Garlic and Rosemary Roast Potatoes
I’ve teamed up with Harris Farm to bring to you a delicious veggie filled, vegan Christmas lunch spread. Featuring today’s recipe Garlic and Rosemary Roast Potatoes. The perfect side to any Christmas lunch or dinner.
Garlic and Rosemary Roast Potatoes. Recipe by Lunch Lady Lou. Photography/styling by Bonnie Coumbe.
As much as I love (too much) crackling and seafood at Christmas, I love these veggie filled recipes to keep the balance and to be sure I don’t fill up before we serve my Great Aunty Dots Christmas pudding.
First up we have some simple Garlic and Rosemary Roast Potatoes, because why not. I often talk about how much of a fan I am of the simple potato – it’s my go-to meal, especially when I’m tired and lacking energy to be creative in the kitchen. The oven goes on, the spuds go in and I take myself off to have a shower and let the oven do the work.
For this recipe, I’ve added a step of boiling first. Which is the secret the fluffy roasted potatoes. You can boil the potatoes the day before and break up your Christmas cooking prep. They won’t take long to cook, around 8-12 minutes, depending what potato you buy. Then drain and allow them to steam in the colander. The longer you do this, the better your potatoes will be, as the moisture will evaporate making way for crispy-ness.
The holy trinity of crispy-ness, as I teach in all my classes is HEAT + OIL + SALT and for this one we’ll add TIME. Let’s make it a holy square. If you allow these 4 things, you will end up with a crispy potato.
My other sneaky tip would be to crank the heat, especially if you’re low on time. You could cook these at 200 degrees C or even 220.
For a fresher taste, add the rosemary about half way through the cooking process. This leaves the rosemary fresher and more flavourful before cooking it to a crunchy crisp…. although I love that too.
Crispy Garlic Roasted Potatoes
Ingredients
- 1.5 kg potatoes
- A pot of boiling water
- Salt
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- Pepper
- 1-2 bulbs garlic separated into bulbs
- A few big sprigs of rosemary
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (fan forced).
- ¾ fill pot with boiling water with 3 big pinches of salt. Bring to water to boil.
- Chop potatoes into equal sizes, or if using baby potatoes you can keep them whole. Add to boiling water and par boil, about 8-12 minutes. You should be able to just stick a fork into the flesh.
- Drain potatoes in a colander and leave to steam dry in the sink for 20 minutes.
- Tip potatoes into roasting tray and coat with olive oil, salt and pepper. Ideally you want one flat layer of fairly snug potatoes in tray.
- Roast in oven for 50 minutes, or until golden all over.
- Remove tray from oven, add garlic cloves, rosemary and cinnamon. Shake tray to mix well and place back in oven for 25 minutes or until crispy to your liking.
- Serve straight from oven.
