In this video, learn how to make Chef John’s olive oil mashed potatoes, a rich and flavorful twist on the classic dish. This recipe swaps butter for extra virgin olive oil, creating a creamy, silky texture with a hint of Mediterranean flair. Perfect as a side dish for any meal, these mashed potatoes are both dairy-free and delicious.
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00:00Hello, this is Chef John from FoodWishes.com with olive oil mashed potatoes.
00:09That's right, we're making vegan mashed potatoes, but not on purpose.
00:14It just so happens that the best way to make olive oil mashed potatoes is to not use any
00:18butter or any other dairy products whatsoever.
00:21And if you've never had these before, prepare to be shocked.
00:25And to get started, we're going to peel about three and a quarter pounds of russet potatoes,
00:30which for me were three giant ones.
00:32And of course, as always, we're going to peel these with long, confident strokes.
00:36And the reason to go with the russet is because it's the fluffiest, starchiest, most absorbent
00:41potato, which is exactly what we need here.
00:44All right, a lot of people use Yukon Gold for these, but that's not because it's a better
00:49potato texturally, but rather because the color looks like you've added butter to them,
00:54which I guess people think is important since we're not adding butter to these.
00:58But to me, that's just not good enough a reason.
01:00Plus, as you'll see, I chose a golden olive oil, which is why I got the best of both worlds,
01:06a perfect texture and beautiful buttery color.
01:09But anyway, no matter which you choose, once those are peeled and rinsed off, we're going
01:13to go ahead and cut them into quarters, which is super easy since all we have to do is cut
01:18the potato in half.
01:20And then we'll stand those halves up on the flat side, which makes it super easy to make
01:24a perfect, accurate cut right down the center.
01:26Or if you try to cut those when they're on their side, it's never going to be as accurate
01:31or as easy.
01:33And that's it.
01:34Once our potatoes are quartered, we'll transfer those into a saucepan with enough cold, fresh
01:38water to cover them by an inch or so, and we'll bring those over to the stove and then
01:43add the only other mandatory ingredient at this point, which is going to be two tablespoons
01:48of kosher salt, which is probably way more than you would have used, but that's going
01:53to give us a great head start on the seasoning.
01:56So I highly suggest you do the same.
01:58And then I'm also going to, at this point, add one non-mandatory ingredient, which would
02:02be a couple cloves of smashed garlic.
02:05And I'm talking well smashed, right?
02:06We're going to want to pound those more than a few times with the flat of a knife before
02:10we remove the skin.
02:12And once that's been accomplished, we'll transfer that into our water.
02:15And by cooking the garlic with the potatoes like this, you're going to get a very subtle,
02:19very gentle hint of garlic.
02:21Okay, there are other ways to get the garlic in, but for me, this is the best way to go.
02:27And then what we'll do is turn our heat up to medium high so we can bring this up to
02:30a boil.
02:31And you know how they say a watched pot never boils?
02:34Well that's true, but a glanced at pot definitely boils.
02:38So what I want you to do is keep glancing at this, because we don't want to cook these
02:42potatoes at a rolling boil.
02:45So just as soon as you see it going from a nice simmer to an actual boil, we're going
02:49to want to back the heat down somewhere between medium low and medium, so we can maintain
02:54a nice steady simmer that looks like this.
02:57And then as far as cooking times go, I can't really give you an exact number.
03:01Okay, it's probably going to be like 25-30 minutes.
03:04But time doesn't matter, since we're going to test with a knife.
03:07And we want to cook these very, very tender, as in borderline overcooked.
03:12And if a little bit of potato starts breaking off the outside, that's fine.
03:16And I know that might cause a problem with some potato recipes, but not this one.
03:21In fact, traditionally, some of the cooking water is actually whipped into the potatoes
03:25after we do the olive oil.
03:27Besides under seasoning, the only way to screw these up is to undercook the potatoes, which
03:32is going to produce something lumpy and disappointing.
03:35So please make sure you cook your potatoes enough.
03:38And then once we have, we will drain those, at which point I'm going to transfer mine
03:41into this bowl, so it's easier for you to see what's going on.
03:44All right, in real life, you could just put them back into the pot.
03:48And then what we'll do is grab our potato masher, and we will mash these until they're
03:51completely smooth, which if you followed my previous directions, is going to be pretty
03:56easy.
03:57Oh, and if you did happen to undercook your potatoes, what you can do at this point is
04:02nothing.
04:03Okay, we can't fix that.
04:06So cook them nice and soft, knowing that a little bit of water in the potatoes is actually
04:10an advantage.
04:12And then what we'll do once our potatoes are mashed nice and smooth is switch to a whisk,
04:16or an electric hand mixer, and we will whip in a tremendous amount of olive oil, which
04:21I like to do in a couple additions, but you could if you want probably add it all at once.
04:26And my general rule of thumb for this is a quarter cup of olive oil per pound of potato.
04:32And while we definitely want extra virgin olive oil here, which one you choose is going
04:36to be up to you.
04:37I mean, you are after all the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle of your mashed potatoes with olive oil.
04:43But you should do a little bit of detective work, because what we want to use here is
04:46something fairly mild and buttery, ideally one that has a nice beautiful golden color
04:50like the one I chose, which was a local Tuscan blend, which yes, is an oxymoron since I live
04:56in Sonoma.
04:57But anyway, the point is an olive oil like that's going to work better for this than
05:01something that's on the peppery, grassy, more bitter end of the spectrum.
05:06But anyway, no matter what you use, once we have that whipped in, I'm going to switch
05:09to a spoon and we'll give this a quick stir, just to double check everything's been mixed
05:14properly.
05:15At which point we'll grab a fork and give this a taste, since believe it or not, even
05:20though we added a lot of salt to the water we cooked the potatoes in, you are almost
05:24always going to have to adjust with more salt here.
05:27And after giving it one final taste, I decided it was perfect.
05:31So I went ahead and transferred that into a serving bowl.
05:34And then I grabbed a spoon to give the top a little bit of a decorative texture, which
05:38is obviously completely optional, but we are going to want to drizzle some more olive oil
05:43over the top for presentation.
05:45So I really do think we want some nooks and crannies, some peaks and valleys, some particles
05:49and waves.
05:50Sorry, I've been watching lots of quantum physics videos.
05:54But anyway, the point is we'll make the surface a little more visually interesting before
05:58we finish up with one more drizzle of olive oil.
06:02And that's it, our ultra-simple, super easy to make, olive oil mashed potatoes are ready
06:06to enjoy!
06:07And that, my friends, was just a perfect bite of mashed potato.
06:11Right, texturally speaking, these are light and fluffy, and somehow, some way, actually
06:16seem creamy.
06:18And then as far as the flavor goes, I'm a huge fan of butter.
06:22But it is sort of one note.
06:24I mean that one note is incredibly delicious.
06:26But butter doesn't have what we call a complex flavor.
06:29Whereas olive oil is very complex.
06:32Which is why I think olive oil mashed potatoes are more interesting, especially when paired
06:36with other foods.
06:38Which is why, having said that, let me stop eating these as is, and enjoy some top with
06:43this gorgeous, Roman-style chicken.
06:46Which I'm pretty sure is going to be the next video, so consider yourselves teased.
06:50But no matter what you serve these with, they're easy to make, easy to digest, and shockingly
06:56delicious.
06:57And I really do hope you give them a try soon.
07:00So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts, a printable written recipe, and much
07:05more info, as usual.
07:07And as always, enjoy!