How to serve mashed potatoes on a holiday table. Five ways to beautifully decorate dishes with your own hands without much hassle

You don't have to read hundreds of cookbooks to find out how to make mashed potatoes. This knowledge is written in our subcortex, somewhere between borscht and scrambled eggs. Milk, butter and egg yolk will save even the most hopeless and tasteless potatoes, the main thing is not to over-salt them.

Mashed potatoes in the oven

The best side dish is mashed potatoes, and that's not up for debate. But boiled potatoes are so boring on weekdays that you don’t want to cook them for a holiday. Of course, nowadays there is no time for delights, because you want it on a budget and tasty. Therefore, there is no need to give up tender and soft puree, you need to serve it beautifully!

Even the most fastidious readers will be surprised! We have prepared 12 ideas on how to serve mashed potatoes so that they become the signature dish on the holiday table.

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Unusual ways to serve mashed potatoes

To make potato dishes tasty and healthy, potatoes should be chosen correctly. Never skimp on your health!

And if time is short, there is a little trick on how to cook jacket potatoes in a couple of minutes. You need to fill the washed tubers with water, wrap the container tightly with cling film and place it in the microwave. Cook at maximum power for 5–7 minutes, the time depends on the size of the potatoes.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner are the main meals a person eats during the day, but they often turn into a routine. Quick snacks, fast food and eating while reading a book or watching TV are not at all conducive to good digestion. However, if you spend a few minutes eating the finished dish before serving it, your loved ones will no longer want to be distracted from the appetizingly decorated plate, and they will spend the time while eating in a pleasant, leisurely conversation with each other.

Decorating dishes on holidays and on weekdays not only makes the table look elegant, but also makes you want to eat, and the process of eating turns into a kind of magical event, akin to a miracle. Entire textbooks are devoted to this art, and for the artistic cutting of vegetables and fruits, a whole direction called “carving” was invented. But it is not at all necessary to have special skills in this matter in order to please your family with beautifully arranged food for dinner or lunch, be it a gala evening or an ordinary day. How to beautifully decorate dishes with your own hands without much hassle? Let's talk about five ways.

The salad can be laid out beautifully using a cookie cutter.

Cookie cutters will come to the aid of a neat housewife. Buy such a thing, and you will forever forget about ridiculously heaped salads or pasta scattered on the plate. Of course, these devices are most suitable for Olivier-type salads, as well as puff pastries.

An appetizer such as a salad easily takes the form in which it is laid out. Place the star or heart shaped mold on a plate, holding it with one hand, fill with salad and press lightly.

Note! This method is not suitable for overly “liquid” dishes, from which mayonnaise or oil may leak, as this will cause unsightly smudges on the dish.

If you have molds of different sizes, it’s very easy to make a kind of “matryoshka” out of them: place a small one in the middle of a large heart and fill it with salads of different colors. In this case, upon completion of the layout, first remove the internal auxiliary device, and only then the external one.

You can serve potatoes with meat sauce in exactly the same way, just make sure that when you remove the mold, the entire structure is not damaged. The composition will be complemented by potatoes arranged in the form of rays around the heart.

Idea for serving mashed potatoes! In order to aesthetically lay out this popular side dish, use the same form, and inside - using a small mold - make a recess for the sauce.

If you don't have cookie cutters, use a round cookie cutter cut from a regular plastic soda bottle. Since they come in different sizes, both small and large ones are useful.

In the case of salads that are laid out in layers (for example, mimosa, herring under a fur coat and others), the process of preparing a plate for each guest will be more labor-intensive. In this case, we advise you to prepare the products for the different layers in advance and mix them with mayonnaise in separate containers so that you do not have to perform the extra step of lubricating the surface with sauce.

Now you're convinced that cookie cutters are an easy and beautiful way to turn an everyday dish into a holiday twist. But even this is not all the advantage of small metal things. Hearts, circles and stars will help you cut sandwiches into shapes.

Second method: decorating salads using a glass

Above, we told you how interesting and, most importantly, how to quickly decorate portioned salads and side dishes, that is, those that are served to each guest or participant in the feast. But there are cases when you need to put an appetizer on a common plate, and you always want the herring under a fur coat or mimosa to look nice.

In this case, an ordinary glass will come to the rescue! If you place it in the middle of the dish and layer the ingredients around it, the salad will take on a special, almost royal look, and a beautiful cut will form in the center.

The concept of the Pomegranate Bracelet salad is based on this decoration, and it is a classic example of chic decoration. To prepare it, you will need:

• chicken stewed with seasonings (or smoked breast);
• boiled vegetables: beets, potatoes;
• mayonnaise - 1 jar;
• grains from one.

Chop the ingredients and start laying layers around the glass, alternating with mayonnaise, in this order: potatoes, chicken, carrots, beets. This appetizer is slightly reminiscent of the famous “herring under a fur coat.” The salad is topped with pomegranate seeds, carefully placed on boiled beets with mayonnaise.

Attention! To make it easier to remove the glass, place it on the plate with the narrow side down, and lightly grease it with vegetable oil before serving. When laying layers, also make sure that a beautiful cut is formed near the auxiliary object.

In the same way, we advise you to lay out the popular holiday appetizer “herring under a fur coat,” “mimosa” and other famous salads. Almost “with one movement of the hand,” this design will turn into a wonderful gift for ladies on March 8th; you just need to place two glasses on a large platter, and two neat elements of the number “eight” will be ready.

Third method: figured cutting of vegetables and fruits

You don't have to be a carving genius to cut vegetables into shapes. Carving is a universal word: this is the name for the style of snowboarding and alpine skiing, cutting wood, ice, vegetables and other materials, and a variant of perming hair. Of course, creating masterpieces from products is not easy, but everyone can learn basic techniques, especially using imagination and creative thinking.

It’s easy to turn rings of boiled carrots and beets into flowers; just carefully cut out the petals with a sharp knife. It's also easy to cut apples. Even pieces of the same geometric shapes, circles or squares laid out symmetrically will decorate the dish.

Christmas wreath idea! Cut out “candles” from boiled potatoes, and place a “flame” of boiled carrots in the recess on top. Quail eggs will be an excellent decoration for a wreath. Guests will definitely appreciate it!

The pulp of pickled cucumber lends itself well to processing. Cut long strips of equal thickness from it and roll it into a kind of bow or butterfly.

If you peel a tomato, like peeling a potato, to get a long strip of red peel, then from this material it is very easy to roll a rose that will decorate any salad or hot dish, even those that do not contain tomato.

Don’t forget that neatly chopped fresh vegetables (tomatoes, lettuce) are in themselves an excellent decoration for a second course, as they are beautiful with their brightness and natural charm. Sprinkled with herbs, especially in winter, they will become the highlight of lunch or dinner.

Fourth method: insects in a plate

This art is a little similar to carving. There are three simple and accessible ways for every housewife to decorate dishes with original insects.

Bees

For the bees take:

• olives.

Cut each olive and olive of approximately the same size in half, and then into half rings. Combine part olive with part olive until you get a bee. Make her eyes and antennae from the same products or from greenery.
Insect wings can be decorated using cheese cut into triangles or from olive rings (this way they will be clearly visible against a contrasting background).

ladybugs

These insects are adorable, both kids and adults will agree! Halves of large grapes or cherry tomatoes work great for the back of a ladybug. Part of the body needs to be cut off and replaced with a suitable-sized part of an olive, so that the head of this cute insect is black.

These curly insects look great on a salad with Korean beans and carrots. In addition to the above, the salad is complemented by smoked chicken and seasoned with mayonnaise, so the salad looks like a bright forest clearing through which bees and ladybugs have crawled.

Butterflies

A distinctive feature of a butterfly is its bright wings, on which you can find absolutely any colors and patterns. In addition, they are very easy to come up with yourself. Lay out the “body” of the butterfly from olives or black olives, and for the wings use lettuce leaves and any decorations you can find: boiled vegetables, quail egg yolks, herbs.

Fifth method: funny faces

This method of decoration is suitable for baking, and children will especially enjoy it. You can also involve them in the design, which will ensure both an interesting pastime with the kids and the success of the cake on the festive table.

Any means that are in your “arsenal” will be used: pieces of chocolate, marmalade, candied fruit, cocoa or powdered sugar for sprinkling. You don’t have to be a culinary genius and decorate a sponge cake with pastry fondant to get a funny monkey face: just cut out a template from paper, cover it with powdered sugar and keep imagining!

There are devices that allow you to bake pancakes and pancakes in the form of funny faces. You can also use them to make “emoticons” from mashed potatoes (a version of pancakes with). The kids will love this breakfast! In addition, using your imagination, you can put cartoon characters from food items and the like on the plate. And sandwiches can be turned not only into funny animals, but also into ships, houses and magical trees!

Decorating dishes is a great way to spend time with family, children, or to be alone, “conjuring” food, show your imagination and surprise loved ones on a holiday or even on an ordinary day.

But don’t forget that an interestingly designed, appetizing dish will certainly make you want to eat more, which will affect your figure. Therefore, do not forget to monitor the number of calories consumed and spent per day, and best of all, be active, play sports and do not forget about your hobbies, then you will not feel a lack of the happiness hormone!

Your life will definitely become brighter with our tips on how to beautifully decorate your dishes with your own hands without much hassle.

Useful video on the topic

In this video you will learn how to quickly and easily make roses from carrots.

Potatoes are one of the most popular and widespread vegetables in Eastern European countries. Dishes from it are prepared for every taste.

Potato dishes perfectly complement soup or borscht, becoming a tasty second course, and perfectly accompany cutlets, the main ingredient of which is minced meat.

In this article we will look at recipes for making mashed potatoes. There are a huge number of options for preparing it: with milk, butter, in the oven, and so on. And every recipe is simple, and the dish is delicious.

Potatoes have been known for more than 14 thousand years, when South American Indians not only prepared food from this vegetable, but also worshiped it.

Much later, inventive French fashionistas used potato flowers as a decorative element for hair, and later for bouquets and flower beds.

When potato tubers became popular, some began calling them “devil’s apples.” This was probably due to the dark skin of the vegetable.

The beneficial properties of the vegetable are determined by its composition. The protein contained in the composition is rich in amino acids and is beneficial for the human body.

It also contains fiber, pectin, folic acid, various vitamins and elements necessary for humans.

In addition, potato-based foods can be used during the diet, if fats are excluded during the cooking process.

So, potatoes in their jackets, boiled, crushed, or cooked in the oven are suitable. If you do not use oil and fats and consume vegetables within reasonable limits, then the diet will be followed.

Based on this vegetable, various face masks are prepared that help fight wrinkles, rejuvenate and renew the skin.

Boiled, baked, fried, jacket, mashed potatoes - there are a huge variety of cooking recipes, each of which has its own taste and peculiarity.

Recipes: basics of cooking

It's hard to find a person who doesn't know or doesn't like mashed potatoes. Since childhood, each of us has remembered the pleasant taste of mashed potatoes with milk.

But it’s very easy to prepare, and the recipe below will help you make something delicious:

• kilogram of potatoes;
• 300 milliliters of milk;
• 50 grams of butter;
• salt, nutmeg.

To make mashed potatoes, you first need to prepare the potatoes. To do this, it must be peeled, washed and cut into large pieces.

Now you can put it to boil. Potatoes should be cooked in salted water for 20 minutes after boiling.

When the time is up, the water is drained, and slightly heated milk is added to the boiled potatoes. Now you can mash the potatoes and milk with a masher, adding butter and nutmeg at the end.

This puree with milk is ready. Photos of the cooking processes can be found online.

Dish in the oven

Mashed potatoes are more than just a side dish.

This is also a very tasty solution if you cook it in the oven. Dishes of this kind are perfect even for a holiday table.

To prepare you will need:

• kilogram of potatoes;
• mozzarella (cheese) – 120-150 grams;
• garlic - a few cloves;
• half a glass of hard grated cheese;
• half a glass of milk;
• a few tablespoons of breadcrumbs;
• butter – 30 grams;
• pepper, salt.

To cook a dish in the oven, you need to prepare the potatoes. To do this, you need to boil it (peeled, washed and cut into large pieces) in salted water with a few cloves of garlic.

When you mash the mashed potatoes, add milk and butter. Now you have a puree with milk. Then prepare the mozzarella.

To do this, you need to mash it with a fork, and mix the breadcrumbs with grated cheese. After this, the puree is mixed with seasonings and mozzarella and placed in a greased form.

The top is sprinkled with a breading mixture of crackers and hard cheese. Bake in an oven preheated to 180 degrees until a cheese crust forms.

This dish can be served either as a second dish or as an addition to a meat dish.

In addition, puree as a side dish on the holiday table would be an excellent solution, because dishes cooked in the oven are always tasty and beautiful.

And various photos on the Internet will show how you can decorate this potato side dish.

Cooking with cheese

If you like the combination of potatoes and cheese, then the following recipe will suit you:

• half a kilogram of potatoes;
• butter – 30 grams;
• hard cheese – 200 grams;
• several cloves of garlic;
• salt, pepper, spices.

First, let's prepare the potatoes. To do this, we clean it, wash it and cut it into medium-sized pieces. After this, cook it in salted water for 20 minutes.

Fry the garlic in a frying pan and add spices. And when the garlic is ready, the recipe involves adding frying along with grated hard cheese to the puree.

Now all that remains is to thoroughly mix the entire mixture and serve. As you can see, this simple recipe will help you prepare a delicious dish that will perfectly complement the cutlets.

The photo will tell you how to beautifully serve and decorate the finished side dish.

Potatoes with tomatoes and ricotta

Do you want to please your household with something very tasty? Then the recipe for puree with tomatoes and ricotta will help you with this.

To prepare this dish, the recipe involves using:

• kilogram of potatoes;
• 250 grams of tomatoes;
• 150 grams each of ricotta and milk;
• olive oil;
• 50 grams of pine nuts.

First, prepare the puree. To do this, boil and mash the potatoes together with milk and ricotta. At this time, the tomatoes are peeled by pouring boiling water over them.

After this, the tomatoes are fried in olive oil. Mashed potatoes are salted and served garnished with tomatoes and nuts.

Photos on the Internet will show you how to beautifully decorate ready-made food. If you show a little imagination, potatoes will decorate the festive table and captivate the guests.

Anastasia Orlova 11/12/2015 3089

It would seem that nothing could be simpler - boil the potatoes, mash them and serve them as a side dish or an independent dish. However, this can be done in non-standard ways.

1. Kaleidoscope on a plate

Divide the puree into three equal parts. Add finely chopped parsley or spinach puree to one, finely grated beets to the other, carrot juice or finely grated boiled carrots to the third.

Place colorful portions of puree on one plate and serve to your guests.

2. Potato roses

Using a pastry syringe or a bag with a shaped nozzle, make beautiful roses from the puree on a greased baking sheet. Bake them until golden brown in the oven and serve as a holiday dish.

3. Cobweb

Place a portion of mashed potatoes on a dish and smooth it out with a spoon. Ketchup
draw a web.

Cut the green onion feathers into six equal pieces, bend each in the middle and along the edges. Place onions in the shape of spider legs on the drawn web, and an olive on them.

Make eyes from canned corn (cut the grain across, without cutting all the way through, unfold the halves) and small pieces of olive.

4. Cheerful clown

Distribute the mashed potatoes on a plate and level it out - it will be the face of a clown, place fresh cabbage salad on top in the form of a head of hair.

Make eyes from boiled quail eggs and pieces of olives. Cheeks and mouth - from boiled carrots; bow - made from boiled sausage and corn grains.

We know that children are not always willing to eat, and even if they don’t mind, they are simply bored sitting in front of a plate of porridge. Beautifully decorated main courses for children can be a real lifesaver for parents whose children are not big fans of serious food. But even if you don’t have problems with feeding, an unusually served side dish will be an excellent decoration for a children’s holiday table.

In the photo below you will see interesting ideas for decorating side dishes and meat main courses for children of different ages.

Ingredients

• Rice – 100 g
• Processed cheese (briquette) or hard – 100 g
• Sausages or boiled sausage – 50 g
• Lemon wedge – 1 pc.
• A piece of carrot

Preparation

1. Boil the rice until tender, let it cool a little, put it on a plate and use a teaspoon to form two slides out of it - oval and round.
2. We cut the processed cheese into slices 3–4 mm thick, the main thing is that they do not break. We connect two pieces and cut out the lower legs with a knife - this way they will turn out symmetrical.

We also cut out the two front ones at once, then make triangular ears and a tail. We put everything in the right places.

1. From a slice of sausage (1 - 2 mm), cut out 2 circles and 6 smaller ovals with a mold - these will be pads.

According to the shape of the cheese ears, we make 2 of the same sausage ears, only smaller so that the cheese layer is clearly visible. We place the pads and “palms” on the front paws.

1. Remove the pulp from the lemon slice and place the remaining crust instead of the collar. Decorate it with a small circle of carrots.
2. Black “stripes” - triangles, if desired, are made either from nori seaweed (sushi is rolled into it) or from thinly cut olives.

Plain buckwheat can become your child's favorite dish if it is beautifully decorated.

Ingredients

• Buckwheat – 100 g
• Milk sausage – 1 pc.
• Chicken egg – 1 pc.
• Carrots – 1 pc.
• Olives – 1 pc.

Preparation

1. First, boil all the ingredients except the olives, peel the egg and start preparing the dish.
2. Place buckwheat in a round mound, cut off about 2 cm from the sausage on each side, and divide the ends in half. We put them in place of the paws.
3. Place the whole egg in place of the head.
4. We make rings from boiled carrots: cut off a couple of slices and use a mold to make round holes in them. The rings should be large enough so as not to slip off the egg. We put the cut edges of the olives inside - the eyes are ready!
5. If desired, the mouth can be made from a piece of bell pepper.

Ingredients

• Sausages – 3 pcs.
• Sausage – 1 pc.
• Olives – 1 pc.
• Green onions – bunch
• Lettuce – 3 sheets

Preparation

1. We boil the sausages, they will be useful to us because of their shape - with them the elephant will turn out to be more plump, and the sausage - it is needed for decoration.
2. Chop the onion and place it on washed and dried lettuce leaves on a plate - this will be “grass”.
3. Cut 6 thin slices from the boiled sausage, make cuts on the sausage closer to the beginning according to the size of the slices, put 2 of them inside, as shown in the photo.

We cut the remaining sausage lengthwise and make 3 narrow thin strips about 3 cm long. In the place where the trunk will be, make a hole with a toothpick and put a strip into it - the trunk.

1. We also decorate the rest of the sausages.

Ingredients

• Potatoes – 2 pcs.
• Cucumber – 1 pc.
• Radish – 1 pc.
• Lettuce – 1 sheet
• Cracker – 1 pc.

Preparation

1. We prepare the puree as usual, the main condition is that it should not be too liquid so as not to spread! We place it on a plate in an oval, simulating the uneven structure of feathers with a spoon.
2. Instead of the owl's head, we lay out a cracker, and at the bottom we attach a triangular lettuce leaf in the form of a tail. Instead of a cracker, you can take a slice of black bread or diet bread, cut out with a round cutter.
3. Cut 5 - 6 thin slices from the cucumber. Two will be eyes, and three will be cut in half and placed in place of the wings, one under the other on both sides.
4. We cut the radishes very thinly and place two slices of suitable diameter on top of the cucumbers - the “eye”. Decorate with green peas on top.
5. If desired, place a triangular piece of radish, imitating a beak, and two cucumber sticks in place of the “eyebrows”.

The idea to decorate the salad in this way came from a famous children's cartoon.

Ingredients

• Medium beets – 1 pc.
• Sour cream – 2 tbsp
• Egg – 1 pc.
• Carrots – 1 pc.

Preparation

1. Boil the egg and vegetables as for a regular salad.
2. Grate some of the beets on a fine grater, season with sour cream and place on a plate in a round mound. Using a knife, carefully form the ears and wings.
3. Using a cookie cutter, cut out circles called “eyes” from boiled egg whites.
4. We clean the carrots, cut them into slices and first make a “beak”, then stripes for a cap.
5. We make “legs” from the remaining beets by cutting out several sticks. Alternating carrots with beets, lay out the cap.
6. We finish by making small details from beets: “pupils”, pompoms, tassels on the ears, etc.

If there are any traces left on the plate while laying out the salad, wipe them off with a napkin. We decorate the dish with flowers and stars made from carrots and squirrels, and parsley.

Another idea for how to serve rice in a beautiful and fun way!

Ingredients

• Rice – 100 g
• Chicken egg – 1 pc.
• Bell pepper (red) – 1 pc.
• Boiled chicken meat – 50 g
• Cheese - slice
• Greens, mushrooms - optional

Preparation

1. Place the boiled rice on a plate in the shape of a hare figurine.
2. We cut out “eyes” and “teeth” from the protein, a carrot and a mouth from the pepper, and make it from pieces of olives. We put everything in place.
3. We make a “handbag” from a piece of boiled meat. It can also be made from cheese or pepper. It all depends on what exactly you need to feed the child!
4. We make the sun from the yolk, and cut out the rays from a slice of cheese.
5. You can decorate the plate with herbs and halves of fried mushrooms.

Ingredients

• Spaghetti – 50 g
• Boiled carrots – 1 pc.
• Canned corn – 1 tbsp
• Olives – 1 pc.
• Greenery

Preparation

1. Without breaking, boil the spaghetti and lay it out in a heap.
2. Using a carrot slice, we use a round mold to make “eyes” and a triangular beak.
3. Place corn in front of it
4. We make paws from cuttings of parsley or dill, and place round pieces of olives on top of the carrot “eyes”.

Ingredients

• Children's sausages (they are smaller) – 2 pcs.
• Spaghetti – 100 g
• Yellow bell pepper – 1 pc.
• Ketchup or tomato paste

Preparation

1. From the boiled spaghetti we make a “cloud” on the edge of the plate, and from the pepper we cut out a circle and triangular “rays”. We put out the sun.
2. We cook the sausages and put one whole, and cut the other and put the halves in the form of wings. From the remaining part we make a “tail”.
3. Using drops of ketchup we draw portholes.

Ingredients

• Barley – 100 g
• Sausage – 1 pc.
• Cucumber - 1 pc.
• Egg – 1 pc.
• Green onions - a few feathers
• Olives, greens.

Preparation

1. Boil the sausage, pearl barley and egg.
2. Place the porridge on a plate in the shape of a cat's face.
3. We make cheeks and ears from slices of boiled sausage, and eyes from pieces of protein and cucumber slices. We cut the olive into pieces and replace the vertical pupils.
4. We select onion feathers according to size, place 3 pieces on each side of the sausages - these are mustaches. “Cat” for the children's table is ready!

Cut out a circle from rye or wheat bread. 2 smaller circles of egg white will become eyes. We draw paws with ketchup, and cut out claws from bell peppers.

A “smile” can also be made from ketchup, and pupils from pieces of olives!

We form a machine from mashed potatoes on a plate. We use ketchup to designate the headlights, and 2 stacks of cut cucumber slices will become the wheels. We use green onions to mark the contours of the windows, and place the boiled sausage on the “roof.”

To beautifully serve a child a seemingly banal dish - potatoes with a cutlet, there is no need to philosophize!

Let's form a “head” from the puree, and the cutlet will become a “body”. We will use slices of bell pepper as a beak, slices of fresh tomato as a scallop, and we will place sprigs of dill instead of feathers and wings.

None of the children will be able to refuse pasta decorated in this way! We put them on a dish, slices of cheese and halves of olives will serve as eyes, the back of a cucumber will serve as a nose, and a quarter of a tomato will serve as a mouth.

We lay out the corn kernels as if they were teeth, the curls of the bell pepper as a mustache, and half a tomato will be a bandana.

We place the leaves of Chinese cabbage at the bottom of the plate, under the pasta, as if it were a beard, and on the side - instead of sideburns.

Mashed potatoes will become much more interesting and tastier if you turn them into “SpongeBob”!

Align it on a plate with a knife to make a rectangle. We make arms and legs from cheese sticks, and from cucumber skin (this will make them thinner) – a smile, shoes and eyelashes.

The radish circles will be the eyes, and the peas will be the pupils. Protein and sausage can be used to add details - teeth and square pants!

As you can see, beautifully decorating main dishes for children is not difficult even for an inexperienced cook!