How to make instant Mashed Potatoes more interesting?

Prepare as normal, add butter, cheddar, bacon bits, and green chili. Mix well. Fry in 1/4 amounts at nice and thin. Serve hot with sour cream and more shredded cheddar if you like it.

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Snoo78959@reddit

Stock, not water…butter, cream, garlic, onion

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I like use milk instead of the water and extra than the directions . Add in some sour cream bacon bits shredded cheddar cheese , sometimes little bit green chile , and or some diced mushrooms . It will pop !

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ChefAsstastic@reddit

Butter, chicken broth sour cream, shredded cheddar and chives.

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ClerklierBrush0@reddit

Popeyes is just this with a gravy packet on top

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jenorama_CA@reddit

My go to with boxed things is to sub chicken or veggie broth for the water, either all or a portion of it. There are a lot of really good suggestions—I might have to see how my mini waffle iron does with some instant mashed potatoes.

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Griffithead@reddit

Garlic is the answer for everything

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PrimeWaffle@reddit

Sprinkle them on your enemy's lawn, then add water. I promise you it's interesting!

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Drawn-Otterix@reddit

Pipe and bake, make gnocchi, pipe freez and fry, etc

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NiobiumThorn@reddit

Get MSG and/or nutritional yeast. Add other seasonings and some sort of fat + salt to taste.

It's pretty cheap and nutritional yeast is already basically the same thing in many of the tastiest foods out there (yeast extract). Makes basically anything taste better.

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BALLrash666@reddit

Piss in the mix, that should mix things up

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RoundTiberius@reddit

Bacon bits, shredded cheese

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trogdor2594@reddit

My mom would cover Hamburger patties in cream of mushroom soup and we'd have corn or peas and carrots as a side with instant mashed potatoes. My favorite thing was making a bowl with the mashed potatoes as a base.

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lyndseymariee@reddit

Husband and I found smoked goat cheese crumbles at the grocery store near our house. I threw some in to real mashed potatoes and the result was amazing. So I’d try any sort of smoked cheese if you can’t find goat cheese or if you don’t like it.

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drcha@reddit

Butter, cream cheese

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Loose-Limbs@reddit

Mix in some applesauce and you've got Himmel und Erde

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Positive_Ad_5701@reddit

Add some flour and use it to make gnocchi

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Sm00gz42@reddit

Never thought of this not a bad idea

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KinkyQuesadilla@reddit

Condensed milk and butter.

Salt and white pepper.

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racecarart@reddit

There are plenty of ways to transform it - pancakes, potato bread, hell, you could make some knock-off latkes if you want. But if you want to keep them as mashed potatoes and just plus them up, I have two suggestions:

Roast a whole head of garlic, mash it into a paste, then stir it into the potatoes with butter, salt, and pepper.
Ranch dressing and Sriracha. Or just ranch, but they go so well together.

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Relative_Yesterday70@reddit

Potato Bread

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TheMaveCan@reddit

Lots of butter, dried chives, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper. I swear by instant mash potatoes. I'll splurge for the holidays but the difference between gussied up instant mash and fresh isn't significant enough for me to justify the amount of work that goes into it on a normal night.

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Revolutionary_Fun735@reddit

A very large amount of butter. Some sour cream, garlic, tons of BP. Chives. Cheese. Gravy.

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Remarkable-Pass-2066@reddit

Mix with milk, butter, cheese and corn into a moist dough Roll into 1-1/2" balls, and airfry for 25 or bake for 40 at 375. Sub corn for peas, jalapeños, or green chilies. Sub cheese for cottage cheese (strain before adding)

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krayonic@reddit

Butter, salt, and rosemary. Cheese if you really wanna get nuts.

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SushiNazi@reddit (OP)

I'm thinking Cheesy Mashed Potatos too.

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Grunergeist420@reddit

My cheesy instant mashed potatoes secret is to add a slice of American cheese in addition to other cheeses. The emulsifiers in American cheese help to make the cheeses to blend smoothly into the potatoes and also helps the instant mashed potatoes to be less gritty and watery and more smooth and consistent.

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ProfesseurCurling@reddit

Google aligot.

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damagecontrolparty@reddit

Oh wow, where has this been all my life? (In France, obviously!)

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ProfesseurCurling@reddit

Simple but with good products it is amazing. I have such good childhood memories thanks to this dish.

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Boon1Goon@reddit

Yesss! Pommes aligot is AMAZING!!!!!! 🤤🤤🤤

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Wayfaring_Limey@reddit

Make Gnocchi out of it, or just add butter until Paula Dean appears in your kitchen.

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willfauxreal@reddit

Add a scoop of your favorite dip! I like adding some dill dip or red pepper veggie dip.

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kaptaincorn@reddit

Cheese and spices

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KeepingItCoolish@reddit

I always like a KFC style potato bowl with some chicken, corn, cheese, and gravy. Or put some chives, cheese, sour cream, and bacon on top.

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KeepingItCoolish@reddit

Unrelated to the above, you asked for interesting gravies. My mind just flashed to the sauce from this Peruvian Turkey recipe. It's very bright and tasty with a little heat. It's meant to be made with the drippings from the turkey but you could just as easily use chicken drippings or even some butter I'm sure. I've made it with sour cream instead of creme fraiche and that was good too. Maybe add a pinch of some of the seasonings from the turkey to bring more of that intended flavor in.

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hydra333@reddit

Making me want mash potatoes now dammit

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oniiichanUwU@reddit

I recently switched to instant mashed potatoes out of laziness tbh. I prepare the base according to package instructions, in a sauce pan melt butter and add onion and garlic powder, heavy cream, salt pepper and dried dill. Just warm it enough to get everything up to temp and get the spices to rehydrate, don’t simmer it. Dump into prepared potatoes. Use more butter chunks and heavy cream to get them to a consistency you like, remember that as they cool they will thicken more.

If you’re feeling froggy you can add shredded cheese, sour cream or Greek yogurt, bacon bits and/or green onion.

For gravy the packaged bags are the easiest but if I don’t have any I’ll make some using salt free chicken stock powder.

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DisastrousSecret7017@reddit

If you have a waffle iron you can make lovely crispy literal-waffle fries.

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Good-Marsupial8@reddit

Making gnocchi or even adding it to bread works. If you ever fry anything potato flakes make a really good breading also. Or if u make a stew you can use them to thicken it up. works good as a binder like for meatloaf or meatballs. I always use instant when I'm making shepherds pie too cause I am lazy

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NelyafinweMaitimo@reddit

Instant mashed potatoes make a nice filler for things like meatballs, fritters, and croquettes. Can of tuna + mashed potato flakes + an egg + any seasonings or aromatic vegetables you want + shape into a patty + fry in oil on both sides until golden. This technique works with lots of other stuff besides tuna.

Otherwise load them up with butter, salt, pepper, and any other seasonings. Can put them on top of something like shepherd's pie if you want a break from just potatoes and gravy.

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MChubbier2347@reddit

Cheese, 50% butter, salt, pepper (add more spices to your taste)

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Fabulous_Clothes_726@reddit

Salt Pepper Chives Onion powder Garlic powder Crumbled bacon Cheese Half water and half milk Butter Sour cream (on top)

Almost everything goes with potatoes...

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AverageInfamous7050@reddit

Battered and deep-fried. Pattie or tot style.

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poggy_manz@reddit

Gravy

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fac82@reddit

Thickener for sauces and soups, batter for fried foods (esp if you’re cooking for someone with gluten sensitivity). Mix with reg flour for gnocchi, dumplings, bread. Pringle’s are made from reconstituted potatoes, can try making that.

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haskell_rules@reddit

Covered in red sauce from baked stuffed peppers

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auhnold@reddit

Strain a couple cans of veggies,cover with mashed potatoes and some cheese, bake it, and you got a shepherds pie. Garlic salt, pepper, some left over meat, get creative.

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fizzzingwhizbee@reddit

Take your time

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laukaisyn@reddit

Dehydrated chives and the fake bacon bits.

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pmacnayr@reddit

They work pretty well as a soup thickener if you don’t get any good ideas in your budget

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Queen_Of_Left_Turns@reddit

Former cook here, those are some bomb instant mashed potats FWIW

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OkiDokiPanic@reddit

Potato churros

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Otherwise_Ad_5666@reddit

Make em.. chill em.. ball em up.. egg wash and bread em… fry em.. dip em.

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ElegantCoach4066@reddit

Bacon bits

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saurus-REXicon@reddit

I like adding it to the flour/dredge for fried chicken, or chicken fried steak.

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ToggleMoreOptions@reddit

Make it into a thick paste like a dough. Shape it and freeze it. Bake and/or fry and they make some yummy fries.

Use them for the best "twice baked" potato filling.

I add it to soups to thicken it, just a tiny bit.

Shepard's pie

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TastyRun-5651@reddit

Diced Ham and seasoning!

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wavdaily@reddit

gif

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epidemicsaints@reddit

I like them runny and highly seasoned as a soup - Made per directions, too pasty and gummy.

There's also a fried pancake version that is yummy.

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elonmusktheturd22@reddit

I have half a barrel full of these, this exact brand, food pantries give them out constantly and almost everyone throws them out (how i got them).

I don't have any interesting ways to use them though, i just add water and use soy based buttery popcorn topping on them. Could make cheesy mash potatoes by adding cheese powder topping to the mix (also a popcorn topping)