Two-Ingredient Mashed Potatoes

- Total Time
- 30 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 2pounds russet potatoes
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- ¼cup sour cream or full-fat Greek yogurt
Preparation
- Step 1
Peel the potatoes and cut them into 1-inch pieces. Put them in a large saucepan, add 2 tablespoons salt, and cover them by 1 inch of cold water.
- Step 2
Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce to medium and let cook until piercing with a fork yields no resistance, about 10 minutes.
- Step 3
Reserve 1 cup of the cooking water, then drain the potatoes and return them to the pot. Mash the potatoes over low heat using a potato masher or wooden spoon until completely mashed.
- Step 4
Vigorously stir in the reserved potato water, adding 1 tablespoon at a time until the potatoes are smooth and come together (you will use about ½ cup). Stir in the sour cream, then season to taste with salt and pepper.
Private Notes
Comments
I have long made mashed potatoes by cooking the potatoes in a minimal amount of water --after cutting them in reasonably small chunks. The overall cooking time is much shorter, and then the small amount of water remaining can be drained, the potatoes mashed, and then the water added back in with yogurt (or sometimes even just milk). Faster, fewer water-soluble nutrients dumped down the drain, and very easily done. Glad to see you are posting this approach!
Add granulated garlic to taste to the boiling water/potatoes for a more satisfying depth of flavor.
I've been doing something similar since the 1960s, when I took a Cooperative Extension class for beginning cooks. Before I drain the potato water, I measure out the amount I'll need and stir powdered dry milk into it, then mash the potatoes with that. That way you not only get nutrients from the milk but some of the nutrients that have cooked out of the potatoes and otherwise been thrown away. But I do add butter.....
Cooked recipe as written, even peeling the potatoes, which I almost never do. Had to cook the potatoes at least five minutes more than recipe. After I smashed the potatoes, added the full fat plain Greek yogurt, and added about 1/2 cup of the saved potato water, I had two responses: it had waaay too much salt! Ack! And the result of the yogurt and added potato water did not give me, as it gave others a "potato-y" taste, it just tasted thin, and too salty. I added unsalted butter - about 3 T - which gave it a little creaminess. I will not try this again.
Had no sour cream or full fat Greek yogurt, but 3 tablespoons nonfat Greek yogurt plus 1 tablespoon whipping cream worked perfectly.
What a pleasant surprise this is. Skeptics, give it a shot.