John Myers
Homemade or ready-made: mashed potatoes are always delicious! But what if you have leftover mashed potatoes? Simply warming up is done quickly – but the right use of leftovers can give your favorite side dish a whole new look! We present 7 ideas for what you can conjure up with leftovers!
Keep and Recycle
Before you think about using up leftover mashed potatoes, you need to produce leftovers first. If you have leftover mashed potatoes, transfer the rest to a clean box or bowl. If you want to cook with it the next day, you can leave the rest covered overnight. If you only want to use up leftovers in the next few days, then the remaining porridge must be cooled – especially if you have worked with fresh milk or butter.
Water leaks out during storage. This is completely normal and harmless – simply stir the mashed potatoes with a little milk or a plant-based alternative until smooth. To minimize water loss, you can cover the rest directly with cling film.
Mashed potatoes leftovers – 6 ideas
We have put together our 7 favorite tips for you on how to use up leftover mashed potatoes. In your fridge or pantry, you will surely find ingredients that you can use to creatively expand your ideas. Mashed potatoes are more versatile than you think!
- Topping for casserole
Here you can use several leftovers at once: you can easily cover leftover meat, fish, or vegetables with the remaining mashed potatoes and bake them in the oven. At 200°C, the casserole turns golden yellow after 20 minutes. If you want to make the casserole particularly attractive, you can pipe the puree onto the casserole in waves through a cut-off freezer bag.
Tip: Stir some cheese into the leftover mashed potatoes – this makes the topping even spicier!
- Duchess Potatoes
This classic French side dish is mashed potatoes with a noble first name! All you need is the remaining puree, spices and herbs, and some butter. The twisted potato drops are traditionally fried in butter, but you can also let them set in the oven. In our recipe for classic duchess potatoes, we show you step-by-step how to prepare the pretty side dish.
- Base for sauces
Leftovers from instant mashed potatoes in particular are often no longer visually appealing. It doesn’t matter if you’re stirring the leftovers into a thick, creamy sauce or using them as a base for cream sauces. The potato starch binds the sauces well at the same time.
- Cakes, Muffins, Cookies
Cold mashed potatoes are an excellent ingredient for muffins, bread or cake batters. Do you have a whole grain dough that seems too dry for you? Then add some mashed potatoes – this makes the dough moister and particularly strong types of flour develop their aroma better.
- Potato soup
Here you save twice! If you have leftover mashed potatoes, you can use them to replace up to 50% of the amount of potatoes in most soup recipes. This saves you time peeling and you can cook a creamy soup with just a few potatoes. You can find out how to proceed step by step in our recipe for mashed potato soup!
- Balls with a bite
When using leftovers, mix not only mashed potatoes, but also nuts, sunflower seeds or seeds to form a firm dough. You can add grated cheese and breadcrumbs for better binding. Season the dough as you like – maybe exotic with curry and ginger or traditional with Mediterranean herbs. Form small balls from the dough and bake them in oil to make a crispy snack or a delicious side dish.
These ideas can be expanded and refined with many ingredients. For example with different types of cheese or smoked fish, diced ham or dried tomatoes – with a little imagination almost everything can be used up with mashed potatoes!
