Mashed Potatoes and Carrots

I think potatoes should be a food group unto themselves.  That is how much I love them.  So when I found out that the Crazy Cooking Challenge recipe for November was mashed potatoes, I was really excited.  I searched and searched for the perfect recipe.  I usually make roasted garlic mashed potatoes or loaded mashed potatoes, so I wanted something different.

Then I found it.  Mashed Potatoes and Carrots from Kitchen Parade's A Veggie Venture.  I remember mashing some carrots with a fork into my mashed potatoes as a kid, but I never even thought of making mashed potatoes and carrots as a dish unto itself.

Ingredients:
1 pound Yukon Gold Potatoes (but I had russets, so that's what I used)
1 pound carrots, scrubbed and peeled
1 Tbsp butter (I probably used closer to 2 or 3)
salt and pepper, to taste
Optional (because this is what I added that was extra)
2 heads garlic
2 small onions, chopped

-if using garlic, preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Cut off the top of the heads of garlic.  Place heads on a piece of foil and drizzle with olive oil.  Roast for about 40 minutes, until garlic is soft.

It should look like this when it is done

-Peel potatoes and carrots.  Dice them into 1/2" cubes.  Place in a dutch oven or a big pot and add water to cover.  Turn heat on Medium-High.  When water comes to a boil, add salt and a little butter (it prevents the water from boiling over).  Cover, reduce heat to medium, and cook 20-30 minutes, until potatoes and carrots are fork tender.

-If using onions, peel, cut in half, and dice into small pieces.  Add to a saute pan with some butter, and cook until golden.  Once cooked, add some salt.

Onions go from this....

...to this.

-While you're waiting for the potatoes to be done, take the roasted garlic out of it's skin.  You could just smush it all out, but I like to take out each clove.  Be careful if you do this, if the garlic is still hot you can burn your fingers!

There's my roasted garlic out of the skin

-Drain potatoes and carrots, reserving 1/2 cup cooking liquid (I forgot to do this and drained the whole thing).  Mash carrots and potatoes, using a hand mixer or a potato masher (I always use a potato masher-I think potatoes can get gluey with a mixer), adding reserved liquid and butter (I used about 1/4 cup of milk, since I didn't save the water).
-Season to taste with salt and pepper.

And voila! Mashed potatoes and carrots.

So here are my thoughts on this recipe.  It was really simple and it tastes great.  I had to add a ton of salt.  I added more than I normally would for 5 pounds of potatoes-it was really bland without it (and I hate pepper, so I never add it to anything).  I noticed it took less milk than regular mashed potatoes would, and I'm sure it would have been healthier if I remembered to just save the cooking water, but it was good with the milk.

It's my first challenge that I am participating in, so I don't know if I'm really allowed to add more to the recipe, so I'm sorry if changing it a little is a bad thing.  My family loves garlic, and we cook everything with it.  And I had a couple onions laying around, so I figured I'd add them too and it would be a healthy meal.  I will definitely be making this recipe again.  It is so simple and quick, and I'm pretty sure it's healthier than most of the recipes I make.





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