These creamy mashed red potatoes are seasoned up with mellow roasted garlic, zesty chives, and fresh dill! Serve them plain or smothered in gravy. Perfect for special dinners, but also easy enough for weeknights!
People who don't know me very well always ask me what I eat for Thanksgiving. These days I point them to this site (or more specifically, to this post). But for most of my non-meat eating life, the answer was a bunch of side dishes. But even that wasn't quite accurate. Most years, mashed potatoes made up most of my Thanksgiving dinner.
Can you blame me? I had an excuse to make a meal of mashed potatoes once a year, and I took it!
Even though I eat a more varied vegan Thanksgiving dinner these days, mashed potatoes are still my favorite. And in fact, my mashed potatoes have improved a lot since those first few Thanksgivings without Turkey.
Plain old mashed potatoes are great, but mashed potatoes with roasted garlic and dill? You just might have all the non-vegans at your table making an entire meal of mashed potatoes too!
How to Roast Garlic
You need to know this in order to make roasted garlic mashed potatoes.
For this recipe we'll be using two bulbs of garlic. That's right: two whole bulbs. We can get away with it because roasted garlic has a much milder, more mellow flavor than the raw stuff, or even garlic that's been briefly sautéed in oil.
Cut the top off of each bulb so as to expose the garlic cloves within. Next, place each garlic bulb on a sheet of foil or the base of a garlic roaster. Drizzle them with some olive oil, then close up the foil or place the lid on your roaster.
Pop the garlic in the oven and let it bake until the cloves are soft and browned.
When the garlic is done, take it out of the oven and let it cool for a bit. Once it's cool enough to handle, you should be able to squeeze it to extract those roasted garlic cloves.
How to Make Mashed Red Potatoes
One of the reasons I like using red potatoes for my mash is that I'm lazy! The skin on red potatoes is thinner and more delicate than on baking potatoes, so I don't feel the need to remove it. If you prefer no skins in your mashed potatoes, feel free to peel them, but I leave it on.
In either case, cut your potatoes into large chunks, stick them in a pot, and add some water. Boil the potatoes until they're just tender.
Tip: don't overboil your potatoes! This can be tempting because it seems like a longer boiling time would make them softer and fluffier, right? Nope! Boiling potatoes too long will make your mashed potatoes gummy and runny.
When the potatoes are done boiling, mash them up with a potato masher. Next, add that roasted garlic, along with some dill, vegan butter, and non-dairy milk. I like to add one raw garlic clove as well, for just a bit of bite. Mash everything again, add more milk if needed, and season your potatoes with salt and pepper.
How to Serve Roasted Garlic & Dill Mashed Red Potatoes
The beauty of these potatoes is that they've got enough going on to serve them plain. No gravy required!
But if you do want to top them off with some gravy, try my super simple vegan gravy or whiskey mushroom gravy.
FAQ & Garlic & Dill Mashed Red Potato Tips
- Can I use another variety of potato for this recipe? Yup! Yellow potatoes, such as Yukon Gold, can be directly substituted. Baking potatoes such as Russet will work too, but you'll probably want to peel them. They may also need a few extra minutes of cooking time and some extra milk.
- Are these mashed potatoes gluten-free? They sure are!
- My potatoes came out gummy/runny. What gives? They were probably overcooked. Just cook the potatoes until they are tender enough to pierce with a fork, and no longer.
- Where can I find vegan butter? Check near the regular butter or in the natural foods section of your supermarket. Look for brands such as Earth Balance or Miyoko's.
- Can I substitute dried dill and chives? I don't recommend it. You won't get as much flavor and the herbs might not rehydrate fully in the potatoes.
- Want to repurpose your leftover potatoes? Try these mashed potato pancakes!
- For a twist, add some cheesy flavor to your mashed potatoes by stirring in a few tablespoons of nutritional yeast flakes.
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📖 Recipe
Mashed Red Potatoes with Garlic & Dill
Ingredients
- 2 medium garlic bulbs
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 pounds red potatoes, scrubbed and quartered
- 1 cup unflavored and unsweetened non-dairy milk, divided
- 2 tablespoons vegan butter
- ¼ cup chopped fresh dill
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
- 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
- Black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- Cut the top off of each garlic bulb. Optionally, remove one clove from one of the bulbs, mice it finely, and set it aside (only if you'd like some raw garlic in your potatoes).
- Place each garlic bulb on a sheet of foil or the base of a garlic roaster, then drizzle each with about a tablespoon of olive oil.
- Loosely wrap each bulb with foil or cover it with the top of a garlic roaster.
- Place the garlic into the oven and bake it for 30 to 40 minutes, until the cloves are soft and lightly browned.
- While the garlic roasts, place the potatoes in a large pot and cover them with a few inches of water.
- Place the pot over high heat and bring the water to a boil.
- Boil the potatoes, uncovered, just until they are easily pierced with a fork, about 10 to 12 minutes. Don't overcook them.
- Drain the potatoes into a colander, then return them to the pot.
- Mash the potatoes with a potato masher.
- When the garlic comes out of the oven, uncover it and give it a few minutes to cool.
- Once the garlic is cool enough to handle, squeeze the bulbs to extract the cloves.
- Add the roasted garlic cloves to the pot with the potatoes, along with ½ cup of milk, the butter, dill, and chives. If you reserved some raw garlic you can add it at this point as well.
- Mash the potatoes some more, then stir the mixture with a spoon. Get the mixture as creamy or leave it as chunky as you like it. Add up to an additional ½ cup of milk, as needed.
- Season the potatoes with salt and pepper to taste.
- Divide onto plates and serve.
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Delicious! I didn't make these vegan, but they turned out great. the roasted garlic is wonderful. Only had dried dill on hand and did about 1.5 teaspoons for flavor, though could go up to 2 tsp if you really like dill. Thanks for sharing!
Yum! This looks really good. Also glad you keep the skin on the potatoes! :D
Thanks Aya! Leaving the skin on the potatoes is key. I love the texture - especially with red potatoes like I've used here :)