Everybody loves potatoes, I’ll make a bet that everyone especially loves crispy roast potatoes. I recently fell down a rabbit hole of crispy roasted potato recipes on the internet. Now the trick to most of these potatoes seems to be parboiling in loads of baking soda. Although, back in the day it seemed like instead of baking soda, people used vinegar. Today I will be trying out both of these methods, as well as a version with citric acid. If you like this recipe, check out this one too! and this one!
Boil those Taters
I peel and sort of cube my potatoes into larger sizes and toss them in some cold water while we wait. In three different pans I add two quarts of water and two tablespoons of salt. Then in one pan I add half of a teaspoon of baking soda, in another half of a teaspoon of citric acid, and in the last one a half teaspoon of vinegar. Once they are to a boil, add in the potatoes. Let them boil for about ten minutes. You can tell they are done when they are fork tender. I strain out each individual pot into different colanders.
Time to Cook
Now I treat each one of these batches the same. For each group I have a bowl where I melt two tablespoons of vegan butter. Then add one teaspoon of kosher salt, fifteen cracks of fresh black pepper, a half of a teaspoon of garlic powder, and a few shakes of dried chives. Add the potatoes into the mixture, toss them around, then throw them onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Each version is getting their own baking sheet of course.
I have my oven preheated to 400ºf on the convection setting. I spread the potatoes out evenly on their sheets, and bake for twenty minutes before flipping them over. Bake them for another twenty minutes. The baking soda potatoes finished first. The other batches of potatoes actually took about ten additional minutes. They all came out sounding really crispy.
May the Best Potato Win
The baking soda potatoes have a nice crunch, but it could probably be a little better. The taste is great and they are super pillowy and soft inside. The citric acid flavor is a little better than the baking soda! These potatoes could probably also be a pinch crispier. Super pillow soft inside again though. Little to no crispy on the vinegar potatoes. Also the taste was a pinch sour. Overall, the best was the baking soda potatoes! This was a fun little test. The baking soda really is the secret to making amazing crispy roast potatoes! Watch the full video here!
Testing the Secrets for Crispy Roast Potatoes
Ingredients
- 3 pounds potatoes
- water
- 6 tbsp salt
- .5 tsp baking soda
- .5 tsp vinegar
- .5 tsp citric acid
- 6 tbsp vegan butter
- 3 tsp kosher salt
- fresh black pepper
- 1.5 tsp garlic powder
- dried chives
Instructions
- Peel and somewhat cube potatoes into larger sizes. Toss them into cold water.
- Add water, and salt into three different pans. Add vinegar to one, citric acid to one, and baking soda to the last one. When water comes to a boil, add potatoes. Let boil for ten minutes.
- In three separate bowls melt vegan butter, then add kosher salt, fresh black pepper, garlic powder, and dried chives.
- Add the potatoes to this mixture and toss them around in it.
- Preheat oven to 400ºf.
- Add potatoes to three separate parchment lined baking sheets and into the oven.
- Cook for twenty minutes before flipping over and cooking for another twenty. The baking soda potatoes are done first but the other two versions need ten more minutes.
British mum here (and fan). Larger potato chunks parboiled in salted water until the out few mm are soft (about ten mins). Leave to steam dry in the colander for a couple of mins then sprinkle flour on them. Meanwhile put a baking tray with a few mm of rapeseed oil in the bottom (enough to cover the bottom in a few mm of oil) until hot. Take it out and put in half a carrot, a couple of cloves or garlic and an onion chopped in half. Put the potatoes in the pan (oil should sizzle), season and put in the oven for 20 mins. After 20 mins turn over and continue cooking until you reach desired goldenness. This way the potatoes are very crispy and the inside like heaven. I do this most months for our roast dinners.