How to Make the Perfect Vegan Mashed Potatoes Recipe: 15 Tips

Do you want to make vegan mashed potatoes that are creamy and taste delicious? Well, this post is for you! This recipe includes 15 tips on how to make the perfect vegan mashed potatoes. There's a great tip in here about which plant milk will give it the best flavor!

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Mashed potatoes are a staple at many Thanksgiving dinners, and you want to have a delicious vegan version for your friends and family, together with a mushroom gravy and maple glazed carrots. These tips will help you create the best mashed potatoes ever!

If you are crazy about truffles, you will also love our vegan truffled mashed potatoes, check them out!

Jump to:

• 🧾 Ingredients
• 🔪 Instructions step by step
• Tips for making the best vegan mashed potatoes
• 🥔 Ingredient notes and substitutions
• 🥡 Storing and freezing
• 🥢 How do I serve mashed potatoes?
• 📋 Recipe
• 🌡️ Food safety
• 💬 Reviews and Comments

🧾 Ingredients

• Yukon gold potatoes
• Vegan butter
• Nutritional yeast
• Dairy-free milk (plant milk)

Optional:

Vegetable broth, garlic, and sea salt.

🔪 Instructions step by step

Making mashed potatoes is a simple process. Here we depict how to make the perfect vegan mashed potatoes recipe in a very detailed way, describing how to tweak it as you like.

Step 1 (only if using roasted garlic). Chop the upper part of the garlic head and brush with olive oil, and bake.

Roast garlic in the oven at 400° F (200° C) for 35-40 minutes until the cloves are practically dry and incredibly soft. If adding baked garlic remove some of the top layers of garlic and cover it up with a foil to keep it warm.

Step 2. Wash the potatoes thoroughly. Cut the potatoes into about the exact sizes and put them in a large saucepan.

Step 3. Fill it with vegetable stock (or water) with added garlic powder if not roasted garlic. Bring to boil until the potatoes are soft. It should take about 20 minutes or so.

Step 4. Meanwhile, warm the almond milk and stir in the vegan buttermilk; otherwise, let it thaw while the potatoes cook.

Step 5. Drain the potatoes until they lose all the moisture, and let them cool down until you can handle them without burning yourself. Peel the skins off if you want the creamiest potatoes, or leave some skins on for added texture and nutrition.

Step 6. In the same saucepan where you boiled the potatoes, start mashing the potatoes with a potato masher and adding almond milk (or soy milk) with the melted or soft vegan butter, little by little, while you keep mashing the potatoes.

Step 7. If you are using the roasted garlic, mince it with a garlic mincer or a fork, and add it to the mix. Mix thoroughly.

Step 8. Adjust with salt and pepper or more vegan butter to serve.

Step 9. Chop fresh chives and sprinkle on top of it. Our favorite way to eat them is with our shiitake mushroom gravy. Serve warm.

Tips for making the best vegan mashed potatoes

These are all the tips I have gathered over the years; take them as a guide to make the adjustments to flavor and texture that you want, considering the available ingredients and tools.

Mashed potatoes should be easy comfort food and shouldn't require you to buy crazy ingredients, kitchenware, or need too much of your time.

Choose the right potatoes

The first tip is to use russet or Yukon gold potatoes because they hold together well, so no one ends up with a pile of gooey potato mush on their plate. Choosing a potato that will hold up so you can get the perfect texture is essential.

We like using a mix of Yukon Gold potatoes for intense potato flavor and russet for starchiness. Russet potatoes are starchy potatoes, making fluffy vegan mashed potatoes but don't pack much potato flavor.

If you need to choose between the two, go for Yukon gold potatoes, but making the half-half potatoes mix, provides the best results.

Decide on texture

The second tip is a matter of taste. To peel or not to peel the potatoes? If you aim for the creamiest mashed potatoes, peel all the skins away. Start washing your potatoes very well as they usually pack a lot of dirt, and then peel them and rinse them again. I like leaving some of the skins on because they pack a lot of nutrients, and we also like the different textures.

If you are not trying to make a fancy look, make a perfect velvet-like vegan mashed potato recipe, and care more about leaving all the nutrients in, then go wild and leave all those skins on.

Cut the potatoes similarly

The third tip is to cut the potatoes into similar sizes. Might you be asking, why does it even matter? It does.

When you cut the potatoes or any other vegetable using the same size, you make sure that all are cooked evenly.

The same concept applies when you want different textures with the same vegetable in a dish like a stew or risotto; chop them unevenly.

Add flavor early on

The fourth tip is to boil the potatoes in a good vegetable broth instead of water. You can either use store-bought or make a homemade vegetable broth, ensuring you add roasted garlic or simply a teaspoon of garlic powder to it.

This will ensure you infuse flavor into the vegan mashed potatoes from the very beginning of the process. I add thyme or rosemary to the vegetable broth to give my potatoes a unique taste (i.e., an herbal note). When we want to add some mushrooms and infuse earthy flavors, we add a piece of porcini mushrooms.

Don't forget about garlic either! Traditional mashed potatoes are usually made with milk and butter, which have a lot of flavors, so you should note the garlic's presence should make up for those missing ingredients.

You can choose to either add it to the vegetable broth like we suggested before, or you can roast a head of garlic in the oven, cutting the upper part, brushing it with olive oil, and then baking it just as it is for 30 minutes at 400º F (200º C), or wrapping it in parchment paper and aluminum foil, making it faster (20-30 minutes).

You can then mince the roasted garlic using the garlic crusher and add it to your vegan mashed potatoes for a more robust flavor, and it also adds some umami. Start with one or two minced garlic cloves and add more if you want the mashed potatoes to have a more robust flavor.

Start the boiling process in a cold liquid

Whether you are using water or vegetable broth, the fifth tip is to start the boiling process from the cold vegetable broth. This will also help to ensure the potatoes are cooked evenly. This tip also applies when making mashed sweet potatoes.

Cook them for 20 minutes after the water o broth starts boiling.

Add salt twice

The sixth tip is to add sea salt while cooking potatoes and when you finish.

This might sound obvious, but the secret here is when and how to add it. Add a good amount of salt to the water when boiling the potatoes. This is the only way the potatoes are going to deliver all their flavor.

Don't overdo the salt if you decide to use a salty vegetable broth; just add a teaspoon.

Next, add a pinch of salt and pepper after mashing the potatoes to have a little extra zing! It's easy to forget about seasoning since most people use tons of it when making classic mashed potatoes with milk and butter, but this helps bring out all those delicious flavors even more.

Use dried, boiled potatoes

The seventh tip is to dry up your potatoes before mashing them. Pad dry them or transfer them to a saucepan with low-medium heat to ensure we remove any excess moisture. This will prevent the mashed potatoes from being soggy and lacking creaminess.

Use unsweetened plant-milk

The eighth tip is to use unsweetened vegan milk instead of sweet ones like coconut milk.

The best vegan mashed potatoes use unsweetened plant milk (non-dairy milk) such as cashew milk, almond milk, plain oat milk, or rice milk because they have a neutral yet nutty flavor and don't affect how the potatoes taste.

You can use soy milk. It is creamy enough, but make sure it is not the kind that has a lot of flavors since it can affect the final result. We don't want soy-flavored mashed potatoes.

Choose the right vegan butter

The ninth tip is to choose the proper vegan butter or margarine if you want a genuinely buttery flavor and decadent dish! Vegans don't eat dairy as some people assume, but there are many delicious options for vegans seeking creamy mashed potatoes.

For example, Earth Balance has fantastic vegan butter that tastes just like traditional butter without dairy.

Choose the right potato masher

The tenth tip is using a good potato masher to mash potatoes because it gives cooked potatoes a creamy texture more than an electric mixer!

If you want a creamier version, you can use a potato ricer instead of a masher. Don't use a food processor; otherwise, you will end up with gummy vegan mashed potatoes.

Don't overcook the potatoes

The eleventh tip is not to overcook the potatoes! Potatoes will become watery and mushy if they are over-boiled, so make sure you don't let them go too long in the pot. Instead, test for softness by sticking a fork into one of them after about 20 minutes on medium heat.

Adjust as you go

The twelfth tip is to add vegan butter (or melted vegan butter) and add almond milk (preferably warm) until you get the desired texture. You don't want your mashed potatoes too stiff, or they will be hard when cold, but not too soft because then they'll fall apart on your plate. The best way to check is by mashing a few around with a fork and seeing their consistency.

You can choose to add minced or mashed roasted garlic or garlic powder at this point.

Serve at the right temperature

The thirteenth tip is to ensure they are hot when serving them because cold mashed potatoes don't taste perfect! If you're making vegan mashed potatoes ahead of time, keep the saucepan on low heat and add more non-dairy milk or vegan butter if it's not creamy enough before serving (it will get watery as it sits).

If you want it to be extra creamy and decadent, add some vegan butter on top while still hot.

Reheating vegan mashed potatoes

The fourteenth tip is regarding reheating mashed potatoes. We don't use the microwave for obvious reasons, so when we want to reheat our vegan mashed potatoes leftovers, we bring a small saucepan with some water to boil and place the plating dish on top. This way, the steam heat gently warms the mashed potatoes, without adding water or oils.

Do not add regular butter or milk

Lastly, don't add any dairy-based milk or butter if you want to make vegan mashed potatoes. This tip is pretty self-explanatory, but many recipes call for adding a splash of cow's milk when mashing the potatoes. You can even use vegan sour cream or taste and decide if you want to add extra virgin olive oil or vegan butter on top instead of regular dairy products!

🥔 Ingredient notes and substitutions

It is also better to use pure unsweetened almond milk, cashew milk, oat milk, or soymilk. You can also use richer milk like light canned Unsweetened Coconut milk. You can use water if you do not want to use all-perishable dairy.

The best water to use will be the water in which you cooked the potato. This water has some starch from the potatoes and the taste from the flavor.

It is ideal to use any brand of vegan butter, but of course, it is perfect for those who like its taste, so there is a simple vegan butter for everybody.

🥡 Storing and freezing

Keeping leftover mashed potatoes in your fridge would be best unless they last 3-4 days. It is available when stored in freezers. To reheat, put them in a pot and cook them up on the stovetop until it's heated through.

Add more vegan butter and/or unsweetened soy milk salt and pepper as necessary—another way of reheating the potato after it's frozen. You can let them thaw overnight before refrigerating them and then serving or reheat them straight after frozen.

Can you freeze vegan mashed potatoes?

Raw potatoes don't freeze well, but mashed potatoes will withstand the chill if packed in sealed, airtight containers.

To freeze them, transfer them to a freezer-safe bag removing as much air as possible, and keep them for a month. To defrost, place the container or bag in the refrigerator overnight and reheat and reheat it as usual.

You may reheat frozen mashed potatoes and defrost them the next day to thaw the container and freeze them again. Ideally, a frozen mashed potato is better than having an oilless recipe.

You can even use leftovers to make our 4-ingredient potato soup!

🥢 How do I serve mashed potatoes?

These vegan mashed potatoes are fantastic served with fresh chopped chives on top. They're also perfectly served with vegan mushrooms gravy on top or even sautéd mushrooms in vegan butter, fresh parsley, and minced garlic. These herbs' stuffed mushrooms go great with these vegan mashed potatoes.

We like using it as a side dish when we have our holiday vegan nut roast.

They're also good with a vegan gravy or a vegan gravy that adds mushrooms on top.

Check out our delicious Roasted Potatoes with Garlic and Rosemary; they're the perfect side dish for your Holiday celebrations!

⭐ If you try this recipe, let us know! 💬 Leave a comment, rate it, and don't forget to tag us @ourplantbasedworld on Instagram. Cheers!

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