Making the Ultimate Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes

These perfectly fluffy Ultimate Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes are super easy to make and full of savory, delicious roasted garlic flavor. I promise you, everyone will love them.

The Ultimate Mashed Potatoes

You want the absolute best mashed potatoes? Then roasted garlic mashed potatoes it is. But not just any garlic mashed potatoes, we’re talking ultimate roasted garlic mashed potatoes.  

But please, don’t be scared away by their ultimateness, they’re easy mashed potatoes to make. Really no more difficult than any other mashed potatoes recipe, but oh, so much more delicious!

A few simple ingredients, a couple of Tips and Tricks below as you cook and assemble and soon you will have the perfect mashed potatoes as a delicious side dish.

 

Roasting Garlic Cloves

The roasted garlic cloves, of course, are the (not so) secret ingredient for this mashed potatoes recipe. The roasted garlic flavor really puts this recipe over the top.

If you’ve never roasted garlic cloves before, I have to tell you, it’s super simple. All you need to do is slice the top off of a whole head of garlic and drizzle it with a little bit of olive oil. The olive oil helps the garlic become mild, caramelized, and tender enough to spread with a butter knife.

Then you cover the garlic head loosely with tin foil, put the garlic into the oven, turn it to 350 degrees (no preheating necessary) and in 1 hour you’ll have your perfectly roasted head of garlic.  

You can roast garlic well before you’re ready to make your mashed potatoes. Just store it in the fridge until you’re ready to use it. But make sure it comes to room temperature before using so it is easier to work with.

As I mentioned, this is an easy mashed potatoes recipe. You already have the garlic head roasting and now you need to make the potatoes.

Cook and Assemble

All you need for the potatoes is a large pot, cold water, your peeled and sliced Russet potatoes and a little time. Once you’ve brought the cold water up to a boil, you have around 15-20 minutes until they are done.

I use the “fork tender” approach to determine when the potatoes are done. If a fork easily goes into a potato, then I call it done.

Once you drain the water from the pot, you are doing the rest of the work in that large pot. In goes the roasted garlic cloves, milk and butter. Mash potatoes until you get the consistency you want and season to taste with salt and black pepper. See Tips and Tricks below on how to get the best results for fluffy mashed potatoes.

This is a delicious side dish that is fantastic for the Thanksgiving table but also any other weeknight dinner. This should be a huge hit for both your garlic lovers as well as your potato lovers.

So, simple ingredients, simple side dish, relatively little time to make = a big return on your investment and happy people in your home!

Tips and Tricks

• The garlic can be roasted a couple of days ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator until ready to use. Just make sure you bring the garlic up to room temperature before adding the the potatoes.
• Start the potatoes in cold water and then bring them up to a boil. This helps the potatoes to turn out nice and tender.
• Warm the milk and melt the butter before mashing into the potatoes. This helps the potatoes to turn out extra creamy.
• Add the melted butter to the potatoes before the milk. The butter will better be able to soak into the potatoes giving them a more buttery flavor.
• For light, fluffy mashed potatoes, don’t overwork them. The more you work them, the more starch that’s released and they can become gluey.

Ingredients Needed for Ultimate Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes

• A whole garlic head
• Olive oil 
• Russet potatoes – These are the preferred potatoes for mashing. They’re a higher starch potato, which results in a fluffy, smooth, flavorful mashed potato. Yukon Gold potatoes are a great substitute.
• Whole milk – The higher the fat content, the creamier your potatoes will be which is why I generally use whole milk. However, half and half or heavy cream will also result in  super creamy mashed potatoes.
• Butter – I prefer to use unsalted butter. This gives you more control over how salty the potatoes are.
• Salt 
• Black pepper

How to Make Ultimate Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes

• Cut the top off of the garlic head and drizzle with the olive oil.
• Wrap loosely in tin foil and put in a cold oven.
• Turn oven to 350 degrees and roast for 1 hour.
• Once the garlic has been roasting for about 45 minutes, put the potatoes in a large pot and cover potatoes with water.
• Bring potatoes to a bubble over medium heat and cook for 15-20, until potatoes are fork tender.
• Drain potatoes and return to pot.
• Squeeze garlic cloves out of the skins and add to the pot.
• Mash potatoes and garlic together in the large pot, until potatoes are broken up.
• Add warmed milk and melted butter, about 1/4 at a time, as well as the salt and black pepper, and continue mashing until ingredients are well incorporated and you achieve smooth and fluffy mashed potatoes.

More Side Dishes for your Thanksgiving Table

• Maple Brown Butter Roasted Sweet Potatoes
• Panko Parmesan Topped Green Bean Casserole
• Orange Glazed Carrots
• Apple Cranberry Leek Holiday Stuffing
• Semi Homemade Stuffing
• Perfect Dinner Rolls 

ENJOY!