This easy Instant Pot mashed potatoes recipe is a quick and frugal side dish that is dairy-free and vegan!
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Why You’ll Love These Instant Pot Dairy-Free Mashed Potatoes
Mashed potatoes are an easy, delicious, budget-friendly side dish for meals, holidays, and more. If you’re dairy-free, you don’t have to miss out on creamy, flavorful mashed potatoes! Using the Instant Pot makes them even easier.
These Instant Pot Dairy-Free Mashed Potatoes are:
- Creamy
- Easy
- Quick
- Budget-Friendly
- Real food
- Dairy-free
- Vegan
- Gluten-free
- Egg-free
- Whole30
- No weird ingredients!
Ingredients for Dairy-Free Mashed Potatoes in the Instant Pot
All you will need to make dairy-free instant pot mashed potatoes is:
- Potatoes (preferably yukon gold or russet)
- Broth (chicken or vegetable)
- Garlic (or garlic powder)
- Salt
- Olive oil
- Pepper
For added flavor, you can try adding one of these after cooking the potatoes:
- Roasted garlic
- Chives
- Fresh lemon juice
- Mustard
- Dried rosemary
- Our family favorite: Slap Ya Mama Cajun Seasoning
What Kind of Potatoes Should You Use to Make Mashed Potatoes?
In general, Yukon Gold Potatoes or russet potatoes are the best all-around mashed potatoes. If you peel your potatoes first, either one will work. However, if you prefer to keep the skin on your mashed potatoes, do not use russet potatoes. The skin on russet potatoes is tough and thick. Yukon gold potatoes are perfect if you want to leave the skin on your mashed potatoes
In a pinch, red potatoes work for mashed potatoes, but they aren’t as creamy as Yukon or russet. When you are making dairy-free mashed potatoes, you want to keep as much natural creaminess as possible!
How to Make Instant Pot Dairy-Free Mashed Potatoes
With the Instant Pot, you can make mashed potatoes in just a few minutes – no need to even drain the potatoes after they cook! Simply pressure cook them for 10 minutes, mash them, season them, and you’re done!
I started making dairy-free mashed potatoes long before vegan recipes were readily available on the internet. However, for me, dairy-free mashed potatoes were easy. I was on a budget, but I wanted to make delicious mashed potatoes that were also dairy-free.
What makes mashed potatoes amazing? I think it’s the butter. That creamy, salty, fatty goodness blends perfectly with starchy potatoes.
So I used olive oil instead of butter, and broth instead of milk and or water – all of the goodness with none of the food allergies (or your vegan friend lamenting that can’t eat anything at your table).
You might be skeptical, but trust me, they are delicious.
With so many people struggling with food allergies and living on special diets, delicious solutions are important, and these dairy-free mashed potatoes are an easy and budget-friendly solution.
Tips for the Creamiest Dairy-Free Mashed Potatoes
- Use potatoes that are naturally more creamy – like Yukon gold and russet
- Don’t skip the olive oil!
- Mash thoroughly or mix with a hand mixer
- For an extra creamy touch, you can try this Dairy-free Cashew Cream that’s easy to make and elevates any dairy-free recipe with a creamy touch!
I would be lying if I told you these taste just like your aunt’s cream cheese mashed potatoes she brings to Thanksgiving dinner. Nope. These are not it.
I’m not the kind of blogger who pretends that food substitutions don’t change the end result of a recipe. For example, you will never convince me that nutritional yeast tastes as good as cheese.
However, everyone who has tasted these mashed potatoes over the years has commented on how delicious and flavorful they are. They are shocked when they learn that they are dairy-free.
You can make allergy-friendly and vegan dishes that are delicious, flavorful, and hold their own at the dinner table.
What are the Best Dairy-free Milk Substitutes for Mashed Potatoes
Some recipes recommend you add dairy-free milk to your dairy-free mashed potatoes. However, in all of my recipe testing, there was very little texture and flavor difference between mashed potatoes that were flavored with dairy-free milk and just plain broth.
Since I love simple recipes that use minimal ingredients that are easy to find, I leave out dairy-free milk. That being said, dairy-free milk tastes great in these, so feel free to add it if you like.
Dairy-free milk you can use for dairy-free mashed potatoes:
- Unsweetened Almond milk
- Unsweetened Oatmilk
- Extra Creamy Unsweetened Oatmilk
- For an extra creamy touch, you can try this Dairy-free Cashew Cream that’s easy to make and elevates any dairy-free recipe with a creamy touch!
Flavor Variations and Substitutions for Dairy-Free Mashed Potatoes
For added flavor, you can try adding one of these after cooking the potatoes:
- Roasted garlic
- Chives
- Fresh lemon juice
- Mustard
- Dried rosemary
- Our family favorite: Slap Ya Mama Cajun Seasoning
How to Serve Dairy-Free Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes
Here’s how you can serve dairy-free instant pot mashed potatoes:
- As a side dish to Spatchcock chicken and salad
- With this Instant Pot Greek Roast
- With Lentil Shepherds Pie
- With Thanksgiving dinner
Storing and Reheating Instant Pot Dairy-Free Mashed Potatoes
Store leftovers in the refrigerator in a sealed container for up to 3 days.
Note: The Keep Warm feature on the Instant Pot makes it easy to cook mashed potatoes ahead of time or bring them to family dinners or parties (I’m thinking Thanksgiving, specifically).
What to do With Leftover Mashed Potatoes
- Potato soup (and try this potato peel soup!)
- Make a Baked Potato Bowl: use mashed potatoes as the base and top it with bacon bits, green onions, and cashew cream
- Smashed Potato & Peas Muffins
- Check out these 5 recipes for leftover potatoes
- Bake it into homemade bread for a savory potato bread
- Make mashed potato waffles and top with sausage and sauteed onions and peppers for a savory breakfast
More Instant Pot Recipes You’ll Love
- Hamburger Veggie Soup (Instant Pot, Slow Cooker, and Stove Top instructions)
- Taco Lentils & Rice
- Turmeric Spiced Chicken & Rice
- Homemade Yogurt
- Honey-Mustard Salmon & Potatoes
- Easy Homemade Bone Broth
Instant Pot dairy-free mashed potatoes are easy, delicious, and budget-friendly! Serve them with your next dinner and see for yourself.
You don’t need a ton of butter and cream to make deeply flavorful and delicious mashed potatoes. And you don’t need any weird vegan or dairy-free ingredients. In fact, you probably have all of the ingredients at home already!
If you try this recipe, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it, and tag a photo #cheapskatecook and @cheapskatecook on Instagram.
Instant Pot Dairy-Free Mashed Potatoes
This easy Instant Pot mashed potatoes recipe is a quick and frugal side dish that is dairy-free and vegan!
Ingredients
- 3 pounds Yukon gold or russet potatoes (about 6-12 large and medium-size potatoes)
- 1 cup chicken or vegetable broth
- 2 garlic cloves, minced (or 1/2 tsp garlic powder)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- ¼ tsp salt, or more, to taste
- ¼ tsp pepper, to taste
Instructions
Instant Pot
- Peel and cut the potatoes into 1-inch chunks (If you want to leave the peels on, do not use russet potatoes - unless you like eating rubber bands)
- Place potatoes, broth, garlic, and 1/2 tsp salt in the Instant Pot. You may be tempted to use one garlic clove instead of two to save money. Hush. You're already denying yourself cream and butter. Let garlic carry the flavor load.
- Lock the Instant Pot lid and set it to Pressure Cook for 10 minutes. Remember to lock the lid before pressing Start.
- Did you remember to lock the lid? Double check, We've all forgotten at some point.
- Allow the pressure to release naturally, then remove the lid.
- Use a potato masher to mash the potatoes in the broth (no need to drain! Yay for fewer dishes!)
- Add olive oil, additional salt, and pepper to taste. Again, you may feel tempted to cut the olive oil in half. Sure, you can do that. But you won't like it. And then you'll wonder why I said these were so flavorful and delicious. Trust.
- Alternatively, if you peeled your potatoes, you can use a hand mixer to beat the mashed potatoes until creamy. This is probably my favorite way to eat mashed potatoes. But since I don't like dirtying extra dishes, I usually just mash them. Learn from my mistakes - it's worth dirtying the extra dishes.
- Serve as desired! (see Notes)
Stove Top
- Peel and cut the potatoes into 1-inch chunks (If you want to leave the peels on, do not use russet potatoes)
- Fill a large pot about halfway with water and stir in the salt. Add the potatoes and cook over high heat.
- When the water comes to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for about 10 minutes.
- Drain the potatoes in a strainer. Then put them back in the pot along with 1 cup of broth. Mash them with a potato masher, adding more broth if needed. Stir in 1/2 tsp garlic powder, olive oil, and additional salt and pepper, to taste.
- Alternatively, if you peeled your potatoes, you can use a hand mixer to beat the mashed potatoes until creamy.
Notes
How to Serve Instant Pot Dairy-Free Mashed Potatoes:
- As a side dish to Spatchcock chicken and salad
- With this Instant Pot Greek Roast
- With Lentil Shepherds Pie
- With Thanksgiving dinner
Storing & Reheating Dairy-Free Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes:
Store leftovers in the refrigerator in a sealed container for up to 3 days.
Note: The Keep Warm feature on the Instant Pot makes it easy to cook mashed potatoes ahead of time or bring them to family dinners or parties.
Nutrition Information
Yield 8 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 279Total Fat 9gSaturated Fat 2gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 7gCholesterol 16mgSodium 334mgCarbohydrates 41gFiber 4gSugar 2gProtein 9g
Please note: The actual calories and nutrition of this dish will change depending on what ingredients you use. Additionally, the nutrition information in this card is generated automatically and is not always accurate.