Upgrade Mashed Potatoes With An Ingredient From Your Morning Coffee

Mashed potatoes are one of those dishes that are strictly dinner-based. Sure, they're fluffy like fresh pancakes and delightfully creamy, but all that is overshadowed by their savory taste. While they clearly belong on some steak or chicken fried chicken, it doesn't stop a breakfast staple like coffee creamer from being the simple ingredient that your mashed potatoes need.

The dish should always be whipped to perfection and creamy, so we support following all the tips you need for the best mashed potatoes. This could be anything from warming up your dairy beforehand or only using compound butter, but adding a dash of coffee creamer certainly works in a pinch. It's a creative way to use coffee creamer, giving your mashed potatoes a richer taste and texture. It also bulks them up, turning them into a thicker mound of potatoes. Coffee creamer is typically made from vegetable oil, and adding more fat to mashed potatoes is rarely a bad idea. The presence of the oil helps to hold the starches together, resulting in mashed potatoes that are more luscious.

When adding creamer to your mashed potatoes, it's best to go for one that's unsweetened and unflavored, since they share a similar flavor to milk. The powdered version is also your best bet — with liquid, you can run the risk of adding too much and thinning out the potatoes. Once your potatoes are cooked, add a sprinkle of creamer to them, along with the butter, spices, and milk.

If you want to completely swap out milk or half-and-half in your mashed potatoes for coffee creamer, that's possible. However, non-dairy coffee creamer isn't actually vegan. Despite not containing milk, coffee creamers are known to have casein, a protein derived from milk. It's best to spring for a vegan creamer for a true dairy-free recipe. In this case, a liquid creamer would work best to get the same texture as regular mashed potatoes. When making the switch, don't go with a one-to-one ratio. Use around half of what you would typically use for milk, then pour a little bit more in if you need the mashed potatoes to be a little richer.

If you are curious about using flavored coffee creamer in your mashed potatoes, they would certainly make a great addition to mashed sweet potatoes. Instead of trying to make the vegetables taste savory, some people completely lean into the saccharine flavor. The nuttiness of caramel or hazelnut creamer with sweet, warming spices like cinnamon and nutmeg would make an incredible addition to mashed sweet potatoes.