So I overestimated how many potatoes we needed for last night’s dinner and ended up with nearly 3 cups of leftover mashed potatoes that I hadn’t anticipated. Problem is, I don’t really like how mashed potatoes taste if they’re reheated on their own, so I’d rather use them as part of a dish of sorts.
I suppose I could make Shepherd’s Pie, but that’s what I always do with leftover mash and I’m not particularly in the mood for it either, so I’m hoping y’all can suggest something new and different instead. Help!
We’re adventurous eaters, so pretty much anything goes so long as it doesn’t involve an ingredient that might try to crawl off my plate. Oh, and I flavoured the mash with roasted garlic cloves and sour cream, in case that matters.
Throw 'em in a bowl, add some more garlic and maybe a finely grated onion, 1 or 2 eggs. Mix well.
Make them into cakes and fry them gently in butter. This takes a long time and they never really hold together, you have to be very careful turning them, but they are yummy. It’s the one way my boys will eat leftover mashed spuds.
You could make lefse, but maybe not with garlic in them.
Bachelor solution: eat them cold straight out of the Tupperware container, while standing in front of the fridge, with the door wide open, in your bathrobe, at 3:00 in the morning.
I never have leftover mashed. If they’re not eaten with the meal, they go in the trash. Potato pancakes are best made with freshly grated spuds, by the way.
Put potatoes in bowl, add small amount of butter, dash of garlic powder and heaping mound of grated cheese. Microwave for two minutes. Dip each spoonful in ranch dressing…
Prepare for early death via heart disease…but my god, is it good!
Make Quick-As-Sin Baked Potato Soup with them. Fry up some bacon (hell, even bacon bits work in a pinch), bake or nuke a potato or two, and while that’s cooking, put your leftovers in a saucepan with enough milk and/or half and half to make you happy. Put over medium low heat and add a few handfuls of grated cheese (cheddar is best, but whatever you have half-molding in your drawer is fine - just cut off the mold, first), stirring well between each addition until all the cheese is melted before adding the next handful. Add more milk if you need it. Salt and pepper to taste. Just before serving, roughly break up your baked or nuked potato and add it. Stir, spoon into a bowl and top with crumbled bacon or bits, a sprinkle of chives or dill, a sprinkle of cheese for color and sour cream if you got it.
Serve with a loaf of crusty bread and a side salad, and suddenly a serving and a half of leftovers is a meal for four!
This even works with mashed potatoes from a box. Hypothetically. Not that I’d EVER resort to instant mashed potatoes. Especially the Roasted Garlic ones.
My friend covers meatloaf with leftover mashed potatoes and bakes it until the meat is done. I tried it once and it was awesome. I think this is standard comfort food and can probably be found somewhere on line for the exact directions.
A beloved Swedish classic: potatisplättar (potato pancakes).
Per 5 deciliters of mashed potatoes, mix with 2 eggs and 2-3 tablespoons of wheat flour. Add a little milk if the mixture feels too thick, it’s supposed to be like thick pancake mix. Fry them in palm-sized dollops. Delicious with lingonberry jam on top and crispy bacon on the side.
You keep saying that, whenever the subject of leftover mashed potatoes comes up, but I’ve never learned your rationale for the policy. And since your username suggests that you might be a trained chef, I can’t help but wonder if you have some knowledge you can share with us.
Do mashed potatoes have some arcane property that makes them unsuitable for consumption, or is this simply a matter of your personal preferences.
BTW, I do use leftover mashed potatoes in a kind of quasi-potato pancake application, but I agree, real potato pancakes aren’t made with mashed potatoes, even if they’re fresh.
All great suggestions, and I think I’ll have to try out a few of these once I have potatoes on hand to make a fresh batch of mash. Unfortunately, though, they’re all still very… well… potatoey. I was hoping for something flavourful enough to compete with the potato flavour, the way shepherd’s pie does.
See, the problem is that I find that leftover cooked potatoes take on a very weird aftertaste after a day or two in the fridge, and I’d hate to go through the trouble of making a pot of soup or a whole meatloaf only to discover it has that leftover spud taste. (I have the same problem with homefries made with leftover boiled potatoes… I can’t eat them unless they’re doused with seasoned salt and then smothered in ketchup)
Ive never done them that way, but the local taqueria has deep-fried potato tacos that are simply divine–the contrast between the cruchy shell and the unctuous filling is a tasty treat. Were I to replicate them at home, I’d spoon some mashed potato down the center of a corn tortilla, fold it over, fry it on one side until crisp (this may take holding it down with a spatula, as the tortilla will want to unfold, flip to the other side, and serve. Here they’re normally topped with lettuce and tomato instead of the usual onions and cilantro. Add a little chipotle salsa and you’re set. Boy are these good!
1 cup cold mashed spuds.
1 cup self raising flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
combine into a very firm dough (add water sparingly if needed). Divide in half, roll out on a floured board. Roll very thin (5mm is good) and cut into 8’s (like a pizza). Fry in generous amounts of butter on a very hot griddle. Dry frying works fine if you’re watching fat levels.
These are best eaten while hot, you can add savoury spreads or dips. Adding extra garlic or new herbs to the dough will only add to the yumminess. Because of the added egg and flour, the spud becomes a background flavour.
One of the telly chefs came up with an idea that I’ve adopted. If I could remember which one it was, I’d mention him or her and credit them with it because it’s very good. But I can’t. Sorry to whichever telly chef it was.
Scoop out big spoonfuls or balls of the mashed potato that’s left over onto a baking tray and freeze them. When they’ve frozen solid, put them in a freezer bag and leave them in your freezer. The next time you’re making a soup or a stew that needs a bit of thickening, add one or two of your frozen mashed potato snowballs.
