Potato recipes for every meal
Smashed again?
Smashed potatoes are simply coarsely mashed potatoes, boiled peel-on. Rather crude, I think, but definitely popular. I find the peel a distracting and slightly bitter addition, but the peels are full of good things for your body, so go for it. I think smashed potatoes are best with a good extra virgin olive oil rather than butter and milk or cream – and be generous with the black pepper. But please scrub the potatoes well.
Crispy smashed potatoes
This is a truly addictive way to prepare potatoes: Boil unpeeled small potatoes until slightly less than fully tender; drain. With side of chef’s knife, smash each until about 1/2-inch/1 cm thick. Place on oiled baking sheet and brush with olive oil; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake in a 425F/220C oven, turning once after 15 minutes, until crispy and golden-brown, 30 to 25 minutes.
Perfect roast potatoes
Perfect roast potatoes must be wonderfully crispy on the outside and the flesh must be perfectly roasted. I believe russet (baking) potatoes are best for this, although I recently have fallen in love with roasted fingerling potatoes – but they must be peeled, which is rather a pain. Olive oil makes for wonderful roast potatoes, but one could equally swear by bacon fat, rendered duck or chicken fat or lard; regular vegetable oil is not very good. Try our Perfectly Crisp Roast Potatoes for a perfectly delicious side dish.
A common Greek touch
Greeks are very fond of the spud. And they’re also very fond of lemon and olive oil. They combine them well in Lemon-Roasted Potatoes, a dish that almost anyone who has ever been to a Greek restaurant has enjoyed (that’s just about everyone in Canada).
Spud casseroles
Baked in casseroles, potatoes take on new poetic meanings. Besides your grandmother’s scalloped potatoes, there are innumerable ways of preparing potato casseroles, such as the rich and satisfying Potato and Portabello Casserole, the decadently rich Potato Gratin with Oka Cheese and the lighter Potato and Celery Root Casserole.
Potatoes for supper
Potato dishes can also be satisfying and nourishing main courses. I originally thought up a potato-based “lasagna” for the Jewish holiday of Passover, which doesn’t allow the consumption of flour products in general including pasta, but Potato and Spinach Lasagna would be a welcome main course at most tables anytime of the year.
The Swiss are huge fans of potatoes and enjoy boiled potatoes and cheese as a simple and common supper. Rösti, pan-fried potatoes, is probably the national dish of the German-speaking part of the country and when made with melted cheese (Appenzeller is best), it’s a sinfully good dinner (Swiss Rösti with Cheese).
There’s a lot more to potatoes than fries. They are actually an epic still in the writing. Enjoy.
