How To Repurpose Gummy Mashed Potatoes

Making mashed potatoes seems simple, but it's so easy to take the texture of American's beloved comfort food from velvety to gummy and gross that nearly every mashed potato recipe contains tips and tricks for preventing this dreaded outcome. Despite this, at one time or another all of us have made the fatal mistakes of choosing the wrong potato, dolloping in cold cream, or trying to speed up the process with a food processor, reducing that fluffy texture to a flat starchy mess.

Fortunately, the biggest issue with gummy mashed potatoes is the texture. When it comes to taste, a tater is a tater, and all of them are delicious mingled with creamy fat and savory seasonings. If you don't have the time to salvage your gummy mashed potatoes, it's fairly easy to reimagine them into something equally delicious. For instance, turning them into an extra-creamy mashed potato casserole by folding in some tangy cream cheese and turning them into a greased baking dish to roast into a dreamy, sliceable version of this classic dish.

Something else you can do on the fly is let the mash cool a bit before whisking in a couple of lightly beaten eggs and other seasonings to make crispy and delicious mashed potato patties. Use a cookie scoop to portion the patties and drop them into a hot pan, flattening slightly as they start to sizzle. Pan fry until golden, and serve with sour cream or a drizzle of quick homemade honey mustard.

If you make the perfect mash only to find that they seized up overnight in the fridge, you might consider using in them a wide range of recipes in which gummy mashed potatoes might actually work better than the fresh version. For instance, chicken croquettes are best made with leftovers, as they require you to start with cold ingredients. Quickly and easily turn some minced rotisserie chicken, your gummy potatoes, and seasonings like cheese, chives, or onion soup mix into crispy little balls of joy that might just make the weekly meal rotation.

You might even consider using this slightly subpar comfort food to create another classically comforting dish: shepherd's pie. Using a high-quality can of beef stew is a great shortcut to making shepherd's pie, as it eliminates all the hassle of making a traditional shepherd's pie filling. Instead, you can just spread the leftover mash on top of the beef stew in a pie dish, bake, and enjoy.

If your potatoes are dry in addition to being stiff and gummy, the best use for them may be to turn them into a loaded baked potato soup. Mashed potatoes give this soup its dense, creamy texture, but the real stars of the show are the other flavors. Bacon bits, chives, cheddar cheese, and sour cream take center stage while your mash becomes a dense, belly-filling broth after being whipped together with chicken stock, butter, and seasonings like garlic and onion powder.