My apologies for anyone who is waiting for a kale salad recipe: I have even more potatoes for you today. Generally I would try to avoid posting a slew of recipes in a row all featuring one ingredient, but this is the way that the vegan cookie crumbled, in terms of my recipe testing. And I had a feeling some of you might like to have this recipe for SUPER creamy vegan roasted garlic mashed potatoes in time for Thanksgiving next week. They come together with only 3 ingredients (plus water, salt and pepper) but are flavorful, crowd-pleasing, and maybe even healthy? (I’ll let you be the judge of that one.)
I have grand ambitions of someday hosting a fancy, all-vegan Thanksgiving for my loved ones, but this year I’m keeping it simple — by skipping Thanksgiving altogether. I get Thursday and Friday off from work that week and I’m fully planning to enjoy my mini-vacation; it’s just not going to involve any feasting this time around. However, as the world #1 potato lover I don’t need a holiday as an excuse to make a big batch of garlicky vegan mashed potatoes, so here we are.
Everyone has their mashed potato preferences. I almost always use Russet potatoes in mine because texture-wise they’re very forgiving and have less tendency to turn pasty. I don’t have a ricer or food mill but instead use a handheld potato masher (the sort like this). This results in mashed potatoes that are nice and fluffy, with no big lumps but still a little bit of chunkiness and texture to them. I also don’t peel my potatoes because I’m lazy and don’t mind eating the peel. However, the Russet potato peel tends to stay in bigger pieces that aren’t as attractive as little bits of red potato peel, so if you’re concerned with appearances you might want to take that extra step with these. In general, please use your favorite potato variety and technique!
These vegan roasted garlic mashed potatoes are oil-free despite being incredibly rich and creamy. It’s all thanks to the power of cashews! I blended a bunch of raw cashews with two entire heads of roasted garlic until super smooth and then folded it into the mashed potatoes. Aside from that, all you have to do is season to taste with salt, pepper, and maybe some green onions or chives if you like. The roasted garlic flavor can be tasted in every bite, but is delicate rather than overpowering. Make sure to use plenty of salt to get the seasoning just right.. and enjoy!
I served my roasted garlic mashed potatoes with homemade vegan white bean gravy. I think that might technically make this a complete meal ;). The gravy doesn’t require any roux, starch or flour, instead being thickened by a puree of cooked cannellini beans. I did use (and recommend) oil for browning the onions, so if you’re concerned with the whole dish being oil-free use an alternate gravy recipe instead.
My mashed potatoes are omnivore-approved and undetectably vegan! Give them a shot and let me know what you think. Cheers!
3-Ingredient Vegan Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes with White Bean Gravy
Ingredients
For the vegan roasted garlic mashed potatoes:
- 2 pounds Russet potatoes scrubbed, peeled (if desired), and cut into large pieces
- 1 cup raw cashews soaked in filtered water for 8 hours, and drained
- 2 heads of roasted garlic (see notes for instructions if needed) - cloves only (remove the paper)
- plenty of salt + pepper to taste
For the vegan white bean gravy (makes some extra):
- 1/2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 yellow or white onion diced
- 1 tbsp dark miso (can substitute any miso)
- 1 tsp dried thyme crumbled
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 cup low-sodium vegetable broth (I used all-natural vegan "chicken" flavored broth)
- 1 and 1/2 cups cooked cannellini beans (equal to one standard can), rinsed and drained
Instructions
For the vegan roasted garlic mashed potatoes:
- Add the potatoes to a pot with cold, salted water. Bring to a boil and cook until completely tender, around 20 minutes. (I make the cashew mixture in step 2 while I wait). Drain the potatoes, reserving the cooking water, and mash them well with a potato masher.
- In a blender or food processor, combine the raw cashews and roasted garlic cloves with 1/2 cup of reserved potato cooking water. Blend until completely smooth, stopping occasionally to scrape down the sides with a spatula. In a food processor, this could take a few minutes to get smooth. Add a little more water if needed to help blend.
- Add the cashew and garlic mixture to the mashed potatoes, and use your spatula to fold it in until combined.
- Season with additional salt and pepper to taste (I find that it needs a good amount of salt). Serve hot with gravy or toppings of your choice.
For the vegan white bean gravy:
- Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the diced onion when the oil is hot, keeping the heat set to medium. Cook the onion, stirring once in a while, until the onion is well-browned. (This adds color and flavor to our gravy!)
- Add the miso and dried thyme, stir, and cook for 30 seconds more. Add the soy sauce, vegetable broth, and cooked beans to the pan, stir, and bring to a gentle boil.
- Remove from the heat and either use an immersion blender, or transfer to a blender or food processor, to blend until smooth.
- Season to taste with additional salt and pepper.
Recipe Notes
HOW TO ROAST GARLIC: Use your method of choice. Here's one method for oil-free roasted garlic and another that doesn't use aluminum foil either.
MAKE AHEAD: Roasted garlic and roasted garlic cashew cream can be made ahead of time. Bring it to room temperature or warmer before adding it to the potatoes. Leftover fully-assembled mashed potatoes reheat pretty well with a splash of water or nondairy milk added to loosen them up. (A touch of olive oil also helps if reheating, but of course, they would not be oil-free anymore). Leftover white bean gravy can also be reheated on the stove with an extra splash of liquid.
NUTRITION: Nutrition information is for mashed potatoes without gravy.
Inspired from this non-vegan Food Network recipe.
I'm Shannon, the writer and photographer of Yup, it's Vegan! I'm a morning person based in Baltimore, USA. My mission is to create healthy plant-based recipes that anyone would enjoy, using seasonal produce with inspiration from global flavors.
I made only the gravy from these to serve with some roasted mushrooms that I harvested. I’m looking forward to trying the potatoes too since the gravy came out so delicious! Really nice to not have to deal with browning any flour and get more nutrition from it too.
Reminiscent of turkey gravy. Made it for dinner. I’m fairly new to WFPB, and some of the vegan recipes I’ve come across have been more than a little weird. I was hesitant to try this, but it’s pretty great! Next time, I might add a little sage or poultry seasoning and serve it with some chik’n seitan. Thanks!