These Flavor-Packed Potato Recipes Are Seriously Easy to Make (2024)

FAQs

What is the most flavorful potato? ›

Yukon Gold potatoes were created in Canada, as a cross between the North American white potatoes and the yellow-fleshed South American potatoes. When cooked, these potatoes will have a buttery and earthy flavor.

Yukon Golds fall right in the middle of the spectrum.

This is the real beauty of the Yukon Gold, what makes them the best potatoes for roasting. The crisp. The creaminess. The texture.

Use freshly squeezed orange juice for the best flavor. In an absolute pinch, you could try bottled orange juice, but note it won't yield the same delicious result. For Greek roast lamb and potatoes, you want a creamy potato that almost melts in your mouth.

Yellow potatoes are subtly sweet with a rich buttery taste and medium sugar content. Grilling, roasting, mashing or in salads are the best method of cooking this type of potato.

Prized for their sweet, earthy flavor and crisp, waxy texture, potatoes of any variety, when dug up young during the spring and early summer, are called new potatoes. They're sweet because they're picked before they've fully converted their sugar into starch.

The statistic shows the most consumed potato varieties in the United States in 2021. Russet potatoes were the most consumed type, with 55 percent of respondents stating that this variety was their favorite.

Of the approximately 4,000 potatoes grown world wide, 3,000 types are grown in Peru, making it one of the most biodiverse regions on the planet.

Russet Potatoes

Most potatoes grown in the US are of the russet variety, meaning they're what most people picture when you say "potato." With a mildly rough brown-grey skin, the flesh once cooked is light and fluffy and the skin becomes chewy.

Solanine also causes a bitter flavor. If cooked potatoes taste bitter or cause a burning sensation in your mouth or throat, this can indicate high solanine levels, even if the potato does not look green ( 2 , 4).

What potatoes do chefs use? ›

Round White AKA Chef Potatoes

B is the most common in foodservice.

If you're looking for a fluffy, dry texture in a potato, especially for mashed, roasted, or fried potatoes, Gordon Ramsay suggests you opt for a floury type of potato like a King Edward, with a smooth, creamy flesh, a Desiree, which comes with red skin, or a Heritage potato, which comes in several different colors, ...

Because of their high starch content, starchy potatoes don't hold together very well when cooked so avoid using them in dishes that require boiling, roasting or slicing like casseroles, potato bakes, gratins or potato salads.

If roasted potatoes lack their crunchy sheen, overcrowding is usually the culprit. Just as overcrowding bacon or mushrooms in a saucepan causes disappointingly mushy results, placing potatoes too close to each other on a baking sheet will prevent them from crisping while they roast.

Cauliflower is probably the most common substitute for potatoes. Many people singing the praises of cauliflower mash and even cauliflower rice. It's easy to fry and roast cauliflower or throw into soups and stews. And it's the one vegetable that's most likely to pass as potatoes.

The russet potato, despite its low fiber content, has very low sugar content and ranks the best (as having the lowest) sugar-to-fiber ratio.

The Origin of Taste

So why are Idaho® potatoes so much better than the rest? Idaho's growing season of warm days and cool nights, combined with plenty of mountain-fed irrigation and rich volcanic soil, produce the unique texture, taste, and dependable performance that keep customers asking for more.

Potatoes come in a wide range of varieties, and each has a slightly different balance of starch, water content, and skin thickness. All of these factors can make a big difference in how tender they become when baked, as well as how crispy their skins get, among other details.