Pan-roasted baby potatoes cooked with fresh green garlic, a mix of fresh seasonal herbs and lightly seasoned with salt and pepper – a perfect dish to snack on or serve as a side to any meal.
Pan-roasting gives a beautiful texture contrast to the dish – crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside. While I have cooked this dish entirely on the stovetop, you can also make the same in the oven. I prefer stovetop roasting for these because that gives a nice even browning to the surface of the potatoes.
New Baby Potatoes
Everyone has eaten a potato, but everyone has eaten a truly new potato, freshly dug from the soil just days – or even hours – before serving. Once you do, your life is forever changed, because a new potato is everything good about a potato but more delicate, sweeter, and refined.
Joshua McFadden
Joshua McFadden’s Six Seasons is one of my favourite cooking books – it is more about the experience of growing and then recipes that celebrate those vegetables at their peak than just a fancy cookbook. When I read the above lines, I couldn’t agree more.
Last year, it was my first season of eating a truly new potato. The flavour and the textures they have are some things I miss so much after the season is over. While the market is full of cold storage potatoes throughout the year, now that I know the difference, I double down on potatoes when in season and restrict them to a bare minimum when they aren’t.
Don’t peel the new potatoes
New red potatoes have very thin skin and that means no peeling! Simply rinse and scrub to remove all dirt. If at any place there is a bad spot, scrape from there with a knife.
Red potatoes are healthier than white and cooking with skin on means more fibre and nutrition along with the taste and texture!
And they only need light cooking – steam them, boil them or simply pan-roast. In this recipe, I have used baby potatoes but the same can be made with bigger potatoes. Simply cut into similar bite-size chunks.
Pan-Roasted Potatoes with fresh herbs and garlic
Ingredients (1cup = 240ml; 1tbsp = 15ml; 1tsp = 5ml)
- 1 kg baby Red-skinned potatoes washed and halved
- 3 spring garlic/ cloves of garlic finely chopped
- 4 tbsp Olive oil
- Salt to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper to taste
- ½ cup fresh fresh herbs chopped (I have used a mix of parsley and dill)
Instructions
- Heat oil in a pan.
- When the oil is hot, add chopped garlic and sauté for a minute till fragrant (but not burnt)
- Add the halved red potatoes (with skin) (If you are using bigger red potatoes, simply chop them into bite-sized chunks)
- Mix well so that the potatoes are well coated with oil. Cook covered with stirring in-between till the potatoes are tender.
- Season with salt, pepper and half the fresh herbs. Mix well and cook open for another minute.
- Remove in a serving dish and mix in the remaining herbs.
- Serve warm.
Notes
- To make prepping and cooking easier make sure to choose potatoes that are similar in size.
- I have only used salt and pepper for basic seasoning but spice mixes like tandoori veg mix, a Za’atar mix or a Mexican spice mix can also be added for variations.
- Pair these with a Parsley dip when serving as a snack to bring out the delicate flavour of fresh herbs even more.
As a farmer, I love my tender, tiny new potatoes. They are so perfect that I don’t like to mess around with them much :-). With new potatoes, I only go with recipes that truly bring out the beauty of a potato. Try the rosemary roasted potato, a spicy Indian mashed potato or a dum aloo curry.
Have you ever tried a potato that has been harvested just a few days, or maybe a few hours before it came on your table? What do you make with these delicious new potatoes?
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