Give Creamy Mashed Potatoes A Zesty Kick With These 2 Ingredients

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A favorite part of home-cooked spreads and hearty meals, mashed potatoes are a cozy and beloved classic. Simple additions can take your mashed potatoes to another level. Two top nominees to enhance your next batch of traditional mashed potatoes are lemon and thyme.

Thyme has earned a spot as one of the versatile and enjoyable herbs you should always keep in your kitchen. Dried thyme offers undisputed convenience, but if you'd prefer to be a little fancy, pick up some fresh thyme from the grocery store (unless you're lucky enough to have a generous neighbor with a green thumb). Lemons, a photogenic favorite of chefs, are a key means of introducing acid to a dish and brightening its flavors — think chef and cookbook author Samin Nosrat's magic formula for deliciousness: "Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat." So how should you add lemon and thyme to mashed potatoes? 

Rinse, de-stem, and chop fresh thyme or gently crush dried thyme in your hands before adding it to the potatoes. Squeeze a small quantity of lemon juice into the mash, then taste before adding more. Another option is to mix lemon juice, butter, and thyme together and chill it, then add softened lemon-thyme butter during the typical mashing or whipping stage. A third method is to whisk lemon zest right into the mashed potatoes like Ina Garten does, then finish with a bit of thyme on top. Whatever method you choose, it's sure to be delicious.

After you've enjoyed a bit of zinginess in each bite of lemon-thyme mashed potatoes, you might have extra lemon and thyme. You could reuse the winning combination in some of our favorite mashed potato recipes, which include other flavorful additions such as mascarpone cheese or bacon, cheese, and scallions. You could also use up any remaining lemons by making delicious lemon recipes. Notable savory dishes showcasing the lovable citrus fruit are creamy chicken lemon rice soup, lemon butter pasta with chiles, and lemon hummus. Thyme is a strong-tasting herb, but in modest amounts, it can be worked into these recipes as well.

Chicken lemon rice soup, a classic Greek recipe also known as avgolemono, typically calls for parsley, but it could be swapped out or combined with a sparing dose of thyme for a hint of aromatic earthiness. A sprinkle of thyme would bring refined herbal flavor to lemon butter pasta beyond the white wine, parmesan, and chile de árbol. Or, top a bowl of citrusy hummus with a little thyme instead of cilantro. Alternatively, you could add thyme to chicken, pot pie, turkey, fish, or homemade bread.