The Best Vegan Mashed Potatoes Start With Yukon Golds

Non-vegans are always reticent to sacrifice dairy, but if you choose the right spud for your mash (and grab one of those fancy new margarines), you’ll find you don’t need cream to make creamy mashed potatoes.

How to pick the right potato for your vegan mash

The “right” spud is a Yukon Gold, or other yellow or gold potato with a similar starch content. Yukons and the like have lower amounts of starch than big, tough-skinned russets, and cook up dense and creamy, rather than dry and fluffy. A mash made with Yukons is inherently creamier than one made with high-starch potatoes, which allows you to skip the actual cream.

Don’t mash, rice

They made be called “mashed potatoes,” but riced potatoes will always have a better, creamier texture. Potato mashers often leave behind big chunks, which don’t exactly read as “creamy” on the tongue. Instead of wearing out your arm with manual mashing, which can lead to overdeveloping the starch, rendering the mash gluey, use a potato ricer, or force them through a fine mesh sieve. Either method will break the flesh of the potato down into tiny little pieces, so all you have to do is gently fold in your vegan “butter” of choice.

Add some (a lot) of roasted garlic

Magical things happen when you roast garlic. The harsh, hot, pungent allium is transformed into something that is sweet, deeply savory, and creamy. It gets so soft, you could spread it like butter, but you’re not going to do that. You’re going to mash that garlic right into your potatoes, to balance a bit of the potato’s bitterness and heighten the perception of creaminess. Roast a whole head of garlic, remove the cloves, and push them through the very same ricer (or sieve) you used to mash the potatoes.

Finish with fancy margarine

The beer can doesn’t fall far from the trailer park, so I have no qualms with Country Crock, but these newfangled margarines—which have been re-branded as “plant butter”—are pretty impressive. My favorite is Miyoko’s vegan butter. It has a creamy, slightly salty, yogurty tang you usually find with cultured butter. I know a lot of vegans that are fond of Earth Balance, however, so go with whichever tastes the best to you.

Easy Vegan Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients:

• 8 medium Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and quartered
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 head roasted garlic
• 1/4 cup vegan butter of choice, melted
• More salt, and white pepper to taste

Add the peeled, quartered potatoes to a large stock pot, along with 2 teaspoons of salt, and enough water to cover by an inch. Bring to a boil and cook for 20-30 minutes, until the potatoes can be easily mashed with a fork. Drain them, and place the stock pot over low heat. (If working on an electric stove, turn the burner off.)

Rice the potatoes back into the pot, using either a potato ricer or fine mesh sieve. Rice the roasted garlic cloves in the same manner, then add the melted butter to the pot and gently stir until everything is just combined. Taste and season with salt and pepper to taste.