Smashed Potatoes with Garlic and Herbs

Photo: Lynn Andriani

Smashed Potatoes with Garlic and Herbs
This game-changing technique will alter your view of just how delicious a potato can be. First, you cook baby new potatoes in simmering water just until they're soft enough that you can smash them slightly with the bottom of your fist. Then, you transfer them to a baking pan, coat them with olive oil and salt and slide them into a blazing-hot oven. The banged-up edges of the potatoes will be brown and crisp, while the insides will be soft and pillowy.

Get the recipe: Smashed Potatoes with Garlic and Herbs
Lyonnaise Potatoes with Green Olives and Sun-Dried Tomatoes

Photo: Jacqueline Pham

Lyonnaise Potatoes with Green Olives and Sun-Dried Tomatoes
Many regard the French city of Lyon as the country's food center—so it isn't surprising that cooks there have mastered such a simple preparation as crisp-tender potatoes. This cream-free rendition has you parboil the potatoes, brown them in a skillet and then finish them in a very hot oven. Green Greek olives and sun-dried tomatoes add color and keep the dish from feeling too heavy.

Get the recipe: Lyonnaise Potatoes with Green Olives and Sun-Dried Tomatoes
Cast-Iron-Roasted Red Potatoes with Rosemary and Onion

Photo: Oxmoor House

Cast-Iron-Roasted Potatoes
You don't have to fry potatoes to get them crispy. In this recipe, a big, heavy cast-iron skillet sits (empty) in a 350-degree oven until it's so hot that when you drop quartered, skin-on red potatoes in, along with a touch of oil, they sizzle and brown on contact. After another 45 minutes in the heat, they're crunchy on the outside and soft inside.

Get the recipe: Cast-Iron-Roasted Red Potatoes with Rosemary and Onion
Oven-Baked Fries

Photo: Thinkstock

Oven-Baked Fries
Since Elizabeth Gordon, author of The Complete Allergy-Free Comfort Foods Cookbook, must avoid wheat, she can't eat french fries at restaurants because too many breaded items go into the fryer with or before the fries. Her at-home solution is to use the oven. She says russet potatoes crisp up nicely if you bake them on an unlined metal baking sheet.

Get the recipe: Oven-Baked Fries
Sweet Potato Risotto

Photo: Dan Shannon

Sweet Potato Risotto
The Italian rice dish risotto usually includes some sort of vegetable, but until now, we'd never seen it made with sweet potatoes. It's a brilliant move: You mash the potato into a paste and stir it into the rice, which adds a creamy consistency without gobs of butter.

Get the recipe: Sweet Potato Risotto
Creamless Mashed Potatoes

Photo: Southern Art

Creamless Mashed Potatoes
Plain yogurt makes these mashed potatoes reliably creamy but also adds a new element: a slight tang, similar to what you'd get from mayonnaise. At Southern Art restaurant in Atlanta, executive chef Anthony Gray mixes in roasted garlic, scallions, rosemary and a splash of chicken broth too.

Get the recipe: Creamless Mashed Potatoes
Warm Potato and Watercress Salad with Mustard Dressing

Photo: Dig Inn Seasonal Markets

Warm Potato and Watercress Salad
Tossing just-boiled Yukon Golds with a dressing made from sea salt, grainy Dijon mustard, oil and vinegar helps the potatoes soak up the seasonings, which are much deeper than those you find in most mayo-based versions. Adding chopped watercress while the dish is still warm ensures the greens will wilt and sop up extra flavor.

Get the recipe: Warm Potato and Watercress Salad with Mustard Dressing
Sweet and Spicy Sweet Potato Wedges

Photo: Food Matters NYC

Sweet and Spicy Sweet Potato Wedges
Typical sweet potato fries may seem healthy, but not if they're fried in oil. Tricia Williams, founder of the food and nutritional counseling service Food Matters NYC, has figured out how to keep them healthy: She makes the potatoes taste sweet, salty and spicy by using coconut oil, coconut sugar (which has a faint caramel flavor, similar to light brown sugar), sea salt and chipotle powder.

Get the recipe: Sweet and Spicy Sweet Potato Wedges
Roasted Marble Potatoes

Photo: Elena Bazini

Roasted Marble Potatoes
James Papadopoulos, chef de cuisine at Sam & Harry's Steakhouse in Schaumburg, Illinois, roasts baby potatoes with extra-virgin olive oil, whole cloves of garlic and fresh thyme. Once they're tender, he tosses in some sliced caper berries (which are milder than capers) for a bright bite of acidity, akin to the pep a dash of vinegar gives to a plate of fish and chips.

Get the recipe: Roasted Marble Potatoes
Roasted Eggplant, Garlic and Potato Puree

Photo: The Madison Hotel

Roasted Eggplant, Garlic and Potato Puree
If the Middle Eastern eggplant dip known as baba ghanoush and classic American mashed potatoes got together, this smooth, savory dish is what they'd taste like. Tim Recher, executive chef at the restaurant at the Madison Hotel in Washington, D.C., serves the cumin-flavored side with fish, chicken or lamb and sprinkles some toasted sesame seeds on top for crunch.

Get the recipe: Roasted Eggplant, Garlic and Potato Puree

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