Sage Brown Butter Mashed Potatoes

Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and I’m always on the lookout for a unique mashed potato recipe.  When I was at the local farm stand I saw a bunch of sage and couldn’t resist.  I’d never cooked with before and wasn’t quite sure what to do with sage, but it smells amazing and I remembered it’s often used in butter.  I thought I’d take that one step further and make sage brown butter to mix into mashed potatoes. These are easy mashed potatoes and I will definitely be making them often.

Sage is a perennial plant, which means it lives for more than two years.  Sounds like I’ll have better luck with my windowsill herb garden if I plant some sage!  It has a kind of pepper flavory, and the texture is so fun.  It’s got soft furry leaves with an almost leathery feel to it.  I chopped one leaf up small to leave in the brown butter, the other leaves I let cook in the butter to flavor it but then removed.  If you can’t find fresh sage, I think dried could work.  I plan to dry the remaining leaves myself and grind them to use in future dishes.

I made these potatoes as part of a vegetarian night dinner, they’re rich and hearty with a lots of texture because I leave the skin on the potatoes.  I also use waxy potatoes rather than baking because I like lumpy mashed potatoes.  If you want smooth and fluffy mashed potatoes, peel them and use baking potatoes.  I’d use them as a side dish for pretty much anything, but I think they’ll work especially well as a Thanksgiving side.  The recipe below served two of us as the main dish of our vegetarian meal, but I think would serve 3-4 as a side dish.  You can easily multiply it to create a family sized side for your holiday meal.

Sage Brown Butter Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients

2 very large thin skinned potatoes
1/2 tsp kosher salt
3 TBS butter
4 sage leaves
3 TBS milk or cream
2 TBS sour cream
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Cut potatoes into 1 inch chunks and add to potatoes and kosher salt.  Boil for 10-15 minutes or until potatoes are easily pierced with a fork.

Meanwhile, melt butter in a small sauce pan.  Chop 1 sage leaf into small pieces and add it and remaining leaves to the butter.  Cook it on med high until the butter just starts to turn brown.  Remove from heat immediately.

Drain potatoes and return them to the large pot.  Remove large leaves from brown butter and pour the butter into the potatoes.  Add the milk/cream and sour cream then mash with a potato masher or large spoon. Add salt and pepper to taste.  Garnish with sage leaves.

Approximate cost/serving: Mashed potatoes are CHEAP!  We get our potatoes from our CSA, but even in the store this is such an affordable dish.  It only costs $1.60 to make 4 servings, so 40 cents a serving.

Vegetarian/Gluten Free: Yes and yes.