Ask anyone in my family and they will tell you that these Creamy Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes are simply the most divine potatoes you could ever eat.  Let’s face it – all potatoes are quite heavenly, but believe me when I tell you that these are extra rich, buttery, fluffy and flavorful.  if you want to be known as the King or Queen of mashed potatoes in your family, try this recipe and see if these potatoes don’t become a family favorite at your house too.

The key to these potatoes are the cloves of garlic that have been slow roasted for an hour in the oven so they are soft and sweet and caramelized.  I usually add about 20 cloves of roasted garlic, but how many depends on how big they are.  Nevertheless, that flavor is what takes these potatoes way over the top.  If you have never made roasted garlic, check out my simple how to post.  Once you start roasting garlic you will be adding it to anything you possibly can!

I like to cook my potatoes in the instant pot because I don’t have to try and figure out when they are ready to mash and know they are going to come out perfectly every time!  Can you make these potatoes on the stove instead of in the instant pot?  Absolutely – just add your potatoes to a large stock pot and cover with cold water and add 1 tsp salt.  Bring to a boil, and cook until fork tender, (until a fork goes through the potato very easily.)  Then drain the potatoes and follow the directions as written below by ricing them and adding all the other ingredients!

If you don’t have a ricer, you can mash these by hand with a potato masher, but the ricer is a game changer.  It’s a tool worth investing in just for mashed potatoes alone!  (I love the OXO Good Grips stainless steel brand ricer that I got on Amazon!)  When it comes to what kind of potato is best for mashed potatoes, I have always heard that russets are the best, but I respectfully disagree.  While russets definitely make a nice mashed potato, my absolute favorite are the Yukon gold, (or yellow potatoes), they are creamy, smooth, velvet perfection!

Ingredients:

Instructions:

1. Roast your garlic, remove the cloves from the head by squeezing them from the bottom.  Place the cloves on a cutting board and smash them with the side of a large knife until you make a paste, (press down and slide the knife across the cutting board with the blade facing away from you.  Chop as needed too.)  Set aside.
2. Peel and cut the potatoes in to chunks and add to the instant pot.
3. Sprinkle in the salt and add the water.
4. Secure the top of the instant pot, make sure the little pointer is pointing towards sealing and add 12 minutes of time to the manual timer.  Let the instant pot do it’s thing!
5. As soon as the time is up, release the steam manually by moving the little pointer over to venting, (do this carefully – I usually use a wooden spoon to do this so I can keep my distance.)
6. Remove the lid, drain the potatoes in a colander, then push them through a ricer in batches into a large mixing bowl.  (If you don’t have a ricer, add them to the large mixing bowl and use a potato masher.)
7. Add the melted butter, half and half, roasted garlic paste, salt and cracked pepper.  Use your potato masher or a large wooden spoon to stir everything together, (the ricer already did all the work.)
8. Add additional salt and pepper to taste, (just a tiny bit at a time), then serve!