How long do mashed potatoes last in the fridge? The Complete Guide

When it comes to mashed potatoes, I always seem to make more than what I need and I always end up with leftovers. I keep my leftover mashed potatoes in fridge for up to 5 days and use them as side dishes for other main meals.

Recipes with leftover mashed potatoes

I often add leftover mashed potatoes into other recipes, such as pancakes, bread, pancakes or soups.

When I want to bake a really soft bread I always add my homemade potato flour, but if I don’t have some, I often just use leftover mashed potatoes. It makes any bread dough instantly softer, lighter and fluffier – a perfect way to use up your mashed potatoes!

Mashed potatoes can be also easily turned into a soup. Just add vegetable or meat broth, extra vegetables such as leek or mushrooms and heat it all up. Add seasoning to your taste and if you want to make the soup a little more meaty, you can use cooked chicken pieces.

They can be also added to stews, gumbos or chillies to thicken the dish.

Another quick favourite snack of mine, involves fried mashed potatoes with poached or fried egg on the top and some grated (and melted) cheese on the top.

Here are some of my favourite recipes, you might like to try with mashed potatoes

• Au Gratin Potatoes >>
• Mashed Potatoes with Herbs >>
• Easy Savoury Potato Cakes >>
• Traditional Irish Omelette with Potatoes >>
• Guinness Beef Stew with Mashed Potatoes >>
• Potato Bread Fars (Easy Recipe) >>
• Potato Bread with Cheese & Herbs (Yeasted Bread Recipe) >>

How Long Do Mashed Potatoes Last In The Fridge? The Quick Answer

Homemade mashed potatoes last about 3-5 days in the fridge, but it really depends on what you make them with.

To make sure that your mashed potatoes last as long as it’s possible cool them down as quickly as you can outside the fridge, place in an airtight container and keep in the fridge (in the coldest part of your fridge, if possible on the glass shelve or in the tray, that doesn’t get open too often).

What kind of mashed potatoes can you store in the fridge?

• Sweet Mashed Potatoes
• Traditional Mashed Potatoes with dairy ingredients
• Mashed Potatoes with non-dairy ingredients
• Mashed potatoes with extra meat based ingredients (small pieces of meat or bacon)
• Mashed potatoes with extra vegetable ingredients

How long are mashed potatoes good for?

Whilst I have still eaten mashed potatoes on the 5 or even 6 day of keeping them in the fridge, I’d really recommend to eat them as quickly as you can – within the 1-3 days.

This way you know that they will still be O.K and without any bacterias starting to develop inside.

If you know that you won’t be able to use up your mashed potatoes in 3-5 days, it’s better to freeze them. Follow the same process of cooling, portioning and using a suitable freezer bag or container and your mashed potatoes will last 3-6 months in the freezer.

You could probably keep them for longer, but I do try to use up and rotate my frozen food, so I’ve never really kept them for longer than about 8 months.

1-3 days – Mashed Potatoes with Dairy Milk, Cream or Butter

If you use dairy products to make your mashed potatoes, you should eat them as soon as possible.

The milk, cream or butter can start going off before the mashed potatoes and will eventually go sour. Whilst you can still eat the potatoes with slightly sour milk or butter, the taste is not great and you never know how your digestive system is going to react to it.

3-5-6 days (max) Non-Dairy Mashed Potatoes

If you use non-dairy milk, butter or cream your mashed potatoes will usually have much longer shelflife.

It still depends on how quickly you cool them down initially (ideally within 2 hours) and how you store them (air-tight container), but non-dairy mashed potatoes should last for a good 4-5 days.

Where is the best place to store mashed potatoes in the fridge?

The best place to store mashed potatoes in the fridge is somewhere where they can be undisturbed and continuously kept at the same cold temperature.

In my fridge, this is usually somewhere towards the back and top of the fridge or in the salad compartment (because I don’t open it too often).

The main thing is that you keep the container somewhere where the potatoes will keep at a constant temperature and the temperature won’t change every time you open the fridge door.

What containers are best for storing mashed potatoes in the fridge?

I find that the best containers are larger, flatter square or rectangular plastic containers with an airtight lid. These are great for stacking up and they are also strong enough, so that I can place something else on the top if I need to.

Whatever container you use, make sure that it’s thick enough, so that the mashed potatoes won’t absorb smell from the rest of the fridge. This is usually not a problem, but if you have something very strong in the fridge (like cheese) the flavour might be absorbed if you don’t cover the mashed potatoes.

If I know that I’m going to eat the mashed potatoes next day or I have only small amount, I scoop the amount into a small bowl and cover it with cling film or re-usable plastic lid. This is enough to keep the mashed potatoes preserved for 24-48 hours.

Do some mashed potatoes go off sooner than other types?

The potatoes themselves probably not, but whatever you put in them often does go off at different rate.

For example mashed potatoes with dairy cream and butter will go off sooner than mashed potatoes made with dairy free milk (and no butter).

Similarly, if you have mashed potatoes with dairy milk, butter and cabbage or meat, the cabbage might go slightly grey and the meat might go off sooner than the actual potatoes.

How to prepare your mashed potatoes before you put them in the fridge

• Separate the mashed potatoes from any other parts of your meal as best as you can (don’t keep anything else in that might spoil them)

• Place in a suitable container (don’t put the lid on)

• Leave to cool down as quickly as you can (ideally no longer than 2 hrs) by keeping it on your kitchen counter (or placing it on a cooling rack or something that will lift the container off the surface)

• Secure the lid on

• Stick a label on with today’s date

• Place in the fridge

How do you know if your mashed potatoes are off?

Whilst most mashed potatoes should be fine for 3-5 days in the fridge, it doesn’t mean that they won’t go off sooner.

This is why, you need to know how to tell if your mashed potatoes are still O.K to eat before you re-heat them or add them to your next meal.

I always check visually that the mashed potatoes look fine (e.g. no grey discolouration or mould), sniff them (they should still smell like potatoes) and taste a small amount (if they taste sour, then the milk has gone off and they won’t be any good).

You’ll know that your mashed potatoes are off if they are:

• Grey colour
• Mould on the top
• Slime or wet surface on the top
• Smell sour
• Taste sour
• Other ingredients (vegetables, bacon, meat) is different colour, smells or taste different

How to reheat mashed potatoes

You can either use the mashed potatoes in any of the recipes I’ve already mentioned on the top of my blog post. Mashed potatoes are already cooked through, so they only need heating up, which makes them super quick ingredients.

If you are heating them up separately as a side dish, then I would either heat them up in the saucepan (with some extra milk) on a very low heat or heat them up in a microwave for 2-3 minutes (whilst stiring every minute) again with an extra bit of milk or butter.

The reason why I add milk or butter, when I re-heat mashed potatoes is to add moisture back in (as it’s often lost when the potatoes are stored in the fridge).

Top your mashed potatoes with some fresh herbs, grated cheese or flavoured herby butter and enjoy!