You Can Majorly Elevate Your Roasted Potatoes With This Easy Step
What makes roasted potatoes so perfect? Their versatility. Serve them with a creamy ranch sauce, and you have an appetizer. Enjoy them with your signature burger, and you will have yourself special lunch. Pair them with steak or salmon at a dinner party, and you've created a rich and satisfying meal for any palate. Potatoes please vegetarians, vegans, and gluten-free eaters alike, not to mention both kids and adults as long as there's a special sauce on the side.
Another reason to love roasted potatoes is the fact that they require such little time and equipment to make. Even if you decide to prepare them at the last minute, you can still toss them with whatever herbs and seasonings are available in your kitchen, and your guests will never know the difference. Finally, potatoes are delicious! There is a reason why they were the most-consumed vegetable in the U.S. in 2019 — by far! By roasting them, you'll end up with a dreamy texture: brown and crispy on the outside, hot and fluffy on the inside. Can your roasted potatoes recipe get any better? Yes, they can, with just a simple step to add to your go-to method.
Cook your potatoes in salted water before roasting them
According to Real Simple, by boiling your potatoes in salted water — "as salty as the sea"– before roasting, they will have a richer interior as well as a crispy golden exterior. This pre-cooking step allows the potatoes to get buttery soft on the inside before developing a nice crust in the oven, so you don't end up with dry or undercooked tubers. Plus, the salted water helps season the potatoes more thoroughly, giving you more flavor in each bite. Start by simply adding a generous amount of salt to a pot of boiling water, the size depending on how many potatoes you are preparing. Boil your whole, skin-on potatoes until very tender, then cut them however you like before arranging them on a baking sheet.
From there, you can toss your potatoes with the basic olive oil-salt-and-pepper combo or get creative: Add some cloves of garlic, use an infused oil, scatter on some rosemary sprigs, or go for a celebrity chef-approved hack. Padma Lakshmi's roasted potato recipe calls for salt that's flavored with lime, chili, and shallots, while Ina Garten's trick to perfect roasted potatoes is lots of "good olive oil" and "really good garlic." Real Simple recommends roasting the spuds at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes, then turning them over and putting them back in the oven for another 20 minutes so they end up crispy on all sides. Replicate this easy twist anytime you are roasting potatoes or preparing them along with carrots, onions, or sweet potatoes, and enjoy. As Julia Child would say, bon appétit!