Potatoes are one of those few food items which can be cooked in a hundred ways! You can boil, sauté or fry it to create a number of mouth-watering dishes.
Be it mashed potato, hash browns or the classic French fry – potatoes taste amazing in any form.
However, you need to get the cutting and texture of this vegetable right for each of these recipes to work. That is why using the appropriate device or utensil during food preparation matters.
In case you don’t have the ideal one available, there are also some ways to make it work!
For instance, if you don’t have a grater in the house, you can try out a number of contingency plans to still have grated potatoes. Here we are to guide you on how to grate potatoes without a grater in six ways!
What are some alternative tools for shredding potatoes without a grater? You can use a food processor with a shredding attachment, a mandoline slicer, a sharp knife for hand-cutting, or a julienne peeler to shred potatoes without a grater.
How To Grate Potatoes Without A Grater?
An effective way to get grated potatoes even without a grater is to use a food processor instead.
These devices are meant to carry out all the manual food preparation tasks so that you can use that time to take care of other steps. However, their features vary a lot according to their brands and models.
Some of them are designed to grate vegetables, while others can only chop. Regardless of the capabilities your food processor has, you can make it work to grate potatoes by simply making some tweaks to the usual process.
Start by setting up the processor with proper placement of the plastic bowl at its base and the grater or chopper blade on its respective shaft.
Since it is an electric device with a blade, it is always safer to keep it unplugged while setting it up.
Now add roughly cut cubes or slices of the potatoes in the processor bowl. Make sure it doesn’t cross the maximum filling limit as denoted on the bowl’s body.
Attach the lid on top and then press the respective pulse button to start shredding the potatoes.
One possible drawback of using a food processor to grate potatoes is how mashed up or watery they can get.
If the resulting shred potato is too watery for you, just put them on a sieve placed over a container and start pressing the back of a spoon over the shreds. This will get rid of the water content and leave you with perfectly neat grated potatoes.
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Mandoline is a kitchen utensil you can use for cutting vegetables into many varieties including thick slices, thin slices, juliennes and even grates!
So you can easily use it to grate potatoes. However, it may need much more manual labor than with a grater because of its horizontal design.
To get started, take out your mandoline and set it up with the right set of shredding blades.
You can now equip yourself with a handguard or similar accessory to protect your hands from accidentally getting injured by the blade.
Then take the whole peeled potato and start shredding it against the blade. The sliced or grated pieces will be automatically collected at the clean container placed below it.
While it might seem like a very unconventional option, a mixer can actually help you to grate potatoes!
The trick is to use it at low speed and to let the blades be sprayed with a non-stick coating beforehand.
Doing this will help you later to get all the grated potatoes out of the mixing bowl or container. For the coating, you can use cooking spray or regular oil.
So peel the potatoes and cut them into slices or wedges – the smaller and lighter, the better. Then put them in the bowl where you will be grating them.
Take the mixer, press on the pulse and keep going until the pieces are as well grated as you need them to be. Usually, a few seconds of mixer gets the job done.
Related item: Choose ring hand mixers for cookie dough
Knife and Chopping Board
If nothing else works, why not go back to the good old days of just a knife and a chopping board?
In the case of urgency, just take them out and start doing it the old-fashioned way. Even if you don’t own a chopping board, just any clean flat surface will do.
Peel the potatoes one by one and clean them in a bowl. Cut down the big ones in half so that they are easier to work on. Make sure the knife is sharp enough to cut through the potatoes smoothly.
Put each large piece of potato on the board in such a way that its flat side is facing downwards.
This will prevent it from rolling or getting out of place while grating. Now put the knife against it at an angle of 45 degrees and start cutting it into slices as thin and as small as you can.
Once it is done, pick up the larger strips and stack them up on their flat side. Now cut them into long vertical slices or as long as you need them to be.
Even though this is a time-consuming and rigorous process, it will surely result in properly grated potatoes.
Check now: Review of good quality victorinox knife
Another possible way to grate potatoes without a grater is to use a vegetable peeler with a sharp knife.
Use the peeler to remove the skin off the potatoes and then shave it all over for producing thin slices. Spread it on the chopping board so that you can group them into small stacks later.
Take the knife and place it on each of these stacks at an angle. Start cutting through them in such a way that the resulting slices are as thin and narrow as grated ones.
These strips will be just like the ones you see after using wide blade graters.
We know this may sound intimidating, but it’s not really that hard! All you need are an empty soda can, a can opener, a screwdriver and some spare time! You can also use sanding paper to go the extra mile.
Using the can opener, remove the entire top lid of the empty can, clean it well and dry it before proceeding to the next steps.
Take one side of the can and mark a column there to point out the positions of your grater blades.
Like an actual grater, these holes need to be created in multiple rows maintaining consistent distances between them.
The screwdriver you pick should have a head that is as wide as you want the grater’s blades to be. Now start poking the holes in the can as you marked them.
When you are done, put the screwdriver through the holes again and now pull it towards you so that the inner side doesn’t have sharp metal parts anymore.
You can use sanding paper to brush up both sides of this brand new DIY grater. Stay careful though since too much pressure can cause injury to your hands.
Wipe it with a cloth to make sure there are no metal remnants and keep it upside down in a dry area for a few hours.
The only limitation with this DIY grater is that you cannot grate something acidic with it since that might react with the metal body.
How to Make Hash Browns – Diner Style Restaurant Hashbrown Recipe
FAQ
What is the best way to shred potatoes for hash browns?
What is the best tool for shredding potatoes?
Can you shred potatoes with a cheese grater?
How do you make Shredded hash browns from scratch?
Deliciously crispy homemade shredded hash browns made from scratch! Shred potato through a cheese grater or food processor. Rinse shreds under cold running faucet until starch has been removed. Drain the water and wrap clumps of shredded potato in cheesecloth or ricer and squeeze tightly to remove all excess moisture.
Can you cook shredded hash browns in the oven?
Once you have finished cooking your homemade shredded hash browns you can serve them immediately or place them on a baking sheet in a warm oven to keep them warm while you work on additional batches of deliciously crispy potatoes. You can shred the potatoes and leave them soaking in water for a few hours until you are ready to cook.
How do you make a hash with shredded potaotes?
Place shredded potaotes in a large bowl and mix with salt and pepper to taste.* Melt butter in non-skillet with oil. Place hash in hot pan on medium-high heat and press with spatula to flatten into a uniform thickness around pan.
Are shredded hash browns crispy?
Shredded hash browns crispy on the outside. Tender on the inside. Taking just a few basic kitchen ingredients and a small sauté pan, you can make restaurant style crispy shredded hash browns. Step inside our kitchen for the how-to.