The BEST Healthy Mashed Potato Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Are mashed potatoes healthy for a diet? ›

Wealth of micronutrients. In addition to carbohydrates — a needed energy source for your body and brain — potatoes contain a wealth of micronutrients. They're a good source of vitamins, minerals and fiber. As a bonus, potatoes are low in calories, contain no fat or cholesterol, and are sodium-free.

Simmer your mashed potatoes in milk, not water! Potatoes are like pasta, in that they leach starches into their cooking liquid. In the case of pasta, you want to reserve some of that liquid to give sauce a luscious shine and bind it to the noodles.

It is totally fine to eat potatoes every day. While how you prepare and cook potatoes and how much you eat could possibly impact your health, whole potatoes with skin are a nutritious vegetable with health benefits.

Of rice, pasta, potatoes, and bread, potatoes are the healthiest of these starchy and complex carbohydrate foods. This is because potatoes are dense in nutrients, containing essential minerals, vitamins, and other micronutrients. Potatoes are also high in fiber, helping to satiate hunger and regulate blood sugar.

200 calories of potatoes usually equates to around 2.5 potatoes, or three if they're small, which is the perfect warming meal in winter. Mash them, bake them or boil them for the ultimate health benefits. These filling treats contain lots of fibre that can help lower the amount of cholesterol in the blood.

All potatoes can fit into a healthy diet, but purple potatoes, red potatoes, and sweet potatoes—which are often grouped with potatoes—stand out due to their high amounts of protective plant compounds and essential nutrients.

The Healthiest Potato is the Red Potato

After taking into account the mineral density, the vitamin density, the macronutrient balance, the sugar-to-fiber ratio, the sodium-to-potassium ratio, and the phytochemical profile, red potatoes are the healthiest potato with data from the USDA Food Database.

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.

Adding egg yolks to a pot of mashed potatoes is an easy, dairy-free texture and taste upgrade that doesn't require any special techniques. The yolks harbor all the flavorful fats and emulsifying components and will thus effectively unify the fat and water in potatoes, translating to a smoother, uniformly creamy pot.

What do professional chefs use to mash potatoes? ›

The secret weapon, a good potato ricer (affiliate). This pushes the potatoes into strings, which helps them soak up every bit of the cream and achieve maximum fluffliness.

No, mash it in, the heat of the boiled potatoes will melt it. For a difference, try adding some home made Mayonnaise and a crushed clove of garlic. Can you make mashed potatoes without milk or cream, only using water and butter? I called them to tell them dinner was on the table.

According to The Kitchn, sour cream is much denser than milk and so you'd end up with very stiff potatoes if sour cream replaces the milk in your recipe. Because milk is a liquid, it helps take the potatoes' stiffer mass and soften it, giving them their signature texture.

They're also chock full of starch, which is a carbohydrate. But even though a potato is considered a complex “healthy” carb, your body digests these carbs faster than other kinds of complex carbs. These broken-down carbs flood your blood with sugar. This makes your blood sugar spike quickly.

Potatoes have 79% less calories than pasta on average. Per 100 grams of pasta, there are 371 calories. Meanwhile, potatoes contain 79 calories per 100 grams. But even though pasta contains more calories, it is actually slightly lighter in carbohydrates.

Lower fat content: Mashed potatoes are typically made with boiled or steamed potatoes, which contain less fat than French fries, which are deep-fried. Consuming excess fat can lead to weight gain and make it more difficult to manage diabetes.