Are Mashed Potatoes Low FODMAP?

Creamy, fluffy mashed potatoes are an indulgent treat to serve alongside sausages and the perfect topping to a pie. But the question is, can you still enjoy mashed potatoes when following a low FODMAP diet?

The Quick Answer

Mashed potatoes can be low FODMAP but it does come down to how you make your mashed potatoes, as you can probably imagine. If you used to make your mashed potatoes in the most unhealthy way with plenty of cream and butter then you’ll have to get rid of this approach.

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Mashed Potatoes on a FODMAP Diet

Don’t you worry… Mashed potatoes can be something you can continue to enjoy when following a low FODMAP diet. In fact, they even make a great substitute for some foods you can no longer enjoy such as pastry. We’ll cover this and more below:

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How to Make Low FODMAP Mashed Potatoes

Even though butter can be consumed when following a low FODMAP diet, you can actually make creamy mashed potatoes with just some olive oil, salt and fluffy boiled potatoes. Simply peel your potatoes, chop them up and then cover with water. Bring to the boil and cook for around 15 minutes until soft.

Drain, allow to steam for a few minutes and then return to the pan before mashing with a glug of olive oil and a pinch of salt. You could even try garlic-infused olive oil and a pinch of thyme leaves if you wanted to try something a little different.

How to Use Mashed Potatoes

Yes, you can serve your mashed potatoes alongside a piece of meat and gravy… But don’t limit yourself! When following a low FODMAP diet, there are a few food items you’ll have to banish from your diet altogether. That’s why you need to be a bit more creative with the foods you can eat:

Pie Topping – A lot of pastry won’t be low FODMAP so enjoying the crispy top of a pie might be out of the question. Instead, use your mashed potatoes as a topping to pie. Top it all off with a bit of cheese and enjoy.

Mashed Potato Pancakes – Think Bubble and Squeak here, just toss cooked vegetables in a frying pan with some oil then push your mashed potatoes into the pan. Let it colour (you want it to crisp up) flip and do the same on the other side. You now have the perfect brunch!

Fish Cakes – Bread crumbs are often used to bulk out fish cakes but just use mashed potato instead. Mix the potato with a tin of tuna and some seasoning then fry until warmed through and coloured on each side. Easy!

Is Sweet Potato Mash Low FODMAP?

This isn’t as simple to answer. When trying to avoid FODMAPs you do need to limit your sweet potato portions to around 75g. This should be plenty for a portion of mash but it is well worth keeping a close eye on as sweet potato can have a severe impact on those suffering from IBS.

Is Sweet Potato Mash Low FODMAP

Is Frozen Mashed Potato Low FODMAP?

This is a tough one to answer as it depends on the process the mashed potato has gone through and what ingredients have been used. Let’s take these frozen mashed potatoes from Tesco as an example. They contain the following ingredients: Potato, Water, Concentrated Butter (Milk), Dried Whole Milk, Salt, White Pepper, Stabiliser (Disodium Diphosphate).

As you can see, there is milk which could, therefore, render this frozen mashed potato unsuitable when following a low FODMAP diet.

Quick Summary

If you make your own mashed potato and know exactly what you’re putting into it then it’s fairly easier to ensure that your mashed potato is low FODMAP. You do have to steer clear of too much dairy but you’ll still be able to enjoy mashed potatoes when following a low FODMAP diet… Thankfully!

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