Upgrade Mashed Potatoes With A Savory Store-Bought Bouillon

Mashed potatoes function as an ideal side because the dish can be paired with any protein and other sides, plus it's usually a crowd pleaser. The creamy spuds are even better because they're delicious in their simplest form with butter, salt, and pepper to soak up gravy or spruced up with ingredients like shredded cheese, heavy cream or milk, and even a bulb of roasted garlic. To upgrade your next pot of homemade mashed potatoes even further, open the cabinet and reach for a store-bought bouillon. You are probably more accustomed to using bouillon as a base for soups or stews, but it can add just as much flavor to mashed potatoes.

Bouillon cubes, pastes, and powders are a flavor-packed ingredient that can easily add umami to any dish. Most store-bought bouillon products consist of condensed bouillon made from protein like beef or chicken, vegetables, and spices. For this mashed potato upgrade, use beef, chicken, or vegetable bouillon depending on what flavor profile you want to achieve, or what dishes the spuds will be paired with.

Bouillon is commonly purchased at the grocery store in the form of cubes or powders. They're relatively cheap and have a long shelf life, so the box already in your cabinet should work. To incorporate bouillon in your mashed potatoes, dissolve one cube or two tablespoons of powder for every three pounds of potatoes. There are also bouillon pastes, like the brand Better Than Bouillon. To use a paste in mashed potatoes, one teaspoon is enough for two to three pounds.

No matter what type of bouillon variety you choose, there are a couple of ways to use them in mashed potatoes. First, boil the potatoes in the water with the bouillon to infuse them with flavor from the start. Perhaps a more common technique is to dissolve the bouillon in a tablespoon of water or milk, then add it to the cooked potatoes along with the other ingredients like butter and seasonings, then mash, and serve. Or if you're using the paste, just mix it in directly out of the jar with the other ingredients then mash.

Try bouillon with your family's recipe, to amp up Tasting Table's creamy garlic mashed red potatoes, or to upgrade pre-made spuds from the grocery store.