The Best Roast Potatoes

If you’re going to do it, you may as well do it right. Roast potatoes in no way fit into a raw food lifestyle. But if you are going to eat roast potatoes, they may as well be fabulous, so you fall off in style.

Now and again, when the mood takes you, a few roasties can be a very beautiful thing. And you could serve them with the raw nut roast that was part of Festive Feast masterclass.

Most people swear by animal fats to get the crispiest roast potatoes.

Unsurprisingly I don’t.

I swear by baking powder.

I cannot take the credit for this. I saw this tip on a cookery programme with Nadiya Hussain and I’ve been making roasties like this ever since.

Trust me. This method will give you the crispiest roast potatoes, with lots of extra crispy bits in the tray if you rough them up a bit.

Always cook root veggies starting with a pan of cold water. If you put them in hot water, the outside will cook first and they won’t cook all the way through.

Oh, and it needs to be baking powder, not bicarb of soda as you need the acid from the cream of tartar to activate the process.

Update: My friend Dawn swears by a sprinkling of mustard powder.  I’ve not tried it yet, but I’ll leave that idea here in case you want to give it a go.

INGREDIENTS

Feeds 3-4 or 2 people greedily.

2 tablespoons neutral tasting coconut oil, sunflower oil or rapeseed oil. (Choose an oil with a high smoke point).

7 medium sized floury potatoes (King Edwards, Desiree or Maris Piper)

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

A couple of pinches of Maldon Sea Salt to finish

METHOD

Preheat the oven to 220C/200C Fan/Gas 7/425F.

Peel the potatoes and cut them into equal sized pieces – such as quarters. Put them in a saucepan of cold water, add a little salt to season, and bring them to the boil. Parboil the potatoes for 10 minutes, drain in a colander so the steam evaporates. Rough the potatoes up a bit so they have some rough edges.

Take a large shallow baking tray and add 2-3 tablespoons of oil. Put the oiled tray in the hot oven for 2-3 minutes to heat the oil.

Remove the tray from the hot oven and add the drained potatoes. Take a fork or potato masher and very gently crush each potato so it retains its shape but has more jagged bits – it’s the jagged bits that give the crispiness. Turn them in the hot oil. Sprinkle with the baking powder and toss in the oil again.

Roast in the oven for 40-50 minutes, tossing halfway through to ensure the potatoes are cooking evenly and the baking powder has completed dissolved and covered in oil.

When roasted, blot off any excess oil on kitchen roll and finish with a sprinkling of Maldon Sea Salt.