August 19 is National Potato Day!
To celebrate, let's talk about all the amazing ways we can eat the best side dish known to mankind.
Potatoes are truly a versatile food. They have gifted us with the existence of potato chips, french fries, baked potatoes, potato wedges, tater tots, dumplings, mashed potatoes, potato pancakes, hashbrowns, soups, potatoes au gratin, casseroles, pierogies, potato bread and rolls, potato skins, salads, and of course all the ways you can make sweet potatoes as well. You can grill them, smoke them, bake them, cream them into a sauce, and they can even be transformed into a dessert.
My go-to potato recipe is Oven Roasted Potatoes. They are super easy to make and during the winter months having the oven on can help heat your house and your belly. I am graced with amazing A/C in our current apartment, so I still make these every once and a while in summer as well. (This recipe is all over the internet and I definitely did not invent it.)
-Oven: 400 degrees F
-You can use any kind of potato for this recipe, but my favorite for this dish is red potatoes.
-Cut your potatoes into 1-inch cubes/triangles/whatever shape it comes out as. The goal is "bite sized." I make about 2 cups worth of cubed potatoes for 2 people.
-Dump your potatoes into a mixing bowl. Pour 1/4 c oil, 2 teaspoons each of garlic powder, salt, pepper, and parsley flakes. Sometimes I add 1 teaspoon of onion powder as well. Mix it all up with a spoon (just your hands work too!). Pour it out onto a cookie sheet with a lip and spread it all out. Bake for 30 minutes, then take them out and flip them. If they aren't crispy on the edges, they need more time, usually 20-30 more minutes.
You can eat them just like this, or top them with cheese, bacon bits, sour cream, ketchup, BBQ sauce; the possibilities are endless. These go great with any kind of dish and are even great for cookouts! I like to make these during the holidays as well since I'm not a big mashed potato person.
Now that I can officially call myself a "food blogger," let's take a moment to appreciate the greatest version of potatoes on the face of the Earth: FRENCH FRIES.
We could spend hours debating which style of french fry is superior; crinkle cut, thick, thin, tater tot, crispy, smiley-faced, potato wedge, steak fries, curly, shoestring, or waffle fries.
And once that argument is over, we could launch into another one about how to eat them- dipped in ketchup, BBQ, hot sauce, ranch? Loaded up with cheese, bacon, scallions, sour cream, chili? Drizzled with garlic butter, gravy, nacho cheese? There are literally endless possibilities with potatoes. And of course these would be arguments born of love for the greatest food on the planet.
Only a few short years ago, humans invented the next best thing to ever happen to potatoes: the air fryer. If you don't have one by now, you should really go get one. It will change your life. Marco and I were gifted one for Christmas last year. We don't use ours every day (not for lack of trying, trust me) but we do pull it out once a week at least.
The BEST type of potato we've fried up in the air fryer is MINI TATER TOTS. (This is not a sponsored post btw.) Ore Ida has a delicious version of these for pretty cheap but you can also probably find them in your local store brand or at Costco in a bulk bag.
Is there a real point to this post, other than listing all the ways you can eat potatoes and probably making your stomach gurgle with hunger at the thought of your favorite dish?
No, there is not.
Question of the day: Which fast food restaurant has the best fries, in your opinion?