The Vegan Kitchen: Roasted Potatoes Mon Amour

There are hundreds of varieties of potatoes, and nutritionally they vary widely. In order to get the maximum health benefits of this beautiful tuber, select the most colorful with the darkest skins and flesh. Blue and purple potatoes are especially rich in anthocyanins. Red potatoes are better than brown. Small spuds, such as fingerlings, are more nutritious than large ones. Buy organic, so you can safely eat the skins which contain most of the fiber, protein, and antioxidants.

At our house, we have roasted potatoes as part of our Sunday dinner. They make a wonderful comfort food, and we love to cook them in the wintertime. We serve them with greens and a lentil salad, and we use ketchup or vegan mayo as a condiment — although they are great by themselves as well.

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3lb potatoes (golden, red, purple or fingerling), cut into 1.5” pieces

¼ cup olive oil

lots of fresh ground black pepper

optional: 1 teaspoon of thyme (or oregano, or mint, or herbes de provence)

Preheat oven to 425°F.

• Scrub and clean the potatoes, but leave on the peel.
• Cut potatoes into 1.5” pieces. They should be roughly the same size so they brown evenly.
• In a bowl, toss potatoes with olive oil, pepper, and spices
• Spread out on a low rimmed, non-stick cookie sheet (do not pile potatoes on top of each other!).
• Bake at 425°F for 40-45 minutes. You can turn the potatoes, but it is not necessary. When they look nice and brown, stick with a sharp knife to test for doneness.
• Baked this way, the potatoes will be crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside. The recipe also works with sweet potatoes and other root vegetables, such as beets and carrots. Sweet potatoes should be checked and turned after 30 minutes, beets and carrots might need an extra few minutes.
• This recipe has no added salt because the pepper and spices make these potatoes very flavorful. However, you can serve salt at the table if you wish.

(serves 4; prep time 60 minutes)

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Copyright 2015 Michael Simms and Eva-Maria Simms