Recipe: Lemon Cookies Made w/Instant Potatoes | ~ Texas Homesteader (2024)

FAQs

Are instant mashed potatoes as good as regular potatoes? ›

In other respects they are similar to mashed fresh potatoes in their nutritional qualities, about two-thirds starch by dry weight, with smaller amounts of protein, dietary fiber, and vitamins. The largest difference is the loss of vitamin C, although some products may be enriched to compensate.

Most instant potato varieties call for you to combine the potatoes with water, but if you want your potatoes to taste a bit more indulgent, use milk instead. Whole milk will yield delightfully rich potatoes, but 2 percent milk works well too.

Add a Thickening Agent

This is the most common way to thicken mashed potatoes. You can use what you have on hand: Flour, cornstarch, or powdered milk are all solid options that are probably already in your pantry.

Those same add-ins—chopped fresh herbs like chives or parsley, chopped cooked bacon, crumbled blue cheese, roasted garlic cloves and so on—will enhance the instant variety as well. Butter (not margarine) is a must, as is sour cream. Instant potatoes offer a couple of additional variables for you to play with.

Yes, you can easily use instant potatoes in a recipe that calls for fresh potatoes. One cup of prepared Idahoan Mashed Potatoes = one medium fresh potato. Five pounds of fresh potatoes = approximately 1 pound of dry Idahoan flakes (or approximately 10 medium fresh potatoes).

Add Oil, Margarine and Milk

Drizzling in a little of either oil in makes a great substitute for butter in mashed potatoes. Though oil is healthier, it is even higher in calories than butter, however, so take care if you are weight-watching. A tablespoon of olive oil has 118 calories according to the USDA.

When potatoes are mashed, starch is released. The more you work the potatoes, the more starch gets released. When too much starch gets released, the potatoes become gummy, gluey, and unappetizing.

Adding a thickening agent is easily the best way to fix runny mashed potatoes. We recommend using any thing from the starch family, including corn starch, potato starch, or even tapioca starch. If you are following the Whole30 diet, you can use tapioca starch or even arrowroot powder as your chosen thickening agent.

Can dogs eat mashed potatoes? Yes, as long as the potatoes are roasted and not boiled and no salt, seasonings, milk or butter is added your pet can enjoy this all-time favourite dish. However, there isn't much nutritional value your dog will be able to get from eating mashed potatoes.

Instead of regular milk, pro chefs generally use a generous helping of buttermilk and plenty of half-and-half or (even better) heavy cream in their potatoes. If you think the bartenders up front are pouring heavy, they've got nothing on the cooks in the back who are in charge of the mashed potatoes.

What can you use instant mashed potatoes for? ›

Perfect to keep on hand for quick meals and easy dinners, instant mashed potatoes go way beyond being a basic side dish. Create crispy coatings, moist baked goods, and even tender gnocchi with this magical pantry staple.

Idahoan Classic Mashed Potatoes

The look: Like the Chef's Cupboard potatoes, these instant potatoes also came in very fine granules that I rehydrated in boiling water. Once finished, they looked surprisingly thick and the closest to real homemade mashed potatoes out of all the options I tried.

A serving of these potatoes provides a dose of potassium, vitamin C, fiber, vitamin B6, magnesium, calcium, and iron (via LiveStrong).

Instant mashed potatoes are convenient for busy food establishments like KFC — the only thing employees need to do is add water and mix. The peeling, cooking, and mashing, has already been done. The downside to instant mashed potatoes is that they aren't as fluffy and tend to be bland.

There you have it. The texture is the deciding factor between fresh and instant mashed potatoes. Perhaps some diehard potato fans can tell the difference, but for the average person, the difference in taste is not significant.

Instant mashed potatoes are an ideal food in areas where nutrition is needed because they are a good source of complex carbs, potassium, vitamin C and vitamin B6, HOWEVER instant mashed potatoes, like so many processed foods, are dangerously high in sodium.