Moscow Food Co-op Recipes

Potato Cheese Puffs are an easy way to get complex carbs and vitamins from yummy potatoes.

by Jyotsna “Jo” Sreenivasan, from the February 2007 newsletter

Mashed potatoes are a kid favorite, and they are really nutritious! Potatoes are a good source of complex carbohydrates, vitamin C (it’s true!), B vitamins and iron. According to www.indepthinfo.com, “Unlike any other major crop, potatoes contain most of the vitamins needed for sustenance. Perhaps more importantly, potatoes can provide this sustenance to nearly 10 people on an acre of land.”

Potatoes are naturally low in fat. Unfortunately, many mashed potato recipes include lots of high-fat ingredients. Here are some not-too-high-fat recipes that I hope your kids will enjoy.

Note: when the recipe calls for “mashed potato,” it means plain cooked potatoes that have been mashed. You don’t need to actually make official “mashed potatoes” (with butter, milk, salt, etc.) before you add them to the recipes here. You can, however, use leftover mashed potatoes (with the milk, butter, salt) in the recipes here, but you might want to reduce or leave out any additional salt or liquid. See my note at the end of the Potato Cheese Puffs recipe.

Garlic Mashed Potatoes
(adapted from Moosewood Restaurant New Classics, by the Moosewood Collective)

The garlic adds very subtle flavor. The original recipe has no butter in it at all. However, I thought it was a little austere that way, so I added a tablespoon of melted butter.

4 cups peeled and diced potatoes
2 to 4 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
4 cups water
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
½ cup warmed buttermilk
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon melted butter (optional)

1. Combine the potatoes, garlic, water and 1 teaspoon of the salt and bring to boil over high heat. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes, until the potato cubes are soft enough to be pierced easily with a fork.
2. Drain the potatoes and garlic. Return them to the pan and mash them with the buttermilk and optional melted butter. Stir in the additional ½ teaspoon salt and the pepper.
3. Mashed potato recipes always stress that you must serve them “piping hot.” At my house my family is not necessarily ready to eat the minute I finish mashing the potatoes! So I keep this dish warm by putting it in the oven set at 170 degrees F.

Potato Poppers
(adapted from Laurel’s Kitchen by Robertson, Flinders and Ruppenthal)
This is a good way to use up leftover cooked rice.

½ onion, diced
1 celery stalk, diced
½ tablespoon oil
1 ¼ cups mashed potato
1 cup cooked brown rice
¼ cup tomato paste
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Oil a baking sheet.
2. Sauté onion and celery in oil.
3. Combine all ingredients (use your clean hands if needed).
4. Using a scant ¼ cup of mixture for each “popper,” form them into flattened balls or logs and place on the greased baking sheet.
5. Bake on the top rack of the oven for 20 minutes, or until delicately browned. You might want to check on them after 10 minutes, especially if you didn’t put them on the top rack – the bottoms of the poppers tend to get really brown. If you like you can turn them over after 10 minutes. Makes 16 poppers.

Potato Cheese Puffs
(adapted from The Potato Cookbook by Janet Reeves)
These are light and delicious. The only sort of complicated thing about this recipe is beating the egg whites until they are stiff. I tried doing that with my hand-crank egg-beater, but I got discouraged. I switched to the electric beater and was more successful.

1 1/3 cups mashed potato
2 eggs, separated
3 tablespoons hot milk
1/3 cup grated cheddar cheese
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon celery salt
¼ teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon finely minced onion
2 teaspoons finely chopped bell pepper
2 stiffly beaten egg whites
1 ½ tablespoons melted butter

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a baking sheet.
2. Beat the egg yolks with a fork.
3. Combine all ingredients except egg white and melted butter. Mix well.
4. Beat the egg whites until stiff. Fold into the potato mixture.
5. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto the greased baking sheet.
6. Using a small pastry brush, dab the mounds with melted butter. You can use any kind of clean, only-for-cooking paintbrush for a pastry brush.
7. Bake for 20 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Note: I made this recipe using leftover Garlic Mashed Potatoes. Since they already included salt and buttermilk, I left out the milk, salt and celery salt in this recipe.

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