How to Make Great Mashed Potatoes Without Butter or Cream

Mashed potatoes are often loaded with milk, butter, and cream, and we’re not complaining. But for those who don’t eat dairy, there’s no need to miss out on super creamy mashed potatoes. Here are some of the best dairy-free and vegan mashed potato recipes and tips.

First off, it’s not just about what you mix into the potatoes—it also matters what type of potatoes you use, and how you mash them.

Step 1: Pick the Right Potatoes

For any type of mashed potatoes, Yukon Golds will yield the smoothest, creamiest result, no matter what you’re mixing into them afterward. They have a silkier, less fluffy (and less grainy) texture than the more common russets. Obviously, peeling them will also up the creaminess of your mash, but even if you like to leave the skins in, Yukon Golds are still the way to go. They also have a richer flavor that some describe as inherently buttery.

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Related Reading: Waxy vs Starchy Potatoes for Potato Salad

Step 2: Use the Right Tools

There are many varieties of potato mashers, but even the best designed won’t do the job quite as well as a potato ricer or food mill. If you’re after the smoothest, creamiest mash imaginable with no lumps in sight, invest in a ricer and you’ll never look back. Another bonus: You don’t have to peel your potatoes if you’re going to put them through a ricer, which will trap the skins in the basket.

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You can also use an electric hand mixer, but it’s easier to over-whip and end up with gluey potatoes that way.

Step 3: Add the Right (Non-Dairy) Ingredients

If you’re vegan, you can achieve creamy mashed potatoes with olive oil, Earth Balance or another vegan butter substitute, and a splash of non-dairy milk or coconut milk in place of the usual butter and cream.

But you can also mix in soft, luxurious roasted garlic or caramelized onions, which not only add tons of flavor but further boost the creamy texture.

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Another non-dairy option is to cook your potatoes in stock instead of water, and use more stock instead of cream when whipping them. Homemade stock is ideal for best flavor, but a good store-bought brand will also work. Make it veggie if you’re vegan, or try chicken stock if it’s just dairy you don’t eat.

As when cooking pasta, you can reserve a bit of the starchy potato cooking water (or starchy stock!) to mix in too. (Many Chowhounds are fans of this method for their non dairy mashed potatoes.)

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Vegan Gravy

Dairy-free mashed potatoes are still great with gravy, but even vegan gravy can be prone to clumping. Luckily, you can fix lumpy gravy with the same methods no matter what it’s made from.

Vegan Mashed Potato Recipes

Now you know enough to whip up your own batch of creamy mashed potatoes without dairy, but if you prefer to follow specific recipes, try one of these:

The Best Damn Vegan Mashed Potatoes

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Deliciously fluffy vegan mashed potatoes with roasted garlic. . Recipe link in profile @lovingitvegan⠀ .⠀ https://lovingitvegan.com/roasted-garlic-vegan-mashed-potatoes/ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #vegan #lovingitvegan #veganmashedpotatoes #veganfoodporn #veganfoodshare #veganfoodie #recipe #vegancooking #dairyfree #whatveganseat #instavegan #vegansofig #veganrecipes #plantstrong #vegancommunity #veganeatsplease #veganfoodlovers #veganeating #veganfoods

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Yukon Golds get mashed with roasted garlic and vegan butter in this version of dairy-free mashed potatoes. Get the The Best Damn Vegan Mashed Potatoes recipe.

Olive Oil Mashed Potatoes

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These olive oil mashed potatoes are going on our holiday table. They're a staple in our house. Use vegetable broth and olive oil instead of cream and butter to make amazing holiday potatoes. Direct link in profile for direct link to recipe on the blog. RECIPE LINK: https://www.theblendergirl.com/recipe/olive-oil-mashed-potatoes/

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This rendition uses red-skinned potatoes, but you can use Yukon Golds here too. Vegetable broth and extra-virgin olive oil combine to make them extra creamy. Get the Olive Oil Mashed Potatoes recipe.

Buttermilk Vegan Mashed Potatoes

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Some days I just crave a huge bowl of my FLUFFY BUTTERMILK MASHED POTATOES AND WINE GRAVY for the perfect comfort food! Serving these alongside homemade falafel tonight for dinner. Yummmmm. Link to recipe in profile. https://thevegan8.com/fluffy-buttermilk-vegan-mashed-potatoes/ . . . #potatoes #mashedpotatoes #gravy #veganchef #plantprotein #veganprotein

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This vegan buttermilk mashed potato recipe uses a bit of apple cider vinegar for the tang and coconut milk for the creaminess of actual buttermilk. (You can also try coconut milk in conjunction with vegan butter as in this Coconut Milk Mashed Potatoes recipe.) Get the Buttermilk Vegan Mashed Potatoes recipe.

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The Ultimate Guide to Perfect Mashed Potatoes

Mashed potatoes are glorious in all their permutations—except when they’re lumpy, watery, gluey, or grainy. Luckily, making perfect mashed potatoes isn’t hard, as long as you follow a few simple tips.

How to Make the Best Mashed Potatoes

Here are pointers for perfect mash every step of the way.

Pick Your Potato: Go for the Gold

While we like different types of spuds in potato salad, when it comes to mashed potatoes, Yukon Golds are definitely the best. They’re smooth, dense (in a good way), and have an inherently buttery flavor. Russets can work just fine (though we still prefer the flavor of Yukon Golds), but waxy potatoes are best avoided.

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Slice and Dice: Even It Out

Make sure you cut your potatoes into evenly sized pieces so they all cook at the same rate. You’ll want to peel them first unless you like to leave the skins on or are using a ricer, which will remove them for you.

How to Cook Them

The classic way to cook potatoes before mashing is to cut them into chunks and boil in salted water. You can boil them in broth for a richer flavor (though be careful about adding too much salt in that case).

Start them in cold liquid (and if you’re using a stainless steel pot, don’t salt the water until after it starts to boil), then let them cook until they’re almost falling apart, about 25 minutes. If they’re still too firm in the center, they won’t mash as well or become as creamy.

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If your stovetop is fully booked or you just want to spend less time cooking, you can make Instant Pot mashed potatoes, which cook for 12 minutes (plus the time it takes for the pot to come to pressure).

You can even steam or bake your potatoes so they’re drier, but if you boil, don’t skip the next two-part step.

Drain & Dry

Drain your potatoes when they’re done—if you’re not using dairy, reserve a little of the starchy cooking liquid to add back later.

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And then, instead of immediately tossing in the butter (regular or vegan), return the pot to low heat and gently stir the potatoes for a few minutes so they start to dry out and break apart.

Tools of the Trade: Potato Masher vs Ricer

Lump-free mashed potatoes are guaranteed if you use a potato ricer.

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A food mill will also work, but the results won’t be quite as silky.

And a potato masher is just fine if you like (or at least don’t mind) some lumpiness, but we don’t recommend a food processor, which is likely to give you potato paste. An electric mixer is also tempting, but can lead to gluey spuds as well.

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Get Rich (and Hot)

Now you can add your butter and milk or cream; don’t skimp on either, and don’t add them cold or they’ll bring down the temperature of your mash. Warm the milk or heavy cream with the butter in a small saucepan while the potatoes cook and mix them into your mashed or riced potatoes with a wooden spoon. Don’t over-mix!

Related Reading: Which Utensil to Use with Every Type of Cookware

Some recipes add other forms of dairy either instead of or in addition to one or both of the above—cream cheese, sour cream, yogurt. You can warm them too, but that’s especially important with cream cheese, which will disperse in lots of tiny lumps if cold when stirred in.

Dairy Free Diversions

If you don’t do dairy, you can use olive oil, non-dairy milk, vegan butter, and other alternative ingredients (including some of the potato cooking water or broth, just like pasta sauce often uses a bit of the starchy cooking water to make it richer and silkier). See our guide to non-dairy and vegan mashed potatoes for more ideas and recipes.

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How Much Butter and Cream Should You Use?

That depends on personal taste and how many calories you’re willing to overlook. We regularly use about a stick of butter and a cup of cream for anywhere between 3 and 5 pounds of potatoes. Yes, that’s a lot, but that’s why they taste so good. Cut back as you see fit. And check out some of our mashed potato recipes below for specific ratios and variations.

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If you want to take a cue from molecular gastronomy, you can skip butter and cream completely for diastatic malt powder (you’ll also need a sous vide set-up). The result will be so smooth it’s more of a sauce/KFC mashed potato texture, but check it out if you’re interested in how it works:

A Word on Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Garlic mashed potatoes are a popular upgrade, but opinions vary on the best way to prepare the garlic. Roasted garlic is a classic, but some Chowhounds prefer to boil the cloves along with the potatoes; RealMenJulienne believes that mellows the sharpness and makes it easier to mash into the spuds, which themselves are fully infused with the gentler garlic flavor from the cooking process. Other options: noodlepoodle briefly sautes grated garlic in melted butter before mixing it in (and you could do the same with olive oil), while esquimeaux just mashes in raw, minced garlic.

A Word on Gravy

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You want it, you need it, you should make extra, no matter how perfect your potatoes are. Our Make Ahead Turkey Gravy is a good way to ensure you’re stocked up. And see how to fix lumpy gravy if you find yourself with that particular dilemma.

Can You Make Mashed Potatoes Ahead of Time?

Yes, with some caveats. Check out some tips on making mashed potatoes ahead of time, and see our guide to Thanksgiving recipes you can make ahead to see what else you can get a jump on before the big day.

Mashed Potato Recipes

Now that you know the way to perfect potatoes, peruse some of our favorite takes on the classic comfort food side dish.

Classic Mashed Potatoes

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Just what you’d expect: Yukon Golds, cooked, drained, and dried, then mixed with warmed cream and butter—we do call for mashing these in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, which will be fine as long you keep it on low speed and don’t let it run too long. If you have a ricer, use that instead, and a wooden spoon to gently fold in the fats. Get our Classic Mashed Potatoes recipe.

Truffled Fingerling Mashed Potatoes

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These are more roughly smashed than mashed, but they’re still rich with butter and cream—and then they get a kiss of white truffle oil for a deep, earthy flavor. Just be sure to use a high-quality brand or they’ll likely have a chemical note. This may be the only time we wouldn’t recommend pouring on the gravy. Get our Truffled Fingerling Mashed Potatoes recipe.

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Sour Cream Mashed Potatoes

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You can also add sour cream for a bit of tang. This recipe does, and swaps heavy cream for whole milk, but still uses a full stick of butter. Get our Sour Cream Mashed Potatoes recipe.

Buttery Mashed Potatoes

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Butter is the name of the game here too, but instead of cream or milk, we mix in warmed chicken broth. Make it veggie broth and use vegan butter if you don’t eat dairy. Get our Buttery Mashed Potatoes recipe.

Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes

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This recipe calls for russets, but Yukon Golds will be even better. It adds rich, tangy buttermilk to the usual butter and cream. It also calls for the buttermilk to be at room temp, but you can gently warm it instead if you want to make sure your mash stays hot for longer. Get our Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes recipe.

Mashed Red Potatoes

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Yes, we said waxy potatoes tend to get gluey, but that’s mostly because they take longer to mash to a truly smooth texture. Therefore, this recipe intentionally leaves them a bit lumpy (and also leaves the skins on), but thanks to a stick of butter and plenty of heavy cream, they’re still creamy too. Parsley and chives freshen it up a bit. Get our Mashed Red Potatoes recipe.

Related Video: The Best Way to Reheat Mashed Potatoes

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Can You Make Mashed Potatoes Ahead of Time?

Can you make mashed potatoes ahead of time—or, rather, should you?

When you’re planning a major feast, you want to get as much prepared in advance as you can. (So see all the Thanksgiving recipes you can make ahead.) If you’re making mashed potatoes, you can prep the potatoes themselves a few days head, or actually mash them up to one day before.

Prepping the Potatoes Ahead of Time

To save time spent peeling and chopping on Thanksgiving Day, you can peel the spuds and keep them submerged in a bowl of water in the fridge, whole or cut up, for hours—even overnight—before boiling.

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When it comes to prepping mashed potatoes, Will Owen has kept peeled potatoes refrigerated in water-filled, zipper-lock bags for several days with no ill effects.

Karl S says there’s a better way that avoids the whole issue: “[D]on’t chop, don’t peel. Steam them whole. Pop them into a potato ricer with the peel, and the peel stays in the hopper. This way you get way less moisture in the potato, and that makes for better mashed potatoes.”

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Making the Mashed Potatoes Ahead of Time

Others take it a step further and actually mash their potatoes ahead of time, up to the day before, reheating them in the oven or microwave.

Chowhound danhole, who adds a bit of extra butter and reheats in the microwave, says hers come out nice and fluffy, and taste even better than freshly mashed; valerie makes hers supercreamy (with butter, half-and-half, and sour cream), and says they reheat beautifully in the oven; Diane in Bexley’s secret is to add cream cheese (around six ounces per five pounds of potatoes).

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What Not to Do

Here’s what not to do, according to ‘hounds: Don’t boil your potatoes ahead and wait to mash them, even for half an hour, and don’t hold mashed potatoes in a slow cooker. Both result in a mash so gluey even a paste-eating kindergartener wouldn’t touch them.

See our Ultimate Guide to Creamy Mashed Potatoes for more pointers. And here’s how we prefer to reheat cold mashed potatoes, whether they’re made ahead or leftover:

For more tips, tricks, hacks, and recipes, see our Ultimate Thanksgiving Guide and our Ultimate Friendsgiving Guide too.

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Lemon-Ricotta Cheesecake

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Should You Buy a Blender or a Food Processor?

Shopping for small appliances and not sure which one to get? We run down the pros and cons of blenders and food processors (plus immersion blenders!) so you can figure out which one is best for you.

Continue reading "Should You Buy a Blender or a Food Processor?" »

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Thanksgiving Turkey Reuben Sandwich

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9 Fun & Functional Containers for Storing Thanksgiving Leftovers

Real talk: Thanksgiving leftovers are even better than the main event, if only because you get to enjoy them in a relatively peaceful house (and pants are totally optional while you’re eating your cold stuffing straight from the bowl). These are some of the best storage containers for those Thanksgiving leftovers, if you’re lucky enough to have them—and they’re as stylish as they are functional.

W&P Porter Plastic Bowl with Silicone Strap, $24.99 on Amazon

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This sleek plastic storage bowl is BPA free but also available in ceramic, and in a range of pale, pretty colors in either material. The protective silicone strap is standard on all versions, but reviews suggest it’s not ideal for transporting liquids—so don’t try to stash leftover butternut squash soup in your purse for Black Friday camp-out sustenance. But salad, sweet potatoes, and green bean casserole (or anything stored in your fridge, for that matter) will be just fine.Buy Now

Joseph Joseph 12-Piece Nesting Plastic Food Storage Containers with Lids, $27.99 on Amazon

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These rainbow-rimmed containers will add real pizzazz to cold mashed potatoes (or whatever else you put in them), and the color-coded dots in the bottom of each container coordinate with the lids—so you’ll never grab the wrong one and experience that square-peg, round-hole moment of trying to make it fit. The pieces also nest for space-saving storage in your cabinets in between batches of leftovers. If you like the look but are prone to dropping things, consider this newer set with lockable lids.Buy Now

Mepal Microwaveable Nested Storage Bowls, $62-$72 on Food52

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Another nesting storage set, these bowls come in two sizes: deep and shallow. The deeper bowls hold more food, of course, but the shallow set will easily fit into freezers, crisper drawers, and other tight spaces. Choose from nine gorgeous colors and get four bowls in that single shade, or opt for the deep jewel tones of the mixed set and get an extra bowl (five total). The lids match the bowls, but their tops are see-through so you can identify your leftovers at a glance. These are microwave and dishwasher safe too.Buy Now

ECOlunchbox Blue Water Bento Stainless Storage Bowls with Silicone Lids, 3 for $32.99 on Amazon

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This eco-friendly option includes three smaller stainless steel bowls with leak-proof silicone lids, designed to be healthier for you and for the planet. Perfect for toting lunch, or storing less abundant leftovers (if you made a small-scale Thanksgiving dinner or just had an especially hungry horde). While these obviously can’t go in the microwave, they are dishwasher and oven-safe.Buy Now

Brooklyn Bento Stainless Steel Thermos with Bamboo Spoon, $19.99 on Amazon

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That aforementioned butternut squash soup? This insulated, wide-mouth, vacuum-seal flask is perfect for storing it—or for toting your leftover turkey soup leftovers to work when you’re back to the grind (so meta), and keeping them warm until afternoon thanks to the copper lining. It’s leak-proof, available in coal-black or crystal-white, and the included bamboo spoon is a nice touch.Buy Now

Ello 10-Piece Meal Prep Food Storage Container Set, $35.99 at Target

Target

These glass storage containers boast snap-on lids and brightly colored silicone covers that make them easier to grip (even with slippery fingers after picking turkey meat off the carcass). They also protect your fingers from superheated glass when taking your freshly nuked leftovers out of the microwave.Buy Now

Pyrex 1-Cup Treat Yo’ Self Containers, 3 for $14.99 at Target

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These adorable Pyrex containers are perfect for small portions of leftover gravy or sweet potato casserole (or a single, precious slice of pie)—and super cute for sending guests home with a little nibble too.Buy Now

Rezip 5-Piece Stand-Up Silicone Storage Bags, $19.99 on Amazon

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A greener alternative to traditional plastic sandwich bags, these zip-stop silicone bags have the added bonus of a flat bottom so they stand up straight—which makes filling them with one hand so much easier, and acts as added insurance against leaks, just in case (let no speck of cranberry sauce go to waste). The bright colors are just icing on the cake. Or whipped cream on the pie?Buy Now

Five Two Airtight Silicone Lids, 5 for $40 on Food52

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Okay, these are not containers, but they are amazing. Instead of wrestling with plastic wrap (and throwing copious amounts of it away), use these airtight silicone lids to snugly cover cups, bowls, pots, and other containers of nearly any size. They also work as lids when cooking and are oven-safe up to 550°F. Dishwasher-safe too, not to mention non-porous so they’re resistant to odors, stains, and bacteria. Need more? The knobs on top mean they stack neatly together for storage.Buy Now

For more tips, tricks, gear, and recipes (you need something to put in these containers, after all), see our Ultimate Guide to Thanksgiving.

Related Video: Do You Really Have to Let Leftovers Cool Down Before You Refrigerate Them?

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