Make Ahead Irish Mashed Potato Casserole

Mashed potatoes made decadent with cream cheese, roasted garlic, and sour cream. Make them ahead of time and reheat in the oven or the slow cooker. Great for holiday potlucks, kids having dental work, or just because this is such a great recipe. Thanks, MA!

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In my humble opinion, the best American meal--bar none--is Thanksgiving.  One year I made a full-on traditional American Thanksgiving meal three times in 4 months.  The first time was, no surprise, the 3rd Thursday in November.  The second time was on Christmas day, and if I had my Danish sister-in-law as my sous chef, I would do that whole deal again in a heartbeat (she made it so easy for me!).


The third occasion was after my spouse returned from a deployment, when I was stuffing him full of all his favorite dishes night after night. I even shared some of those leftovers with folks who found themselves unexpectedly in a hospital far away from home. Thanksgiving knows no boundaries.


Making a Thanksgiving meal from locally sourced farmer's market or Community Supported Agriculture farm share ingredients?  I got this.

The first year we joined a CSA there was not much produce left by the time Thanksgiving rolled around.  This was due to the combination of my inexperience in making the most of my CSA vegetables and the fact that the CSA ended in the beginning of October.  The second year was much better (see awful photo below) partly because we joined a different CSA with a longer season, partly because my spouse was deployed (another deployment) so we had lots more produce to work with, and partly due to my discovery of food blogs on the internet.  Thanks, Alanna!  That year we planned to spend Thanksgiving at the beach in a rented condo.  I didn't know what all I'd have to work with in the kitchen, so I pre-made a lot of dishes at home.  Here's how it turned out:

Yes, I know the colors are crazy.  This was at a beach condo. Before I learned about adjusting the white balance.

As you can see, for me Thanksgiving is all about the sides.  The more side dishes the better as far as I am concerned.  This year I will again have A Veggie Venture's World's Best Green Bean Casserole. I think it's the only time my kids will eat a mushroom.  Since I'm now in Minnesota I'll use local wild rice as well as local corn in Pioneer Woman's Fresh Corn with Wild Rice.  I'll make stuffing--possibly my Gluten Free Cornbread Stuffing with Apples and Sausage.  Using the local cranberries I picked up at the farmer's market I'll make a version Cranberry, Orange, and Beet Salad (ahead of time, in my slow cooker or maybe I give it a whirl in the Instant Pot).

Of course I will make my friend Maryanne's  (aka MA's) Make Ahead Irish Mashed Potato Casserole.  These are my known sides.  But I'll visit a Wednesday farmer's market so there will be some last-minute additions to this list. The only problem with so many sides is this:  how do you cook them all at the same time?   Try to make ahead and use a slow cooker, electric roaster, Instant Pot--whatever you can beg or borrow.

Notes: The recipe I'm sharing is useful because it is made the day before and can be cooked in the oven or the slow cooker, depending on which suits your needs at the time.  It travels well to holiday functions (you can even put the chilled contents into a 2 gallon size zip top bag for transport, then transfer into a crock pot for reheating once you reach work). You can also customize these potatoes any way you like--add bacon, chives, cheese, more garlic . . . whatever you like to make it your own.

Make Ahead Irish Mashed Potato Casserole
By Kirsten Madaus, adapted from the Helping Hands Cookbook

Mashed potatoes made decadent with cream cheese, roasted garlic, and sour cream. Make them ahead of time, and reheat in the oven or the slow cooker.

Prep time: 00:20
Cook time: 00:45
Total time: 01:05

Yield: 8 servings?
Ingredients:
5 pounds potatoes (Yukon golds preferred if you're buying at a store)
1 stick (1/2 cup or 8 Tablespoons) butter or buttery spread
1 box (8 oz) cream cheese, nearing room temperature
1 cup (8 oz, 240 ml) sour cream
1 clove roasted garlic (here's how I roast my garlic crop) (or minced garlic)
2 teaspoons salt (I use Diamond Crystal brand kosher salt)
freshly ground pepper
paprika
optional: 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
optional: 1 cup bacon bits
optional: ¼ cup chopped chives or scallions

Instructions:

Cut potatoes into 2 inch-ish chunks. I don't peel them much, though I acknowledge that this means the peels can sometimes get trapped in the masher.

Cook in boiling water until tender when poked with a fork, about 15-20 minutes for me. Drain, return to pan, and add a stick of butter to potatoes in hot pan. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and garlic together. Add sour cream, salt, and a few grinds of pepper. Beat well.

Stir the now-melted butter into the potatoes in the pot, and add a portion of buttery potatoes to the cream cheese/sour cream mixture. Beat together.

Continue adding more potatoes until you've beaten about 2/3 to 3/4 of the potatoes. Stir in the remaining potatoes (so you get lumps! always good in mashed potatoes, not so good in gravy). Stir in any optional ingredients like cheese or bacon bits.

If you're going to bake this: after mixing, transfer the potatoes to a 2.5 quart casserole (my oval French White works great). Sprinkle with paprika and any optional ingredients like chives or scallions. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

On serving day, remove from fridge 30 minutes before baking. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake for 45 minutes or until thoroughly heated. (On Thanksgiving, I take this out of the fridge about about 30 minutes before the turkey comes out and bake it while the turkey is resting and then being carved.)

If you're going to slow cook this: after mixing, transfer to a lidded container or gallon-size zip top bag and refrigerate overnight.

On the morning of serving day, transfer the potatoes into a slow cooker crock, sprinkle with paprika and any optional ingredients like chives or scallions. Cover and heat on Low at least 4 and up to 8 hours. (On Thanksgiving, I take the lid off right before the turkey comes out so that any condensation on the top is dried out by serving time.)

I don't want to say how many actual servings this makes. The number is shockingly low. Other people who can't eat their age in pounds of mashed potatoes may get more servings from this. My family licks the beaters on this one!

For more Thanksgiving recipe ideas, please see my Clickable Collage of Thanksgiving Recipes. For more recipes using potatoes, please see my Potato Recipes Collection. This collection is part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me eating from the farm share, the farmer's market, the garden, the neighbor's garden, and great deals on ugly produce at the grocery store.

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