Mashed Potatoes with Roasted Garlic are creamy and flavorful, with a smooth finish and rich texture. It's an easy-to-make side dish to accompany any main course and a great side for a special occasion or holiday. Made with simple ingredients found in any pantry!
Mashed Potatoes + Roasted Garlic
These mashed potatoes are for garlic lovers! If you want more garlic in your life, this is the recipe for you! The recipe itself is really simple yet has a few special ingredients.
- The mashed potatoes are made creamy, flavorful, and rich with heavy cream and shredded Parmesan cheese.
- They are then topped with lots of roasted garlic soaked in olive oil.
- Finish the presentation with a swirl of olive oil or melted butter, fresh thyme, and freshly ground black pepper!
Beautiful side dish
If you're looking to make something a little bit different than just regular mashed potatoes, then look no further! These easy mashed potatoes with roasted garlic are super easy to make, yet they make a stunning presentation without much effort! This delicious side dish will adorn any dinner table. It's also a perfect recipe for the holidays! Make your regular mashed potatoes look beautiful simply by adding roasted garlic, olive oil (or melted butter), freshly ground black pepper and fresh herbs!
How to roast garlic
- Preheat oven to 400 F.
- Slice off the top portion of the garlic head and scrape out loose leaves.
- Place garlic on a piece of foil, sprinkle the exposed garlic cloves with olive oil. Wrap with foil.
- Roast for about 40 minutes in the preheated oven at 400 F.
When is roasted garlic done?
Roast the garlic until it acquires a rich golden color and becomes very soft. Let the garlic cool and then squeeze out the cloves.
Make-ahead tip
Roast garlic a day or 2 in advance. Since the garlic does take almost 1 hour to roast, you can make this step ahead and keep roasted garlic in an airtight container refrigerated for up to 3 days.
What kind of potatoes are best for mashing?
- Russet potatoes (also known as Idaho potatoes or baking potatoes) are starchy and work great both for mashing and baking. They have a high starch content which is perfect for mashing. They are not waxy like red potatoes.
- Yukon Gold potatoes are also great for mashing as they are quite starchy, yet they hold their shape a bit better than russet potatoes.
How to boil potatoes
- Add peeled and quartered potatoes to a big pan with cold water. The water should sit 1 or 2 inches above the potatoes.
- Bring to boil. Boil on high or medium-high heat for about 15 or 20 minutes. Do not overboil.
- The potatoes are done when you can easily pierce them with a fork.
Cooking tips
- Use peeled and quartered potatoes. Do not boil whole potatoes - they don't cook evenly. They also take a longer time to boil. Do peel and quarter the potatoes before adding them to a pot with water.
- Don't overboil. Cook the potatoes for 15 or 20 minutes in boiling water until they can easily be pierced with a fork. Not until they literally fall apart in the water. If that happens, it means they are overcooked.
- Drain all water. Once the potatoes are boiled and cooked, make sure to drain all water really well. This will prevent watery and overly mushy potatoes.
Toppings for mashed potatoes
- Roasted garlic is the obvious choice for this recipe. Garnish your mashed potatoes with squeezed-out cloves of roasted garlic to add flavor and create a beautiful presentation!
- Fresh herbs. Sprinkle mashed potatoes with fresh thyme, sage, or oregano. Not only do fresh herbs add color and look stunning over the potatoes, but they also add a ton of flavor.
- Olive oil. Makes swirls on top of your potatoes and drizzle with high-quality olive oil.
- Melted butter. Use salted butter. Melt it briefly in the microwave oven, or add to the potatoes while they are still hot so that the butter naturally melts.
- Freshly ground black pepper. Use black peppercorns or peppercorn medley and grind your pepper right before serving. Freshly ground pepper looks beautiful and tastes delicious!
- Chopped green onions (or chives) are a great and beautiful topping that will add color and vibrancy to your side dish.
Storage tips
- Fridge. Store mashed potatoes with roasted garlic in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
- Freezer. Freeze the potatoes in an airtight container for up to 3 months.
- Reheat in the microwave. Microwave the potatoes for 2 or 3 minutes until hot.
- Reheat in the oven. Transfer the mashed potatoes to a baking dish and reheat for 30 minutes in the preheated oven at 350 F.
Other potato side dishes you might like
Mashed Potatoes with Roasted Garlic
Ingredients
Mashed potatoes
- 3 pounds Russet potatoes or use Golden Yukon (peeled and quartered)
- 1.5 cups heavy cream
- 1 cup Parmesan cheese shredded
- 4 tablespoons butter salted
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons fresh thyme
- black pepper freshly ground
Instructions
Roast garlic
- Preheat oven to 400 F.
- Slice off the top portion of the garlic heads and scrape out loose leaves.
- Place garlic heads on a piece of foil, sprinkle the exposed garlic cloves with olive oil. Wrap with foil.
- Roast for about 45 minutes in the preheated oven at 400 F.
- Once the garlic is cool, squeeze out the garlic cloves.
- Pour 3 tablespoons of olive oil into a small bowl and add squeezed-out garlic cloves to the bowl with olive oil.
Mashed potatoes
- While the garlic is roasted in the oven, prepare the mashed potatoes. Peel the potatoes and slice them into quarters.
- Add peeled and sliced potatoes to a big pan with cold water (water should sit 1 or 2 inches above the potatoes). Bring to boil. Boil on high or medium-high heat for about 15 or 20 minutes. The potatoes are done when you can easily pierce them with a fork. Do not overboil.
- Drain all water really well. That's important.
- Add potatoes to a large bowl and mash them with your favorite mashing instrument.
- In the same (now empty) pan that you just used to boil the potatoes, add heavy cream. Add back the mashed potatoes from the bowl - the potatoes should still be hot. Add shredded Parmesan cheese and butter. Add salt.
- Mix everything well on low-medium heat for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until the cheese is absorbed and you reach your desired consistency. Season with more salt, if desired.
Presentation
- Serve potatoes warm or hot. Swirl olive oil (from the bowl with roasted garlic) or melted salted butter into the potatoes. Top with squeezed-out roasted garlic cloves.
- Top with fresh thyme and freshly ground black pepper. Season with more salt on top if desired.
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclaimer:
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed. It should not be used as a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Looks marvelous! I have made garlic mashed potatoes before but not with the roasted cloves, which is a great idea. I’ve had roasted garlic, served with bread at a restaurant & it was fantastic.
Question: You say when you roast the garlic a day or 2 before, do you store the whole head in the refrig or pop out the cloves & refrig those?
Kathy, I would store the whole head of garlic refrigerated - it stays fresher that way and retains shape better.
And, yes, roasted garlic (combined with salt and olive oil) is an excellent addition to fresh bread!
I actually thought this recipe had eggs in it. I thought the potatoes were surrounded by eggs and that this was a breakfast recipe. How surprised I was to scroll down, see the ingredients and no eggs were listed I still think t will be good as a side dish with the cheese. But I’m also thinking adding eggs might be another good dish what do you think?
Yvonne, why not? Particularly, quail eggs (small in size) would REALLY BE GOOD with mashed potatoes. And the presentation will be fantastic!
Thank you for the idea of adding roasted garlic cloves - this elevated our Thanksgiving potatoes and guests went for seconds! We ran out of roasted garlic too fast, LOL!
Roasted garlic is addictive! Glad the recipe was enjoyed!
I call it garlic candy!
Catherine, I love this name! 🙂
Never thought of adding Parmesan to mashed potatoes before - it was delicious!!
Parmesan is delicious with mashed potatoes!
These potatoes were a hit at Thanksgiving! The stole the show - thank you!
So happy to hear it! Thank you for the 5-star review! 🙂
Looks delicious! But what are the red flakes? I’m assuming it’s red pepper flakes but that’s not in the ingredients list?
Hi Kate! I've used McCormick's peppercorn medley grinder - so that's the red that you see - it's the red peppercorns.
My husband forwarded me this recipe and I made it for practice for our upcoming Thanksgiving - turned out delicious. Will make for Thanksgiving again!
Debbie, I am glad you tried this recipe and enjoyed it! I also always do practice runs of recipes for special occasions. Good strategy!
I've made something similar before. Is it olive oil or butter on your photos?
It's olive oil. These are pretty basic mashed potatoes - just with roasted garlic cloves on top. 🙂