Dayton Bariatric Center

 

I ate a lot of mashed potatoes and apple sauce and yogurt for almost a year. I read literally thousands of recipes and found that the dullest recipe can jump in your mouth with the combination of spices and herbs. I also found out, especially in culinary school, that fresh herbs and spices make a big difference over the dried, bottled kind. But, the dried spice serves a financial purpose and has a long shelf life in your home kitchen rather than in a commercial kitchen. A trick we do at school, when using dried herbs, is to roll them between your fingers before adding them to a recipe. This releases oils in the herbs and "freshens them up" for lack of a better term.

I found this dish in "Cooking Light" Magazine several years ago and it really tastes great and is a change from the regular mash potatoes I ate prior. Yukon Gold potatoes make the best mashed potatoes....they have the right balance of starch and waxiness and, because they are "yellow" potatoes, they have a much more rich flavor from the beginning. This means you don't have to add a lot of fat, like butter, to make them taste rich.

Another thing that I learned is, that mashed potatoes are best mashed by hand (I use an old, heavy wire potato masher and a metal "grid-like" potato ricer. I use to follow my mom's and grandma's method of beating them with an electric mixer. That method has a tendency to overwork the potatoes and they get gummy. And, because potatoes can hold the moisture from the water they are cooked in, I drain the potatoes, return them to the hot, empty pot they were cooked in, or put them on a baking sheet, and place them in a 300 degree oven for about 5 minutes or so to dry them out.
 

Another trick is, put the liquid you are using (milk, chicken stock, etc) on the stove to warm. Add some of the butter and the herbs to the liquid. By heating the liquid, you are not adding a cold or cool ingredient to the hot potatoes. The herbs and butter flavor can infuse themselves in the liquid, making for a more even disbursement of the flavors through the potatoes with less beating and mixing.

 

Creamy Herbed Mashed Potatoes

 

4 cups peeled and cubed mashed potatoes (about 2 pounds)
1/2 cup 2% reduced fat milk
1/4 cup low-fat sour cream
3 Tablespoons butter
3 Tablespoons fresh chopped chives
2 Tablespoons fresh copped parsley
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

 

*Place potatoes in a saucepan, cover with cold water and bring to a boil; then cover and reduce heat and simmer about 10 minutes until tender.
*Drain and return potatoes to hot pan and let sit to evaporate some of the moisture.
*Add milk and remaining ingredients and hand mash to desired consistency.

 

Yield: 6 servings   Serving size is 3/4 cup

 

Calories 215  Fat 7.1g   Protein 4.5g  Carbs 34.5g  Fiber 2.4g  Chol 20 mg  

 

Close window to return to " Recipes" page