Perfectly fluffy vegan mashed potatoes that are rich, creamy, and buttery! Make a bowl of these quick and easy mashed potatoes topped with vegan butter, brown butter sage sauce, veggie cheese sauce, or vegan gravy for a delicious addition to any meal.
I know mashed potatoes are a pretty straightforward dish, but there are a few key steps to making them great.
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Use these mashed potatoes to top a vegan shepherd's pie or serve them with vegan gravy, vegan chicken a la king, vegan brown butter, or keep it simple with some vegan butter and chives.
🧾 Ingredients and Substitutions
- Potatoes - starchy potatoes like russet potatoes or Yukon gold potatoes work well. If you like to leave the skin on your potatoes, use thin-skinned potatoes such as yellow or red.
- Vegan Butter - you can use any vegan butter that you like or swap it out for refined coconut oil or olive oil. I also love to use vegan brown butter in my mashed potatoes for a rich depth of flavor.
- Garlic - use 1 teaspoon of garlic powder or onion powder to make it quick and easy. For garlic mashed potatoes use my vegan garlic butter and warm it in a saucepan until melted then add it to the mashed potatoes. You can also add a few tablespoons of finely chopped onions or shallots for extra flavor.
- Plant-Based Milk - use vegan milk that is plain flavored (not vanilla) and not too sweet. Unsweetened soy milk, cashew, or oat milk work best since they are rich and creamy, but unsweetened almond milk or rice milk will also work. You can also use canned coconut milk and reduce or omit the vegan butter since it's naturally high in fat content.
- Sea Salt and Black Pepper - for flavor.
🥄 How to make vegan mashed potatoes
- Fill a large pot about 1/3 full of cold water.
- Wash and peel your potatoes, then cut them into cubes about 1 square inch in size.
- Place the potato cubes in the pot of cold water as soon as you cut them. (This prevents the air from getting to the potatoes so they won't oxidize and turn brown. You can leave them in this water for a few hours in the fridge while you prep any other food and cook them about 30 minutes before you want to eat so they are fresh and warm.)
- Add salt to the cooking water and bring the potatoes to a boil over high heat.
- Adjust the heat so that they stay at a rolling boil for about 15-20 minutes until the potatoes are tender and break easily when pierced with a fork.
- Drain the cooking water and immediately add vegan butter, plant milk, and garlic to the hot potatoes. (You can do this in a mixing bowl or in the pot you cooked them in.)
- Mash the fork-tender potatoes with a hand potato masher until the desired consistency is reached and add salt and pepper to taste. You may need to add another splash of non-dairy milk to them if they seem dry or you want fluffier potatoes
- Serve with vegan butter, vegan sour cream, or vegan gravy on top along with fresh herbs or chopped chives.
👩🏻🍳 Pro Tips
- The smaller that you cut the potatoes, the faster they will cook. You can save some work and cut them into larger pieces, but you will need to let them boil for an extra 5 minutes or more.
- Be sure to put plenty of salt in the cooking water. This will cook into your potatoes and give them a better flavor than simply adding salt at the end. (Most of this salt will be poured off with the cooking water so don't get worried about them being too salty.)
- Cover the potatoes with enough water to cover them, but be sure to leave room for the water to rise when it boils. It will form a foam on the top when boiling that can be scooped off with a large spoon if it looks like it may boil over.
- Don't use an electric hand mixer or over-mash the potatoes. When they are over-mashed they become sticky and have a glue-like texture.
- This recipe uses 1/2 of a 5 lbs bag of potatoes. It will serve 6 as a side dish, if you are making this for a crowd, you will want to double the recipe.
🧄 To Make Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Melt the vegan butter in a small saucepan over the lowest heat. Peel and mince 3 cloves of fresh garlic and stir into the butter. Let the garlic infuse into the warm butter while keeping the heat at the lowest setting for 5 minutes. Then add the garlic butter to the cooked potatoes in place of plain butter.
These fluffy mashed potatoes are a must-have holiday side that goes perfectly with vegan "meats" like turkey, ham, chicken, or steak. Serve them for Thanksgiving or Christmas along with other classic sides like summer squash casserole, vegan stuffing, and vegan green bean casserole.
🥣 What to put on vegan mashed potatoes
These creamy vegan mashed potatoes are delicious on their own but even better with some vegan butter, vegan sour cream, or vegan brown butter. Vegan turkey gravy, brown gravy, or vegan mushroom gravy (aka a la king) is also a must-have when serving these mashed potatoes.
🥡 Storage and reheating
Refrigerate: Leftover mashed potatoes will keep well in the fridge for 3 - 5 days in an airtight container.
Freeze: Vegan mashed potatoes can be stored in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge before reheating.
Reheating: Reheat them in the microwave for about 3 minutes per cup of potatoes.
📌 Be sure to follow me on Pinterest for new vegan recipes!
Vegan Mashed Potatoes
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2.5 pounds potatoes (about 5-6 medium potatoes)
- 2 teaspoons salt for the cooking water
- 3/4 cup plant-based milk (plain unsweetened works best)
- 4 tablespoons vegan butter or light olive oil or refined coconut oil
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (seen notes for using fresh garlic)
- 1 dash salt to taste
- 1 dash pepper to taste
Instructions
- Fill a large pot about 1/3 full of cold water.
- Wash and peel your potatoes, then cut them into cubes about 1 square inch in size.
- Place the potato cubes in the pot of cold water as soon as you cut them. (This prevents the air from getting to the potatoes so they won't oxidize and turn brown. You can leave them in this water for a few hours while you prep any other food and cook them about 30 minutes before you want to eat so they are fresh and warm.)
- Add salt to the cooking water and bring the potatoes to a boil.
- Adjust the heat so that they stay at a rolling boil for about 15-20 minutes until the potatoes break easily when pierced with a fork. (Cooking time will depend on the size of your cubes and altitude.)
- Pour off the cooking water and immediately add 3/4 cup plant milk, 4 tablespoons vegan butter, and 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder to the hot potatoes. (You can do this in a mixing bowl or in the pot you cooked them in.)
- Mash with a hand potato masher until the desired consistency is reached and add salt and pepper to taste. You may need to add another splash of milk to them if they seem dry or you want fluffier potatoes.
Notes
- The smaller that you cut the potatoes, the faster they will cook. You can save some work and cut them into larger pieces, but you will need to let them boil for an extra 5 minutes or more.
- Be sure to put plenty of salt in the cooking water. This will cook into your potatoes and give them a better flavor than simply adding salt at the end. (Most of this salt will be poured off with the cooking water so don't get worried about them being too salty.)
- Cover the potatoes with enough water to cover them, but be sure to leave room for the water to rise when it boils. It will form a foam on the top when boiling that can be scooped off with a large spoon if it looks like it may boil over.
- Don't use an electric mixer or over mash the potatoes. When they are over mashed they become sticky and have a glue-like texture.
- This recipe uses 1/2 of a 5 lbs bag of potatoes. It will serve 6 as a side dish, if you are making this for a crowd, you will want to double the recipe.
Nutrition
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You've reversed the butter/milk quantities from the ingredients list to the instructions. I hope :). Apparently not much of a problem, as no one's commented on it yet.
Thanks for this site, I'm making 3 recipes for my vegan son from your site.
Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Laurie! I'm so happy that you are using my recipes. I hope that you all enjoy them.
These mashed potatoes came out perfect! I made them with your brown gravy and it was delicious! Thanks for the recipe!
You're welcome, Jill! I'm so happy that you liked it! 🙂