
Roasted garlic and parmesan mashed potatoes are not only a staple to serve during the holidays, but also whenever your heart (and stomach) needs a hug!
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Continuing on with our Thanksgiving recipes, this week I bring you the ultimate Thanksgiving side dish. These are the most delicious mashed potatoes and the best part about them, besides all the cheese and garlic, is they’re incredibly simple!
If you haven’t noticed in my recipes, simplicity is key. Sometimes, in my opinion, it’s easier to cook meals from home when they are simple recipes. Cooking from scratch doesn’t have to be a super intricate thing. Just my opinions…
Anyways…
I tend to make a “large” batch of mashed potatoes because I like to be able to feed my “army” and I like to have left overs. Plus, if you make these for a Thanksgiving get together, you’ll need a big batch of mashed potatoes to feed a crowd anyways.
Tools you’ll need
- baking dish
- aluminum foil
- cutting board
- knife
- cheese grater
- potato masher
- dutch oven or large pot
- colander
- wooden spoon
Ingredients
Roasted Garlic
- 1 head of garlic
- 1 t. olive oil
Mashed Potatoes
- 5lbs of red potatoes
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 2 sticks of butter, room temperature
- 1 block of cream cheese, room temperature
- about 1 c. heavy cream
- approximately 1 1/2 c. parmesan cheese, shredded
- 1 head of roasted garlic
Directions
How to Roast Garlic

Get a head of garlic and slice the top off.

Place your foil in a baking dish and put the cut head of garlic inside. Add olive oil to the top of the head, then close the foil.

Bake at 375 for 45 minutes. Your kitchen will smell amazing!
While the garlic is roasting, start working on mashed potatoes.
Mashed Potatoes

Wash your potatoes, then cube them and throw them in your pot.

They’ll look like this. I like to make relatively small cubes so they cook faster.

Fill your pot with water just until the potatoes are covered. Boil your potatoes until they’re fork tender.
If you don’t know what that means, you just get a potato and pierce it with a fork and if it goes in very easily, then your potatoes are done.

While you’re waiting on the potatoes to boil and the garlic to roast, shred your parmesan cheese. I used a microplane but I recommend using an actual cheese grater. (My cheese graters were both in the dishwasher, so my arm got a workout!)

Once the potatoes are fork tender, strain them and put them back into the same pot. This makes for less dishes to wash and helps melt everything together once you start mashing.

Once the garlic is done, it’ll look like this. Let it cool slightly before handling. It’ll be super hot!

To get all the garlic out, lay it on its side and press it out. I also take a fork to mine to make sure and get it all out.

Add the roasted garlic, butter and cream cheese to the pot of mashed potatoes. Use a potato masher and mash them until your desired consistency. We personally like chunky potatoes.

Add shredded parmesan, heavy cream and salt and pepper. Be sure to taste in this step to make sure you have it seasoned enough.

I’ve given very loose directions when it comes to cream and seasoning because some people like theirs thicker than others. We like ours pretty thick and creamy and also add extra pepper once we’ve served the kids.

Bon appétit! These pair very well with any gravy you like.
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Roasted Garlic and Parmesan Mashed Potatoes
Ingredients
Roasted Garlic
- 1 head garlic
- 1 tsp olive oil
Mashed Potatoes
- 5 lbs red potatoes cubed
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 sticks butter room temperature
- 1 block cream cheese room temperature
- 1 head roasted garlic
- 1 cup heavy cream room temperature
- 1 ½ cup parmesan cheese shredded
Instructions
Roasted Garlic
- Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
- Get a head of garlic and cut the top of it to expose the inner cloves.
- In a baking dish, place a small sheet of aluminum foil. Add the garlic and pour oil on top.
- Close the aluminum and bake the garlic for 45 minutes.
- Once garlic is done, cool before handling. To get cloves out, gently smoosh the cloves out.
Mashed Potatoes
- Wash your potatoes, cube them and throw them into a pot. Cover the potatoes with water. Boil until fork tender.
- While waiting on potatoes to boil and garlic to roast, shred the parmesan cheese.
- Once potatoes are fork tender, drain potatoes in a strainer and put back into pot.
- In the large pot of potatoes, add butter, cream cheese and garlic. Mash with the potato masher until desired consistency.
- Add parmesan, heavy cream, salt and pepper. Be sure to taste in this step to make sure you have it seasoned enough.
- Depending on how thick you like your mashed potatoes, you may want to add more or less cream to them. We personally like ours pretty thick.
- Bon appetit!
These look delicious! Printed and will try soon, I’m swimming in potatoes from the summer garden!
That’s so amazing! I bet it will even taste better with home grown ingredients! Let me know what you think!
This looks so yummy and might just become our family’s new favorite along side our signature stuffing! Thank you so much for this detailed, great recipe!
Thank you! Mashed potatoes and stuffing go great together! Especially when paired with gravy!
This looks so delicious. I love red skin potatoes too. Definitely will be adding this recipe to my list.
Red potatoes are my favorite because I loathe pealing potatoes haha! Plus they’re creamier!
Looks so delicious. I will give it a try. The photos were well portrayed to follow the recipe.
Thank you! Let me know what you think!