Potatoes are my favorite and I swear I could eat them every single day. They had a bad rep for a while but I think we can all agree that is over now. Potatoes aren’t the issue… its when we deep fry them or cover them in butter and cheese that they become a high calorie addition to a meal. These “skinny” mashed potatoes are an exception. These skinny mashed potatoes don’t call for a cup of butter and heavy cream (although there is certainly a time and a place for that :P). Instead it used a very low calorie addition of chicken broth which also adds an amazing flavor to the potatoes. Bonus points if you use homemade chicken broth <3
Now I don’t usually try to get all scientific but there are some interesting points about potatoes I would like to share with you today.
First:
Potatoes are considered to be the most satiating food which means that you stay full and satisfied for much longer after a meal that incorporates them. This is generally referring to boiled potatoes but also applies to baked potatoes (omg yum). It does NOT apply to chips, french fries or any other processed and deep fried skeleton of a potato. If you want to eat those fries do it up, just don’t go telling people I said it was good for you :p
Second:
You may have seen the interesting study about reducing the calories in rice by 10-60% by changing the way you cook it. What?!? Oh yeah, its science. Read the article here and here and here but to sum it up; boiling rice in water with about 1 tbsp of oil and then allowing it to cool in the fridge will turn a percentage of the digestible starch in the rice to indigestible. This means that it will move through your body without being absorbed as calories.
So what does this have to do with potatoes? Well it turns our that this method works for pasta and potatoes as well. So, if you were to boil a big batch of potatoes at the beginning of the week and portion out for your lunches or dinner you may be consuming anywhere from 10-60% less calories than you normally would have which is kind of a big deal. So feel free to eat your potatoes, pasta, rice on the first night when it is hot but know that your leftovers the next day will be significantly lower in calories… right?!? Another reason to eat your leftovers!
These skinny mashed potatoes have only 63 calories for a 1/2 cup serving! And you might as well have gravy on those potatoes instead of butter. I know the brand I use (Club House) only has 20 cals for 1/4 cup of gravy.
83 cals for mashed potatoes and gravy? Heck ya! Have 2 servings, I won’t tell anyone…
- 4 cups diced potatoes (about 1lb)
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 cup chicken broth
- salt and pepper
- Cube the potatoes and put in a pot just barely covered with oil. Add the oil and simmer until the potatoes are cooked through
- Strain the potatoes, add the chicken broth and use beaters or hand masher to mash the potatoes (I much prefer electric beaters or stand mixer)
- Add more chicken broth as necessary to get a smooth texture
- Season with salt and pepper
*Note* The calorie calculation does not account for the calorie reduction method described above. And assumed 1/2 the olive oil is consumed while 1/2 is strained out.
It is based on a 1/2 cup serving size:
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kay says
This might and only might work if you can actually find a god dam decent potatoe in Victoria which l highly doubt.