The more I practice making pantry items from scratch, the more I realize how easy it is for us to do it ourselves. We are spending way too much for these “instant” foods such as instant rice and potato flakes when we can make them ourselves using fresh ingredients.
Potato flakes are one of those pantry items you can make from home and save money doing so. They have a variety of uses, and all you need to do is cook the potatoes beforehand and dehydrated them. It’s that simple, folks! This is also a great way to make use of potatoes that are beginning to sprout.
Instant Potato Flakes
Makes 1-pint jar
- 5 potatoes, peeled and chopped
- Water
- Cover potatoes with just enough water to cover them. Over medium heat, boil potatoes for 10-15 minutes, or until soft. They should be at the consistency of ready to be mashed.
- Once potatoes are soft, drain water and mash potatoes until smooth. Do not add any milk or seasonings. *Reserve the water to make a yeast starter
- Set potatoes on dehydrator fruit roll sheets or a parchment paper lined dehydrator tray. Dehydrate on 145 degrees Fahrenheit for 6 hours or until dry and all moisture is removed.
- Break the sheets into chunks, put in the blender, and pulse until ground into flakes.The finer the flake, the stickier the potatoes will be when you reconstitute them.
- Add to a glass jar or container and store in a cool, dry area for 6 months.
- To flavor soups, casseroles, and dishes add by the tablespoon until desired thickness is met.
For Mashed Potatoes:
Add potato flakes to boiling water, then remove from heat. Add additional ingredients such as cold milk, butter, salt, seasonings and stir in reconstituted potato flakes.
2 servings:
2/3 cup water, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1 tablespoon butter, 1/4 cup milk, 2/3 cup flakes
4 servings:
1 1/3 cups water, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 2 tablespoons butter, 1/2 cup milk, 1 1/3 cup flakes
8 servings:
2 2/3 cups water, 1 teaspoon salt, 4 tablespoons butter, 1 cup milk, 2 2/3 cup flakes
16 servings:
5 1/3 cups water, 2 teaspoons salt, 8 tablespoons butter, 2 cups milk, 5 1/3 cups flakes
Do you cook the potatoes first?
between step 1 cover potatoes with water and step 2 once they are soft, are these boiled? or at room temp for several hours?
They are boiled let them cool and mash .
Thank you for your post! I’m looking forward to giving this a try. Do you think if I vacuum sealed the jar, the flakes would last longer?
Hi Kelly,
Great idea! Yes, if you vacuuum sealed the jars, they would last longer.
Thanks for this idea. It looks like I will have a lot of extra potatoes and didn’t want to can all of them. I am going to try this out as soon as we have some ready.
You say to cover the potatoes and wait until they get soft. Are we supposed to cook them until soft, or just leave them soaking?
Hi Emily,
Cook them until they are soft; as you would for making mashed potatoes.
Tess
How would I dehydrate these in the oven?
Krystal,
If you want to dehydrate in your oven, do so at a very low setting, less than 200 degrees F.
Have you tried the potatoes that yourself? Would like to know if you can tell the fifference between the fresh or the dehydrated? Thanks!
Brenda,
They have the same flavor as before. You may notice a slight difference in the texture though. I add mine to soups most of the time.
Tess
Thanks Tess. I dont care for instant potatoes thats why I asked about your method..I have dehydrated my own grated potatoes for Hash Browns and I must say they are better then any Hash Brown Ive ever had before.,DELISH!
Thanks for the info as for some of the other posts, read completely people no where does it say cover with water and wait for them to get soft. It has “cook until soft”.
I jazz up instant potatoes by adding chicken bouillon and dried onion flakes plus butter S&P and milk and you can’t tell the difference from regular mashed potatoes AND soooo much more convenient!!
This is awesome! I wonder if I can do this with sweet potatoes too? I’ll bet we can! I am so grateful for your post. Thanks so much for sharing. 🙂
ETA: I almost forgot to ask: How much is a serving in your recipe? Just curious so I know.
About how thick of a layer do you make when placing them in the dehydrator? We have an “As seen on TV” dehydrator from about 20 years ago w/ no controls on it, so there is always some guess work involved.
I’m curious about the shelf life, any idea of the shelf life on potatoes done with this recipe?
The powdered potato flakes last anywhere between 6 months to a year in a regular container. If you add oxygen absorbers and ensure it stays out of direct sunlight and other food enemies (oxygen, sunlight, insects, moisture), it has the potential to last indefinitely. Here is a study I found on instant potato flakes in #10 cans:
Interesting:
“ABSTRACT: The sensory and nutritional quality of dehydrated potato flakes packaged in nr 10 cans held at ambient temperatures up to30 y was studied. Thirteen samples of dehydrated potato flakes were obtained from donors. A consumer panel evaluated reconstituted product for appearance, aroma, texture, flavor, and overall acceptability using a 9-point hedonic scale. Overall acceptability hedonic scores ranged from 3.7 to 6.6 and declined significantly over time. Sensory shelf-life, based on a cutoff of 80% of initial overall acceptability, was 16 y. Vitamin C levels remained constant over storage time. Headspace hexanal concentrations ranged from 0 to 2.09 μg/g. There was no significant correlation between headspace hexanal of dry flakes and hedonic scores of reconstituted product.Dehydrated potato flakes appear to retain sufficient quality over time to warrant consideration for long-term storage purposes.”
This is in #10 cans, which I would think would preserve it best.
5 yrs ago, 4 yrs ago, 3 yrs ago…
Is this page/community still active?
I just found it . I would hope so.