From BonAppetit.com…
Every week I lug home a big ol’ bag of russet potatoes with the Very Good intentions of mashing them into creamy oblivion and covering a huge pile with a ladleful of stew and a dollop of sour cream.
Rarely does that actually happen—do yooouuuu want to spend an hour at the end of your workday peeling and scrubbing spuds?—and what’s left is a sack of scary-looking sprouted potato children that I’m sure are plotting to poison me while I sleep.
On busy nights, when I know mash from scratch isn’t realistic, I’ve been turning to instant mashed potatoes—also known as instant potato flakes or mashed potato flakes—instead. They’re lightning fast to make (seriously, the prep time is like five minutes); super affordable (2 oz., which is about three servings, costs around 72 cents); and, with a couple of nifty tricks, you’ll barely know they were born from a packet.
