How to Rescue Ruined Mashed Potatoes

For a dish so simple as mashed potatoes, there are a whole lot of methods to doubtlessly mess up a batch. It might seem to be a catastrophe when your mashed potatoes end up lumpy, watery, too salty, and even gluey — particularly in the event you’re making them for Thanksgiving or one other particular meal.

However don’t fear, there’s nearly at all times a solution to resolve your tater troubles. Right here’s what to do in case your mashed potatoes are lower than good, with simple fixes to deliver them again from the brink.

Soupy, watery mashed potatoes normally occur as a result of the cooked potatoes had been lower into items that had been too small, weren’t drained properly sufficient, or had been overcooked.

Repair them: Scoop the watery mashed potatoes right into a pan and stir consistently over low warmth to evaporate the surplus liquid. If the potatoes are actually watery, you possibly can add both cornstarch or immediate mashed potatoes a half teaspoon at a time to assist the spuds thicken to your most popular consistency.

Subsequent time: Whereas chopping potatoes into smaller items will assist them prepare dinner extra shortly, it will probably additionally trigger the items to soak up an excessive amount of water, so resist the urge when prepping potatoes. Set a timer to verify the potatoes and ensure they don’t overcook, and drain them very properly earlier than mashing.

Did you add the potatoes to already boiling water as a substitute of bringing the potatoes and water to a boil collectively? Doing this will trigger uneven cooking, and when your potatoes aren’t cooked evenly — that’s, when the within of every piece is undercooked whereas the perimeters are mushy and tender — you find yourself with lumpy mashed potatoes. 

Repair them: Scoop the lumpy potatoes right into a pan and add a splash of dairy — cream, half-and-half, milk, or bitter cream. Prepare dinner over low warmth, stirring and mashing till easy. It’s possible you’ll want so as to add a bit extra dairy as you go to easy out these lumps. (If you happen to don’t need to use dairy, you need to use veggie or hen broth or a non-dairy milk, resembling rice milk, to assist easy out the lumps, however bear in mind that these may have an effect on the flavour of your mashed potatoes. )

Subsequent time: Cowl the potatoes with chilly water in your pot and produce them to a boil over medium-high warmth. It’s one of the best ways to verify the potatoes prepare dinner evenly.

Salting the water you’re cooking the potatoes in is mostly a great factor, as a result of it helps season the potatoes as they prepare dinner. However in the event you’re utilizing salted butter or simply going heavy-handed on the salt as you’re mashing, it may be an excessive amount of of a great factor.

Repair them: To tone down the salt, add extra dairy, like cream or unsalted butter, to compensate and take in among the saltiness. You probably have cauliflower rice available, you possibly can shortly microwave it and stir within the mushy, bland bits to offset the salt as properly.

Subsequent time: Use unsalted butter in your potatoes and style as you go.

You thought it might be faster to mash your potatoes within the meals processor or blender, however you ended up with wallpaper paste as a substitute of a fluffy purée. That’s as a result of the aggressive movement of the blade triggered all of the cell partitions within the potatoes to blow up, releasing the starch and actually gumming up the works.

Repair it: That is the hardest potato challenge to repair, as a result of there’s actually no going again from a gluey potato. The perfect factor you are able to do is to create a distraction with plenty of cheese. Stir shredded cheese into the potatoes and switch to a baking dish, topping with extra cheese and a crunchy aspect like panko breadcrumbs or crushed crackers. Bake till the gratin is puffy and golden-brown on high.

Subsequent time: Go light and mash your potatoes by hand with a meals mill, a ricer, or a handheld masher. This retains the starchy cells of the potato intact and provides you the right fluffy texture.