Blanched, Roasted, Mashed and Fried: 13 Recipes That Make Potatoes Taste Better Than Ever

Potato is the chicken of vegetables. It’s so ubiquitous, so reliable, so versatile, that we often take it for granted. But just imagine a world without chips, mash, roasted spuds and all the other borderline transcendent forms of potato out there. (Side note: that was the grim reality for most of the world until the late 1600s, when the Spanish introduced potatoes from South America.)

Given potato’s “default” veggie status, we’re betting you can already cook it to your satisfaction. Great. Just know that you can never actually prepare the perfect potato, only get closer and closer to the ideal.

To that end we present these 13 chef-devised recipes, from crackling, toffee-coloured roast spuds to a particularly original cold salad featuring “al dente potato”, parmesan and a huge whack of black pepper. Plus, a Swedish potato bake, a show-stopping layered potato, and spuds spiced up with masala. Done just right, these babies will hopefully get you closer to heaven than you’ve ever been. (And if you’re looking to turn potatoes into gnocchi, we have an entire gnocchi collection for you to cook from.)

Justin Narayan’s masala potatoes

Masterchef winner Justin Narayan uses classic French techniques to achieve the ideal fluffy-on- the-inside, crisp-on-the-outside texture for these potatoes. But then he takes them to a whole new level by coating them in a masala spice mix for a better-than-normal version of roast spuds.

Annabel Crabb’s glass potatoes

This is one of Broadsheet's most popular recipes of all time. Why? Because the resulting spuds are a “translucent, crackling, toffee-coloured brittle delight” and call for nothing more than a cup of olive oil, a liberal amount of salt and a very hot oven. So simple, yet so effective.

Meatsmith’s Jansson’s temptation

Dial up your next potato bake situation by pulling together Meatsmith’s Jansson’s temptation. It’s a take on a Swedish dish that involves slicing potatoes into matchsticks and dousing them in cream with anchovies for an extra umami smack.

Julia Busuttil Nishimura’s best fried potatoes

If you have trouble getting your potatoes to turn crisp and golden-brown in the oven, this recipe for pan-fried spuds is right for you. Lemon zest, salted capers and a little trick (hint: it involves squashing) add extra dimensions to this simple classic. The parmesan garnish is marked optional, but do yourself a favour and make it mandatory in your household.

Yotam Ottolenghi’s potato salad

Veggie buff Yotam Ottolenghi and Ottolenghi Test Kitchen development chef Verena Lochmuller have channeled Lochmuller’s German childhood into this southern German-style potato salad. It earns its creaminess from steeping the potatoes in broth for a few hours to release the starch – plus a little extra flavour from pancetta and a fresh crunch from cucumber.

Guillaume Brahimi’s Paris mash

Where would a list like this be without something from the French? This decadent yet easy recipe uses butter, milk and a fine sieve to produce the silkiest, smoothest mash this side of Provence. Bon appétit.

Matty Matheson’s warm potato salad

If, like Matty Matheson, your parents turned you off potato salad when you were a kid, this is the antidote: a spud salad buttressed with plenty of fresh herbs, perfectly proportioned fingerling potatoes and a good amount of bacon lardons for extra crunch and depth.

The German Butchery’s potato salad

Whole-egg mayo, fatty bacon and starchy, carby potatoes – trust the Germans to bring us such a defiantly stodgy take on salad. If you find the whole thing a bit heavy, have a crack at this recipe, which adds sweet-and-sour gherkins, plus their juice. The pickles’ sharp, vinegary acidity punches through all that richness and keeps you coming back for bite after bite.

Yang Liu’s Chinese sliced potato with cumin

While this Chinese potato dish gets its big flavour from cumin seeds and chilli oil, its secret weapon is in the cooking: the potatoes are fried once till crispy, then fried again once the spices have been added to maximise the aromas.

Rosheen Kaul’s Sichuan-style cold potato salad

The potato isn’t readily associated with China, but in Sichuan, a province renowned for its spicy food and brutal winters, it’s the star ingredient of this unique salad. To Western palates the texture feels a little odd at first, as the potatoes are only blanched for a couple of minutes and retain a fresh, crunchy bite, not unlike a spongier raw carrot. But get used to that and you’ll come to appreciate the punchy, refreshing and downright distinctive character on show here, courtesy of garlic, soy, Chinkiang vinegar, chilli and sesame oil.

Jane’s crispy layered potato

Since it opened in 2022, Sydney restaurant Jane’s layered potato “cake” has become a certified hit. Making it at home takes a little time, but is worth the grand finale: a handsome wodge of spud topped with anything you like – truffles, parmesan or a good old slug of hot sauce. One for your next dinner party, perhaps?

That’s Amore’s potato, parmesan, parsley and pepper

“I went to Beijing once and had this dish of stir-fried potato with Sichuan pepper and ginger,” chef Pasi Petänen told us when we collected this recipe for The Broadsheet Italian Cookbook. He’s referring, of course, to something much like Rosheen Kaul’s recipe above. Petänen fell for the texture – he calls it “al dente potato” – and later came up with the idea to season it with classic cacio e pepe (cheese and pepper) flavour. The result is original and delicious as they come.

Adam D’Sylva’s potato cakes

No matter what you call this fish’n’chip shop classic – potato cakes, scallops or fritters – we can all agree it’s potato par excellence. Especially if you make Adam D’Sylva’s version, which retains its crispiness, sans the greasiness you often get from a takeaway.

Additional reporting by Che-Marie Trigg.

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