don’t register as “creamy” on the tongue. Instead of exhausting your hand mashing by hand, which can waste starch and turn the mash into a sticky substance, use a potato masher or pass it through a fine mesh sieve . Either way, the potato flesh will break into tiny pieces, so all you have to do is carefully add your chosen vegan “butter.”
Add a little (a lot) of fried garlic.
Magical things happen when you roast garlic. The sharp, hot, tangy onion transforms into something sweet, savory and creamy. It becomes so soft that you can spread it like butter, but you won’t. You’re going to mash the garlic right into the potatoes to balance out the potato’s bitterness a bit and enhance the creaminess of the potatoes. Fry a whole head of garlic , remove the cloves and pass them through the same grinder (or sieve) that you used to mash the potatoes.
Finish with gourmet margarine.
A can of beer doesn’t fall far from a trailer park, so I have no qualms about Country Crock, but these newfangled margarines that have been rebranded as “vegetable oil” are pretty impressive. My favorite is Miyoko’s vegan butter . It has a creamy, slightly salty, yogurt flavor that is typically found when using cultured butter. However, I know a lot of vegans who like Earth Balance, so choose the one you like best.
Easy Vegan Mashed Potatoes
Ingredients:
- 8 medium Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and quartered
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 head fried garlic
- 1/4 cup melted vegan butter of choice
- More salt and white pepper to taste
Add peeled, quartered potatoes to a large saucepan along with 2 teaspoons salt and enough water to cover by an inch. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20-30 minutes until the potatoes flake easily with a fork. Drain the water from them and place the pan with the broth on low heat. (If you are using an electric stove, turn off the burner.)
Strain the potatoes back into the pan using a potato masher or fine mesh sieve . Drizzle the roasted garlic cloves in the same manner, then add the melted butter to the pan and stir gently until everything is combined. Taste and season with salt and pepper to taste.