What to Do with 10 Pounds of Potatoes
Potatoes are frugal eats at their finest. They are cheap, filling, and can be cooked in so many different ways. Sometimes I’ll find 5 or 10 pound bags of potatoes go on sale. But, what to do with that entire bag besides plain old baked potatoes?
Back in 2010, fellow blogger Audrey from Tight Wad in Utah shared three recipes to use up an entire bag. To date, her recipes post has been one of the most successful ever published here at The Coupon Project. (And that’s saying a lot as I have over 15,000 published posts as of August 2019!)
I recently decided to go back and give her post some new love with some fresh food photographs and “bump” it for readers who may have missed it. It’s definitely worth pinning or hanging onto for the next time you find yourself with a glut of potatoes!
Recipe #1: Scalloped Potatoes
This recipe which uses 8 potatoes (found at AllRecipes) freezes well, so I hear. I can’t manage to have any left to freeze. The section that is gone was my “test” piece to make sure they were done.
The recipe is pretty straight forward and uses ingredients you probably already have. If you’re not going to eat it all at once like me, divide it into meal portions after it’s cooled from baking, seal in a freezer container or bag, label it with the name and date, freeze!
Reheat in the microwave or oven. Get the entire recipe at AllRecipes.com.
Recipe #2: Rosemary Mashed Potatoes
This is another recipe that comes from AllRecipes.com. Now, I KNOW these freeze well. And not because they aren’t as good. My friend made them for me during a freezer swap. DELICIOUS! You can read all the rave reviews at AllRecipes. This is also an easy recipe to follow. I doubled the recipe using 10 potatoes and 5 yams.
Peel and cube them all, then throw them in some salted boiling water until tender. (20 to 30 minutes)
My pot was FULL! If you don’t have a huge pot just turn it down from high so you don’t have a raging boil with water splashing everywhere. When done, retain 2 cups of the water. Then drain.
Then just mash it all with the other ingredients, except for half of the cheese that you sprinkle on top. In the recipe it calls for roasted garlic. I just used minced that I had on hand. And I used about 1 cup of the retained potato juice 🙂 – 1/2 cup if you don’t double the recipe. Refer to the recipe link for ingredients and added instruction.
If you’ve doubled the recipe put it in a 9 x 13 casserole dish, otherwise use an 8″ dish. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes.
After it’s somewhat cooled, separate into meal portions and seal in freezer bags. I like to freeze them like this so that they fit in my freezer better.
Reheat in microwave. I spent $3.44 in yams (not on sale) and $1.25 on cheese. The rest I had on hand. And now I have a fancy side dish for 5 meals! (One isn’t pictured because we ate it.)
Recipe #3: Oven Fries
I love homemade fries, but I don’t make them often because I think it’s too much work for a side dish when I’m trying to get dinner done. So I found out how to freeze them. This way I can just take out how much I need and throw them in the oven! Nice, am I right?
So here’s what you do: Wash, scrub and cut the potatoes into 1/2″ fries. Toss them with oil (I used canola because I have lots) and add some salt and a little sugar (helps with crispyness – is that a word?).
Then place on baking sheets and bake for 20 minutes at 475°.
When done, let them cool on paper or dish towels. Then put them in the freezer (on the sheet, or on something that will fit in your freezer – I used pie tins). Keep them there until they are frozen solid. Half hour or so. All that’s left is putting them in a freezer bag and labeling it!
When you’re ready to eat…spray baking sheet with cooking spray and bake at 450° for 20-40 minutes (depends on size of fries).
DONE! Now you have a 10-lb. bag of potatoes making itself useful instead of stinking up your house. I did make the fries and the rosemary potatoes at the same time. I just started cutting the fries while the rosemary potatoes were baking.
For more recipes, feel free to check out Tight Wad in Utah!
Angela here: For more freezer cooking ideas like this one, I highly recommend this excellent cookbook: Fix, Freeze, Feast: The Delicious, Money-Saving Way to Feed Your Family. I’ve used this cookbook extensively in freezer meal preparation and I have to say the meals are very flavorful. Even better, you won’t find a single “can of cream of mushroom soup” in any of the ingredient lists!
I love it! 🙂 Great job!
I’ve done mashed potatoes and oven fries before for the freezer. I have to make use of the 5 lb. bags when Albertson’s has their sales 🙂 I’m gonna have to try those scalloped potatoes!!
Audrey…You are amazing…who knew there were so many creative things you could do with 10# of potatoes besides watching the little eyes grow into Jack’s magic beanstalk!!! I am always learning things from you!!! WOW!
go aud! you are my hero. i want to go out and buy some potatoes now. i just used the last of mine up on a couple shepherds pies for the freezer.
I’m really inspired by Audrey’s post today, too. I have a big bag of potatoes in my pantry right now. The tendency is to eat a few and then the rest go bad. Loving the fries idea!
Interesting ideas! I have a die-hard rosemary plant in my herb garden I’ve NEVER used! Now I have a reason. Also, we make oven fries all the time, but it is a lot of work. I like the idea of preparing them ahead of time and freezing.
Do the french fries crisp up when cooked the second time?
Yes! Mine were crispy and done after 20 minutes from frozen.
How long do each of these last in the freezer?…they look amazing!
I found you through Pinterest. I love this idea! We always have plenty of potatoes, and I never thought of freezing fries. That would make an easy side when I don’t feel like “thinking.” 🙂
We go through atleast a 50lb bag of potatoes every month but I have never been able to freeze my fries right. I am so excited to try this idea now. I do alot of hashbrowns. I fill the oven with baked potatoes. When they cook all the way I shred them in a thin layer onto a cookie sheet in the freezer until frozen then fill them into a freezer bag. Not sure how long they last because my family loves hashbrowns for breakfast.
What is the easiest way to shred the potatoes?? Thanks!
Hi Brandy, I would also like to know how you shred soft baked potatoes to make hash browns. Thank you
Amazing Tips! I have a pampered chef french fry cutter so it made this whole process SUPER easy! I highly recommend that lil tool for this project!
Use the potatoes that have grown eyes as seed potatoes in a garden! we do it every year… its a great way to use potatoes that have eyes and we don’t have to buy extra seed potatoes. just but a section from your potato that has two or three eyes growing on it and bury it about 3″ in the ground. cover with dirt, wait about 4 weeks, mound your dirt over, and once the plant flowers, you’ll have easy home grown potatoes! and they taste DELISH! we yielded 18 plants from a bag of potatoes I’d forgotten about last spring!
I’m going to try the fries and scalloped potatoes!
I buy the big bags of potatoes, bake them all up in the oven (about an hour at 350 degrees – don’t forget to poke holes in them with a knife or fork or you will have a big bag of grenades going off in the oven). I them take them out, let them cool, cut them into chunks and put them in bags to freeze. When I want to use them, I take the bag out of the freezer and fry them – perfect fried potatoes for breakfasts (or sometimes dinners). You can also do this with sweet potatoes. Fried sweet potatoes for breakfast are so good!
You can also take the baked potatoes, cut the tops off, add butter and shredded cheese after they have cooled and freeze them. It’s an easy lunch – just take them out of the freezer and microwave for a couple of minutes and you have a baked potato. 🙂
Thanks for sharing Tiff. I love fried potatos i am gonna have to try your way, potatos usually go bad if I buy a big bag, i just buy a couple at a time. Thanks Angela for sharing this post, i gotta try the fries as I love those as well & I always gotta have fries when we make burgers. 🙂
You can also make twice baked potatoes (Lots of recipes around, I found mine on pinterest). I did this around the end of summer with about 12 potatoes but im giong to try the scallop potatoes. I LOVE scallop potatoes!!!!!
Thank you for you tasty, money saving, time saving idaeas. Made the rosemary mashed potatoes to freeze and also made some without the rosemary for my grandaughter.
Hi there. Great ideas. I will be using the oven fries one.
When I mash my potatoes I ice cream scoop them into a lined tray and freeze. Place in bag once frozen. They are then free flow and you can reheat or defrost for many uses. I also cook 2 parts potatoes and 1 part cauliflower. Mash together and scoop as above. Gives you a lighter healthier mash which miraculously does not taste of cauliflower! .
My fave summer potato recipes are:
bacon and blue cheese potato salad – cut potatoes into different size chunks and boil until fork tender, mix with pre-cooked bacon, diced green onion, blue cheese crumbles, fresh-cracked pepper and mayo.
easy, creamy potatoes – slice potatoes into lengths (like thick-cut fries) and boil in a large skillet until fork tender, then drain off all the water and add a generous splash of heavy cream. over medium heat, stir briskly. the cream thickens almost immediately and the potatoes will break up a little. season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.