Yummy Mash

The clocks have gone back, the slow cooker is out on the worktop more often, and the delights of mashed potatoes are calling... There’s nothing too unhealthy about mashed spuds but given how important a varied diet is, here’s a few tweaks and alternatives which you could incorporate into your meals this winter:

• Save the water you cooked them in, and then add it back in when you mash them. This means you need less butter and/or milk for a creamy taste.
  Instead of butter, try adding extra virgin olive oil or avocado oil – they are both rich in monounsaturated fatty acids.
• Given how full of antioxidants herbs and spices are, experiment with any flavours you fancy. Mustard is a well-known addition, but what about pesto, wasabi, chives, shredded basil or turmeric, to name a few?
• Add practically any other root vegetables as you boil the potatoes. Carrots, swedes, celeriac, parsnips and turnips are all good, but you can also add non-root vegetables like cauliflower for the last few minutes. You’ve increased your portions of vegetables at a stroke!
• Talking of adding vegetables, you could also add gently sauteed onions, leeks or spring onions after mashing for a version of colcannon, or lightly cooked shredded cabbage or kale to make bubble and squeak.
• Actually on Saturday night, my husband combined the two suggestions above. He boiled some peeled swedes in Marigold vegetable stock, mashed them and added sauteed leeks – delicious!
  Add some cooked Puy lentils after making the mash (you can buy Puy lentils dried and cook them yourselves, saving the leftovers for mash the next night, or buy them cooked in cans or sachets)
• Instead of ‘normal’ potatoes, have mashed sweet potatoes instead. My recommendation is not to boil your sweet potatoes as they can absorb a lot of water. Instead, bake them until they start browning after peeling and drizzling with olive oil. Then mash them with a little creme fraiche. Actually you could do this with butternut squash as well.
• I find the flavours of sweet potato and butternut squash go really well with tastes like ginger, cumin, basil and Thai curry paste, so there’s another load of mashes to try.
• As another alternative to mashed potatoes, try straining a can of beans (butter beans are my favourite in this recipe) and gently crushing them before heating in a pan with some olive oil and any fresh herbs you fancy.
• Talking of ‘gently crushing’, instead of peeling your potatoes and mashing them to a lovely smooth texture, you could try leaving their skins on. Then rather than mashing them, just crush them a little. It’s mash but not as we know it!
  

Finally, you could just cook a few less spuds, leaving more space on your plate for other vegetables. All these suggestions are adding variety to your diet, which means you are getting a greater variety of phytonutrients.