Potato Water – What it is and Why You Should Be Using It

This comes from a trick my grandmother always uses.  Whenever she boils potatoes, she would always pour the water into a mason jar and put it in the fridge for later use.  My grandmother comes from a time with little money and poor access to resources.  So if there was something that she could use twice or as many times as possible, she would!

The best way to get the best nutrition and health benefits from potatoes is to eat them whole (skin) and cooked in their natural state, such as baked. Sometimes this isn’t an option because you need to boil potatoes for mashed potatoes and other delicious types.  But when you boil potatoes you lose water-soluble nutrients such as B-complex vitamins, vitamin C, potassium, and calcium.  In a recent article I read, it said approximately 80% of potatoes vitamin C is lost in the water. I won’t go into the details about why these vitamins are important, but think about all the added benefits if we can use this water instead of pouring it down the drain!

The potato water also leaves behind extra starches that were in the potatoes that were boiled into the water.  This serves as an excellent addition to bread and other baking for extra starch and nutrients instead of using plain water.

Potato water starch can also serve as a thickener the same way you would use dried potato starch that you would dilute with water.  Potato water can be used as a base for stews and gravies, which adds additional flavor and saves you some money instead of buying thickeners!

If you don’t plan on using the potato water anytime soon or a little skeptical, you can always just water your plants with the potato water.  The plants will use the nutrients and vitamins instead of them going down the drain.  Your plants will love you for it and save money on water.

Or you could always give the potato water to your animals! My chickens love the water and I’m sure goats, cows, anything would to and they would get the added nutrients and vitamins just like you or I would.

Thanks for reading! I hope you give this a try to give yourself extra benefits in your baking and cooking. If you do, let me know what you think in the comments below!