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My roasted garlic mashed potatoes 🧄🥔 are my most requested side dish during the holidays. They’re easy to make and so delicious with just four main ingredients–potatoes, garlic, creamy cheese, and butter. Guests always go back for seconds! Plus, I have a dairy-free mashed potato recipe for anyone who needs it. I promise they’re just as good!
❤️ Why You’ll Love This Mashed Potatoes Recipe
Make these 4-ingredient mashed potatoes for the holidays, and they’ll be the side dish everyone is talking about. And really, they’re great any time of year! They’re perfect as a side with a protein and veggie for a weeknight dinner. You can also make them a day in advance and reheat them in the oven before eating–so convenient!
🥔 Mashed Potatoes Ingredients
- 🧄 Garlic: Garlic gets softer and more mellow as it roasts in the oven.
- 🧂Garlic Seasoning: Drizzle oil, salt, and pepper over the garlic head before roasting.
- 🥔 Potatoes: I recommend russet or Yukon Gold potatoes.
- 🧈 Butter makes the mashed potatoes rich and creamy.
- 🧀 Boursin Cheese is my secret ingredient for the best mashed potatoes. It adds flavor and makes them creamy.
👩🍳 How to Make Mashed Potatoes
- Roast Garlic: Drizzle a whole head of garlic with olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and wrap in foil. Bake for 30 minutes at 400℉.
- Boil Potatoes in cold, salted water.
- Mash Potatoes: For extra creamy mashed potatoes, use a potato ricer. If you don’t have one, place a fine mesh strainer over a mixing bowl. Put a potato in the strainer and mash with a spoon.
- Make the Mashed Potatoes: Add the butter, cheese, and roasted garlic to the potatoes and season with salt and pepper to taste.
Watch me make these easy garlic mashed potatoes on Instagram.
🪄 Tips and Tricks
- Quickly Peel Potatoes: Watch my potato peeling hack to make peeling them much easier.
- How Long to Boil Potatoes for Mashed Potatoes: Not sure how long to boil your potatoes? My video explains how long it takes to boil different-size potatoes.
- Are your homemade mashed potatoes too thick? Add a little broth to thin them out.
🗒 Variations
- Boursin: For a different flavor profile, use another flavor of Boursin, like basil and chive or cracked black pepper.
🗒 Substitutions
- Not a garlic fan? Use half of a head or omit it.
- Cheese: Swap Boursin for cream cheese or goat cheese.
- Herbs: Substitute any fresh or dried herbs, like chives, rosemary, sage, or thyme.
- Dairy-Free Mashed Potatoes: Substitute Boursin with unflavored, unsweetened plant-based milk (Oat milk works best) and butter with vegan butter, like Miyoko’s oat butter.
🍽️ Best served with
These creamy mashed potatoes are one of my favorite holiday sides, but they’re great any time of year when you have a potato craving.
- Holidays: Pair these garlic mashed potatoes with turkey and all the traditional Thanksgiving side dishes, like Green Bean Casserole and Make-Ahead Cranberry Jelly.
- Meat and Veggies: These potatoes would be great with chicken or beef tenderloin and air fryer green beans or asparagus.
👝 How to Store Mashed Potatoes
You can eat these mashed potatoes warm immediately after making them or prepare them a day before you serve them.
- Put the mashed potatoes in a casserole dish and wrap tightly with plastic wrap.
- Refrigerate overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 350℉, and reheat, covered, for 30 minutes until warm in the center.
Homemade mashed potatoes will last for three to five days in an airtight container in the refrigerator. I don’t recommend freezing them.
🤔 Common Questions
Russet or Yukon Gold potatoes are my favorite for creamy mashed potatoes. You also want to use more than one dairy source, so I use cheese and butter.
There are so many things to add to mashed potatoes for flavor. I use roasted garlic, garlic Boursin, salt, pepper, and fresh herbs for this garlic mashed potatoes recipe. Using good-quality butter also helps.
Letting the butter and cheese come to room temperature will make it easier to mix into the potatoes.
Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Equipment
- Potato ricer or fine mesh strainer
Ingredients
- 1 head of garlic, small to medium
- Olive oil
- Salt & pepper to taste
- 4 pounds potatoes, Yukon Gold or russet potatoes
- 6 tablespoons salted butter
- ½ cup creamy cheese, I use 1 round of Garlic & Fine Herbs Boursin
- Parsley and dill, finely chopped (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400℉.
- Roast Garlic: Place garlic in foil, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Wrap the foil over the garlic, and roast in the oven for 30 minutes until soft.
- Boil Potatoes: Make a cut in each potato with a knife around the potatoes–Don’t cut all the way through the potatoes. Place potatoes in a pot of cold, salted water and bring to a boil. Cook for about 20 minutes, depending on their size, until soft. Check the potatoes by inserting a fork or knife into the center. When it can be easily inserted, they’re ready.
- Peel Potatoes: Drain the potatoes and place them in an ice bath for 30 seconds to cool. Remove them from the ice water and pull the skins off.
- Mash Potatoes: Use a potato ricer to mash them. Or, place them in a fine mesh strainer set over a mixing bowl and mash them through the strainer.
- Add Other Ingredients: Add butter, Boursin, roasted garlic, and chopped parsley and dill (if using) to the potatoes. Stir until combined. Taste and season with salt and pepper if needed.
- How to Serve: Serve immediately while warm or refrigerate them for the next day in a casserole dish covered tightly with plastic wrap. (Press the plastic wrap down on the potatoes so there is no air.) Refrigerate.
- How to Reheat: Preheat the oven to 350℉. Cover the dish with foil and bake for about 20 minutes until heated through.
Notes
- Dairy-free Mashed Potatoes: Follow the directions above, but substitute Boursin and butter for the following ingredients:
- 1 cup unflavored, unsweetened plant-based milk (Oat milk works best.)
- ¼ cup vegan butter (I like oat butter from Miyoko’s Creamery.)
- Watch my potato peeling hack video to save time peeling potatoes.
