Are you looking for a vegan mashed potato recipe? These roasted garlic mashed potatoes are your easy incredibly delicious answer! All you do is roast whole garlic cloves until theyโre creamy soft and mash the garlic into well-cooked soft potatoes. Use coconut milk and olive oil in place of the usual butter and milk and you get creamy vegan roasted garlic mashed potatoes!

Cooking garic until it’s soft transforms garlic’s sharp bite into mellow buttery sweet. An entire bulb of garlic goes into these roasted garlic mashed potatoes but you’d never know it.
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How do you make super-moist potatoes vegan and dairy free?
- Use olive oil and pure coconut milk. Coconut milk?!! The roasted garic flavor dominates over the mild coconut flavor. Thus, rich creamy mashed potatoes with nary a stitch of dairy.
When there’s a vegan at your table, theyโll welcome the gesture when vegan roasted garlic mashed potatoes are on the menu.
About Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes ingredients:
- The same pure coconut milk (affiliate link) you might stir into a Thai curry dish is the same creamy white liquid we mash into these potatoes. Lite coconut milk is fine here. Donโt mistakenly use the Coco Lopez coconut milk with sugar, thatโs for pina coladas. Coconut water has no fat, and so it’s not a good substitute either.
- Yukon gold and russet potatoes have low moisture and high starch contentโboth make excellent mashed potatoes. I like to use Yukon golds–they give these mashed potatoes a pretty pale yellow color. Whichever, be sure to cook them until they’re practically following apart.
Make ahead:
- Roast whole garlic cloves ahead of time. When it’s time, reheat them, just so they’re soft enough to incorporate into the potatoes.
- If you don’t want to take the time to roast the garlic, just steam them along with the potatoes, as in this Vegan Shepherd’s Pie recipe.
A couple more tips:
- An old-fashioned hand-held potato masher (affiliate link) whips up the fluffiest potatoes. A food processor whips them too muchโmakes them gummy. My in-laws beat their potatoes with a portable mixerโan OK method if you donโt overdo it. An old-fashioned potato masher and a minor bit of elbow grease makes the fluffiest potatoes.
- Freeze the potato skins for later, to make homemade vegetable broth. The potato boiling water is excellent soup baseโsave that too.
Can you cook potatoes for mashed potatoes in the pressure cooker?
- Yes! My Mom always cooked her potatoes in the pressure cooker. This recipe includes directions for cooking potatoes quickly in your pressure cooler or Instant Pot.
Serve your garlic roasted mashed potatoes with this vegan mushroom gravy.
This salad with pears, blue cheese, and pecans always gets rave reviews at our Thanksgiving table.
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Vegan Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Ingredients
- 1 bulb garlic (about 8 cloves)
- ยผ cup olive oil
- 2 pounds Yukon gold or russet potatoes , peeled, cut in quarters
- 1 cup pure coconut milk , warmed
- ยผ teaspoon fine sea salt plus more to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons chopped green onions
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Separate the garlic bulb cloves, removing the outer papery skins. Put them in a small oiled baking dish, or on a sheet of foil large enough to fold over itself and the garlic. Drizzle with a teaspoon of olive oil. (Save the rest for mashing the potatoes. Add a couple of tablespoons of water. Cover tightly or fold the foil over and crimp the edges.
- Bake for about 45 minutes, until the garlic is completely soft inside.
For Stovetop-cooked Mashed Potatoes:
- Put the quartered potatoes in a large saucepan. Cover with cold water, sprinkling in a teaspoon of salt. Bring to a boil and simmer until the potatoes are practically falling apart, 20 to 35 minutes, depending on size.
- Drain the potatoes, saving the potato water. Mash with a potato masher.ย Slip the soft garlic from the skins and mash into the potatoes.
- Gradually beat in the warm coconut milk, mashing well, until the potatoes are smooth, light and moist. If you like your mashed potatoes on the creamy side, mash in some of the reserved cooking water until the consistency is to your liking.
- Season with the salt and plenty of freshly ground pepper. Taste, adding more salt if you think itโs needed. Serve warm garnished with sliced green onions. Serve immediately.
For Instant Pot or Pressure Cooker Mashed Potatoes:
- Place the potatoes in a steamer basket in the cooking pot. Add 1 cup of water. Lock the lid in place with the vent in the sealed position. Use the manual setting and set a 7 minute cooking time. Carefully turn the vent for quick release. cover it with a towel so it doesn't spray everywhere. When the valve drops, remove the lid.
- Remove from steamer, reserving cooking water. The potatoes should be practically falling apart. Mash with a potato masher.ย Slip the soft garlic from the skins and mash into the potatoes.
- Gradually beat in the warm coconut milk, mashing well, until the potatoes are smooth, light and moist. If you like your mashed potatoes on the creamy side, mash in some of the reserved cooking water until the consistency is to your liking.
- Season with salt and plenty of freshly ground pepper. Taste, adding more salt if you think itโs needed. Serve warm, garnished with sliced green onions.
Notes
Nutrition
** This recipe is an update of the roasted garlic mashed potatoes I posted in October 2010, on my old muffintalk.wordpress.com blog. No photos back then.
Letty,
There are delicious! I made them the other night and were the perfect side dish.
Thanks for the recipe!
Always,
Marissa · 6 December, 2010
Last year at Thanksgiving I introduced coconut milk to my creamed greens and was very happy with the results. This year I’ll try taters. GREG · 15 November, 2015
What a great idea. I’ve always steered clear of creamed spinach etc. because of the heavy dairy– · 16 November, 2015