Leftover Mashed Potatoes Tater Tots

Use up leftover mashed potatoes or colcannon and make a batch of these delicious little tater tots. Perfect for little fingers and using up leftovers.

If you were around the other day, you would have noticed my recipe for Colcannon (aka Irish Potatoes). Well, I don’t know how it could be possible, but if perchance you had some leftovers, I am going to share with you my favorite way to use up leftover colcannon or leftover mashed potatoes: tater tots.

The best bit? They freeze really well, and it’s the perfect snack for little fingers.

How Easy Is It To Make Homemade Tater Tots?

This is really easy. Simply:

• take a loaded teaspoon full of mashed potato;
• roll it into a little ball;
• bak;
• and voila you have your own homemade tater tots.

Couldn’t be easier.

Using Colcannon, instead of traditional plain ol' mashed potatoes is a great way to get some extra veggies into little bellies without too much haranguing. Kids tend to love anything that looks like tater tots (at least all the kids I know do), and will happily overlook the green bits hidden within. And I mean, look how delicious those potatoes look:

Paired with some dipping sauce, these are sure to go down a treat.

What If I Have Leftover Tots?

If you have leftover tater tots too (clearly you have no food monsters living in your house), just roll the balls, pop onto a baking sheet making sure they don't touch and then pop them into the freezer until frozen.  Once frozen then transfer to a large ziploc bag until needed. When you are ready, pull them out and continue from step four, adding about 5-10 minutes to the baking time.

I can bet there won't be any leftover though - mine didn't even make it off the baking sheet before my husband had eaten the entire batch.

Hope you enjoy. Let me know if the little ones love these leftover mashed potato tater tots. Happy Eating 🙂

Print Recipe

5 from 1 vote

Leftover Mashed Potato Tater Tots

Use of leftover colcannon to make these little tater tots loaded with cabbage, leeks and spring onions. The perfect way to get some extra greens into little bellies.

Prep Time5 mins

Cook Time40 mins

Total Time45 mins

Course: Appetizer

Cuisine: Irish American

Servings: 8 serves

Calories: 37kcal

Author: Whole Food Bellies

Ingredients

• 2 cups Leftover mashed potato refrigerated (see notes for recipe)
• 3 tbsp tomato ketchup for serving (or store bought)

Instructions

• Pre-heat oven to 425
• Take a heaped teaspoon of leftover mashed potato and roll into a ball shape
• Pop onto a baking sheet line with parchment paper, and continue until you have as many tots as you want
• Pop into the oven and bake for 20 mins. Use tongs to flip tots (you may need to give the a bit of a squeeze to re-shape them at this point), pop back into the oven for another 20 mins
• Serve hot with some homemade tomato ketchup

Notes

Colcannon Recipe here.

To freeze: roll the potatoes into balls and pop onto a baking sheet. Pop into the freezer until firm, and then transfer to a large ziploc bag. When you want to use them just follow the instructions and bake from frozen, adding 5-10 minutes to the cooking time

Nutrition

Calories: 37kcal | Carbohydrates: 8g | Protein: 1g | Sodium: 63mg | Potassium: 236mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 35IU | Vitamin C: 6.3mg | Calcium: 16mg | Iron: 1.7mg