Fajita Mashed Potatoes

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I KNOW. You're welcome.

It's a side dish that can be a meal that tastes like Mexican food!

Seriously, on a Monday, you kind of just need to do weird things to your mashed potatoes, don'tcha?

This dish was born from a night when I was cooking braised chicken with tomatillos for my family and realized that my pretty sister's girlfriend was coming over too and she's a vegetarian and DAMN IT meat was the main event of the meal and WHAM. Fajita mashed potatoes were born.

They're lovely, and a nice mix-up for Mexican nights. They're easy, too!

Here's what you need, for 6 or so servings:

4 lbs potatoes, your choice
1 green pepper, finely diced
1 small onion, finely diced
½ cup chicken or vegetable stock
½ cup half and half, cream, or milk
salt, to taste
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
2 cups grated Monterrey jack or pepper jack cheese

Nice and easy. I like the skins on for this mash, because the added texture is really nice with the vegetables.

Give the potatoes a good scrub, then cut them into 1-inch chunks. Don't freak out about it, just try to make the chunks all about the same size so the potatoes cook evenly.

Put the potato chunks in a large pot and cover them with cold water and 1 tablespoon salt. Cover the pot, and bring it to a boil. Once the potatoes are boiling remove the lid so the water doesn't boil over and make you wish you had a live-in maid because you are seriously the messiest cook ever.

Boil the potatoes for 12 - 15 minutes until they're tender when pierced with a fork. Drain 'em, and put them right back in to the pot you cooked them in.

While the potatoes are boiling, heat a skillet to medium-high heat with a drizzle of oil. When the pan is really hot, add the onion and green pepper and toss for 4 minutes or so until the edges of the vegetables are brown but the vegetables aren't too mushy. When they're cooked, remove them from the heat until you're ready to assemble the potatoes.

When the potatoes are cooked and the veggies are seared, we're ready to mash! Add the stock, half and half, veggies, cumin, and chili powder to the pot.

Then, mash away! I used a potato masher, but you could use a strong spoon or electric mixer - whatever gets the job done.

After the first mash, give the potatoes a taste. You'll probably need to add more salt at this point. If the potatoes are very thick, add more stock or half and half until they are the consistency you like.

Right before serving, mash in the cheese, and YUM. These are hearty enough to be their own meal! They're also incredibly ugly. Sorry about that.

I served these with braised tomatillo chicken, which we will learn about tomorrow.

Happy Monday!

This is so perfect that I included it in this week’s Weekend Potluck. It’s this cute thing where blogs from EVERYWHERE can submit recipes to share with others – it’s so fun to check out new things!