21 Ingredients You Should Be Adding To Your Mashed Potatoes

Mmmm, mashed potatoes. Creamy, comforting, and oh-so-delicious mashed potatoes are a dinnertime standby. A versatile side dish that is easy to prepare and partners perfectly with many types of meals, mashed potatoes are a go-to side for everything from weeknight family dinners to holiday get-togethers.

Mashed potatoes can take any old potato and turn it into something glorious, but if you want the kind of mashed potatoes people write ballads about (if potato ballads aren't a thing, they should be), you'll want to grab some extra starchy spuds. The best potatoes for your next mashed potato dish are high in starch, but have a low sugar and moisture content. Russet, Yukon gold, and Idaho potatoes are all starchy options that you should reach for first when you're ready to get mashing. If you don't have any high-starch taters on hand, you can use another variety — but you'll want to note that waxier potatoes, such as fingerlings or red bliss potatoes, might make for lumpier mashed potatoes.

If you're lacking fresh potatoes or are short on time, don't turn your nose up at canned potatoes. They can be a good option (and easy to dress up into something fancy) when you're low on options.

I've been developing recipes for nearly a decade as a recipe creator and food blogger. Here are some ingredients to consider when you're looking to try something new with your mashed potatoes.

Garlic is never a miss, and this universally loved vegetable, known for its seasoning powers, can add a savory flavor to your mashed potatoes. For the richest flavor, roast your garlic first (raw garlic is bitter and sharp, but roasted garlic is mellow and adds a divine, earthy taste to your dish). If you don't have time to roast it, it's okay to use jarred garlic –  if you find the flavor lacking, you can give it a flavor boost by sautéing it first with some olive oil before mixing it into your potatoes.

For perfectly roasted bulbs, peel off the outer layers of skin and cut the head of the garlic off (you'll be able to see the cloves). Drizzle with olive oil and maybe a little salt and pepper, wrap in foil, and roast in a 400-degree Fahrenheit oven for about 35 to 40 minutes (you'll know when it's done because it will be nice and soft). Squeeze the cloves out of the skin, mash, and voila — your garlic is ready for your mashed potatoes. Roasted garlic pairs nicely with rosemary and butter to complete your potato experience, and it is also a top choice if you're working with sweet mashed potatoes but want a savory twist.

Sour cream was made for potatoes. Imagine a baked potato with a big fat dollop of sour cream or sour cream and onion potato chips (yum to both of those, right?). Adding sour cream to your mashed potatoes will give the dish a creamy tang that you just can't get from butter. For about 3 pounds of potatoes, you'll want to add ½ cup of sour cream. 

Don't bypass the butter completely, though. Think of sour cream as butter's best friend, an addition to your mashed potatoes that, like any good friend, lifts it up and improves it. Drop in 6 tablespoons of unsalted butter with that sour cream, and you'll be golden. Add chopped green onions or chives for a little crunch and pleasant sharpness to each bite.

Cream cheese isn't just for bagels. This creamy dairy product adds a rich, velvety texture to your mashed potatoes. Cream cheese has a pleasantly mild sour taste and plays nice with other flavors (what other dairy product pairs nicely with salmon and cake?). The versatility of cream cheese lends to its suitability for savory and sweet recipes.

Because cream cheese is stored in the fridge, you'll need to soften it first (which you can do in under a minute) before adding it to your recipe. Once it's prepped for the potatoes, combine it with ingredients like sharp cheddar cheese, chopped onions, or bacon for a savory experience. Going sweet? Mix it into your mashed sweet potatoes and add butter, toasted pecans, cinnamon (or all of the above).

The next time you make mashed potatoes, first raid the garden for fresh herbs. Herbs can be mixed into your potatoes while cooking, stirred in when the potatoes are ready to eat, or sprinkled over the top for a fun little kick of flavor.

You can add any of your favorite herbs to your mashed potatoes, but if you're looking for some inspo, start with rosemary, dill, parsley, or sage. If you have unused herbs when you're done cooking, don't let them go to waste – be sure to freeze them. They'll come in handy for another recipe down the road.

Bacon lovers will delight in a mashed potato dish that includes their favorite portion of pork: bacon crumbles. Bacon's rich and fatty flavor integrates nicely with the mild flavor of potatoes, and it can be mixed into the final dish or sprinkled over the top. If you like your bacon crispy, add it at the very end or use it as a topping rather than mixing it in (if you mix the bacon into the potatoes, it will get soggy — but bacon is bacon, and we're not complaining).

Making mashed sweet potatoes? Try candied bacon instead. Sweet, sugary, and crispy, candied bacon is incredible. The best part about bacon, though, is that there are many tips on how to prepare it, but most importantly, it will be great with your mashed potatoes.

Cheddar never goes out of style, and you can never go wrong with a potato and cheese pairing (potatoes and cheese are a gastronomic love story). Add grated, shredded cheddar cheese to your mashed potatoes while hot and stir until it's uniformly melted. 

For an extra cheesy bonus, add some to the top of the dish when serving. Any cheddar will do, but sharp cheddar will bring the most punch. Add some crumbled bacon, chopped green onions, and a generous scoop of sour cream for a deconstructed baked potato experience.

Replace your standard cream with buttermilk for the same creamy texture of traditional mashed potatoes but with fewer calories. Buttermilk provides a delightful tang with less fat than heavy cream (if it's too tangy for your tastes, cut the buttermilk with regular milk for a milder finish). 

When using buttermilk, be sure to bring it to room temperature first so it doesn't curdle when added to the hot potatoes. Buttermilk works well with chives, cheese, and garlic. It's available at most grocery stores, but you can also make it at home with two ingredients for a true made-from-scratch recipe.

Potato salad, which is usually served cold, often comes with a little kick from the Dijon mustard it is commonly made with. Your mashed potatoes can enjoy the same spice when you add some Dijon to your next recipe. 

You can take a page from the spud salad playbook by adding underrated potato salad ingredients to your next mashed potato recipe, but Dijon, in particular, is a fun one because it's not something we commonly experience. Add some diced onions and sprinkle with parsley to keep the potato salad vibe going.

Truffle oil, usually made by combining oil from truffles with another type of oil, like olive oil, has a rich, earthy, umami flavor that screams luxury — and it's perfect for elevating your mashed potatoes. Truffles are mushrooms, but unlike other mushrooms, they take up to five years to grow — and instead of being harvested like traditional mushrooms, they require specially trained dogs and pigs (it's true) to find them. So, yeah — they're fancy. And their flavor reflects the effort that goes into procuring them.

Truffle oil doesn't need much to stand out. Use it alone in your potatoes, or drizzle it over mashed potatoes topped with rosemary or sage.

You can't have mashed potatoes without butter. Change it up by using brown butter for a warm, nutty flavor, or try herbed butter for a garden-fresh taste. Both brown butter and herbed butter work well with traditional or sweet mashed potatoes.

Brown butter is made by heating butter until it caramelizes. The final product is a toasted flavor reminiscent of nuts. Herbed butter is made by combining butter with your favorite herbs. Combine the butter and herbs and let the flavors meld before using it in your recipe. Whether you're going for brown butter or herbed butter (or herbed brown butter?), always choose one of the best butter brands from your grocery store for a primo final product.

Milk is fine, but heavy cream is divine. Use heavy cream in place of milk for mashed potatoes, which are silky smooth and have an extra buttery flavor. The higher fat content of the heavy cream also helps the potatoes maintain their fluffy shape. 

If you don't have heavy cream in the kitchen, you can make your own by combining ¼ cup of unsalted butter and ¾ cup of milk for 1 cup of heavy cream substitute. Add roasted garlic, salt, and pepper for a straightforward but unforgettable potato dish.

Adding a packet of ranch dressing seasoning to your mashed potatoes might be the easiest thing you can do to quickly change the whole vibe of your dish. This quick and easy hack can be combined with your favorite ingredients, like cheddar cheese, bacon, and chives, for at-home potatoes that taste like they came from a restaurant.

You can make your own ranch seasoning using common pantry staples like dried parsley, onion powder, dried dill, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and dried chives. If you like it hot, add cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes to turn up the heat.

If you're looking for something to pair with fresh herbs in your mashed potatoes, break out the goat cheese. It adds a tangy, mild flavor and smooth, creamy texture. After boiling, and while your spuds are still hot, stir in the goat's cheese, butter, milk, and sour cream for extra creaminess.

You can also combine goat's cheese with your favorite herbs, pulled from your own garden, or purchase a goat's cheese that already has herbs mixed with it. And just like butter, you can make your own herbed goat's cheese at home by combining it with herbs and letting it sit until the flavors have fully integrated.

Shallots look like onions, but they're not the same. While they share some similarities to onions (they come from the same family, after all), shallots have a milder taste — some might even say they have a hint of garlic in their flavor. Onions' versatile cousin, shallots, shine in soups, dressings, and, you guessed it — mashed potatoes.

Sauté the shallots first to coax out their sweet flavor for your potatoes. Stir them in after the potatoes have been mashed with other ingredients. You can use shallots for both regular mashed potatoes and sweet mashed potatoes.

If you want to add rich, savory flavoring to your potatoes, look no further than the mushroom section at your local grocery store. Start with clean mushrooms and sauté them in butter and garlic. Then, heap the mushrooms generously onto your mashed potatoes for a deeper flavor and earthy umami experience.

While mushrooms bring the umami, the fun doesn't stop there — they also add an interesting texture to your dish. If you don't have access to fresh mushrooms, head to the canned foods aisle in your grocery store. Canned mushrooms can be a time-saving and cost-saving ingredient that are well-utilized in a recipe that calls for saucy sauteed mushrooms.

Gruyère cheese might be best known for topping French onion soup, but this Swiss cheese (yep, it's Swiss) actually makes for some amazing mashed potatoes. Gruyère is a briny cheese with a nutty, earthy flavor and a smooth, creamy texture. It also melts nicely, which makes it ideal for a recipe such as mashed potatoes. 

Grate it up and sprinkle it into your mashed potatoes while they're hot. Mix until it's fully integrated. Include shallots, heavy cream, and caramelized onions for an out-of-this-world flavor experience.

Add a little smokiness to those potatoes by incorporating smoked salt into your recipe. You can buy smoked salt pre-made or smoke it yourself. Smoked salt is infused with the smoke of different types of wood, allowing you to choose a flavor you like best. Two popular flavors you can buy are alder wood and oak. It's commonly used for barbecue rubs or with meat dishes, but it can also level up those taters.

Because smoked salt aligns well with barbecue, pair it with other ingredients you might find at your favorite barbecue restaurant. Shredded brisket, sour cream, and butter will all work equally well with smoked salt.

Bold and sometimes controversial (you love or hate it), blue cheese doesn't shrink into the background when you use it in a recipe. This flavor-forward cheese can change the entire composition of a meal, and we're here for it. 

Although blue cheese doesn't need a partner with its noticeable taste, if you want a little something extra, try using heavy cream and chives in your recipe. Stir it into your potatoes or crumble it over the top of your final dish when you serve it.

Add something sweet to your mashed potatoes by topping them with caramelized onions. Caramelizing any onions you have is very easy, but patience is the key. Cook your sliced onions with olive oil or butter over low heat until they are dark brown (the timing will vary, but you can expect to spend up to 45 minutes on this).

If you're feeling fancy, whip up a side of gravy, too. Pour the gravy over your mashed potatoes and top with the caramelized onions for a delightful, sweet, and savory experience.

Turn a typical side dish into a full meal by adding pulled pork (beef or chicken) to your mashed potatoes. Top with your favorite toppings — cheddar cheese, chives, sour cream, and even salsa will work. Make your own pulled pork at home (this is really easy to make in the slow cooker), or use leftovers from the barbecue you ordered the night before. 

You can even turn this into a DIY potato bowl dinner. Set out all the ingredients and let family members choose what they want to add to their mashed potatoes.

A lobster tail and a little extra butter (do you see a trend here?) can elevate your potatoes from average to something you'd order on repeat in a restaurant. Start by grilling your lobster tails for a smoky flavor. 

Add your favorite herbs (parsley and tarragon are great options for a delicious pairing with any marine cuisine) and serve with a side salad for a luxurious seafood meal. To really make it pop, add some roasted garlic, too. Lobster mashed potatoes might just be your next favorite recipe.

I have been a food blogger and recipe creator for over a decade with a specialty in easy meals that are approachable for all skill levels. 

When developing this article, I focused on ingredients that not only complement the dish but also enhance its texture and flavor without complicating the preparation process.