Make These Ultra Creamy and Buttery Vegan Mashed Potatoes
Jessica Hylton-Leckie shares a plant-based version of this Thanksgiving classic.
Jessica Hylton-Leckie didn’t expect to become a trusted source in cooking. After all, she was an attorney—up until six years ago, when she swapped out her law career to recipe develop and blog full-time for her website, Jessica in the Kitchen. Now, she's guiding home cooks, both plant-based and not, in the kitchen with her comforting recipes.
“I actually started blogging 10 years ago as a way to promote my baking business at the time,” Hylton-Leckie explains. It was a business she began during her undergraduate law studies; although she was pursuing a professional career, cooking and baking remained a passion. “It’s morphed from that into a site that hosts recipes that I love and want to share with everyone. It may sound cliché, but helping people make vegan recipes really keeps me grounded and motivated.”
Vegan cooking does not have to be intimidating or scary, especially because there are so many plant-based replacements for animal products like butter, cheese, and even meat. For a holiday like Thanksgiving, which often centers on turkey, Hylton-Leckie thinks outside of the box—with recipes for vegan meatloaf, gravy, scalloped potatoes, and sweet potato casserole that adorn her blog.
“We have the benefit of having a vegan replacement for most, if not all, animal products now,” Hylton-Leckie says. “The idea that Thanksgiving has to incorporate animal products is a thing of the past.”
One particular Thanksgiving favorite of hers is mashed potatoes, which were always served on family dinner each Sunday evening. “My mother is a master at making it,” she shares. “I think that’s why I put so much effort into this dish.” The result is perfectly savory potatoes with a smooth texture—a blank canvas for roasted garlic, chives, cheese, or any other additions to make it your own.
To get the ultra creamy texture, Hylton-Leckie recommends Yukon gold potatoes, chilled coconut milk, and high-quality vegan butter. “Vegan butter is great for the creamy texture and will also give it a classic taste—so don’t be afraid to use it,” she instructs. Make sure not to overwork the potatoes, or the resulting dish will be gluey and claggy rather than fluffy and silky.
This year, and any following year, mashed potatoes don’t have to contain animal products to be delicious. Leckie’s hope is that “anyone who reads my blog, vegan or non-vegan, realizes how easy it is to prepare vegan meals for any occasion right from the comfort of their kitchen.”
Jessica in the Kitchen Vegan Mashed Potatoes Recipe
Ingredients:
- 1 pound, 8 ounces ounces yukon gold potatoes, cut in half & peeled
- 3 tablespoons vegan butter
- ¾ cup coconut milk
- 2 cloves garlic finely minced
- ½-1 teaspoon sea salt to taste
Directions:
1. Bring a pot of salted water or vegetable broth to boil. Add potatoes, and boil for 20 minutes until fork tender (you can stick your fork into the potato and it slides right out).
2. Drain the potatoes completely through a strainer or sieve and then place into a bowl.
3. Using your potato masher, mash the potatoes for a few seconds until broken up.
4. In a small separate bowl, place the coconut milk and the vegan butter and microwave for 45 seconds until hot and melted together.
5. Add the coconut milk vegan butter mix hot to the mashed potatoes along with the minced garlic and sea salt and mashed all the ingredients together with the potato masher until incorporated and the mashed potatoes are smooth and creamy.
6. Serve with black pepper (optional) and an extra pat of butter. Enjoy!