21 easy potato dishes you can whip up in no time

potatoes
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The INSIDER Summary

  • Potatoes are one of the most versatile ingredients in your pantry.
  • Use leftover mashed potatoes, poultry, or vegetables to make croquettes.
  • Experiment with toppings like a fried egg or diced pancetta to sprinkle over your baked potato.
  • Whip up a classic potato salad for summer cookouts or picnics. 

Ah, potatoes. These spuds are among Americans' favorite foods, with the average person consuming more than 46 pounds of potatoes per year, according to the United States Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service.

It's easy to see why. Not only are potatoes priced fairly — costing an average of just 70 cents per pound — they can also be found year-round in most supermarkets. Even better, potatoes can be fried, baked, boiled and more, which means you can prevent side dish boredom simply by mixing up your preparation method.

Get creative with your potatoes, and try these easy-to-make meals.

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Fried potato dishes

french fries
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Fried potatoes are among the most common side dishes for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Some are even frequently consumed as afternoon and late-night snacks. The following potato preparation methods are among the most popular ways to cook fried potatoes.

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French fries

french fries
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The list of French fry recipes — all with hyberbolic adjectives like "best," "perfect," and "greatest" in their titles — seems to never end. When it comes to fries, everyone has their preferences, but all well-made fries have a crisp golden-blonde exterior that yields to a fluffy interior.

Potato choice and cooking technique have the most effect on French fry quality. With just enough starch to absorb oil without turning greasy, the ubiquitous, inexpensive Russet Burbank variety has the composition you're looking for in a fry. The blanching, resting and frying technique of cooking french fries produces the ideal crispness and color.

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Croquettes

croquettes
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Croquettes were likely born out of essential frugality. Made of a starchy base and ingredients that vary by region, nearly every world cuisine has a variation. In the U.S., you usually find the potato-based croquette made with the basic starch-binder-textural ingredient combination that serves as a base for variation.

Croquettes give you a great excuse to reserve leftover mashed potatoes. When you combine them with whatever other ingredients you happen to have on hand, you can come up with some innovative versions without a recipe. For example, if you have some extra ground meat and mirepoix left over from a Bolognese sauce, add that to your croquettes for a quick-and-easy meal on the fly. You can also use leftover vegetables, poultry or cheese.

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Home fries

home fries
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An original American fast food, home fries evoke Rockwell-esque diners. Like most comfort foods of culinary Americana, home fries don't come with a set of hard-and-fast preparation rules — they can even be enjoyed late at night.

When making home fries, you get the best results from starchy potatoes like Russet Burbanks. Russet Burbanks develop a creamy interior, a hallmark of well-made home fries, during precooking, which you must do for even cooking while frying. For the best flavor, fry the potatoes in unsalted butter.

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Tater tots

tater tots
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Like Corn Flakes, Popsicles and Jell-O, the Tater Tots name is a registered trademark — owned by Ore-Ida, a division of the H.J. Heniz Company — that has become generalized over time. Today, all deep-fried, cylindrical shredded-potato foods are known as Tater Tots.

Americans consume around 70 million pounds of Tater Tots per year. While Tater Tots are often bought pre-made and frozen, you can save some cash by making your own tots at home. Tots can be made using just shredded potatoes, or you can mix in fresh spring vegetables or bits of bacon or crab to make a delicious, unique side.

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Patatas bravas

patatas bravas
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If you haven't eaten patatas bravas, which are almost like a Spanish version of home fries, you've likely at least seen them on a tapas crawl. Every autonomous region of Spain has its own variation of sauce to accompany these bites of caramelized spuds.

In Castile and León, you find patatas bravas served with a tomato-based, sweet-and-spicy paprika sauce. In Andalucia, they typically come dressed with a pungent tomato-based garlic and Cognac sauce. And in Catalonia, you often get both a tomato-based sauce and aioli.

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Latkes

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Like croquettes and home fries, you can consider latkes a food belonging to the world's culinary domain. Poland has placki ziemniaczane, Iran has kuku sib-zamini, and America has potato pancakes. While the names are different, all refer to roughly the same final product: thin, shallow-fried pancakes made of shredded potatoes, flour and a binder (usually egg).

Latkes grant a lot of latitude for adding personal touches without modifying the base recipe and making a different dish. Britons add finely diced onions to their latkes, Swedes make theirs with milk and wheat flour and serve them alongside pork and lingonberry jam, and Czechs make theirs with marjoram, caraway seeds and garlic.

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Potato chips

Potato Chips
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Quality potato chips, like quality french fries, exemplify simplistic elegance when made well. Thin or thick, kettle cooked or shallow fried, potato chips are more than a snack; they're a part of American folklore.

Despite the popular notion that a frustrated chef named George Crum created chips in response to a guest's less-than-stellar critique of his french fries, the most credible attribution might lie with Katie Speck Wicks, one of Crumb's cooks. Wick's 1917 obituary notes her as the inventor of the chip — at least in America. But with all staple foods, you can't rule out that an unknown someone somewhere in another potato-growing region of the world might have thought frying thinly sliced spuds a good idea at around the same time or before.

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Hash browns

hash browns
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Another diner favorite, hash browns meet the general requirements of breakfast foods: quick, inexpensive and easy to make. Similar to a flattened tater tot without the flour, hash browns use the potato starch itself to hold it together, making the good old standby Russet Burbanks the best choice.

Hash browns take well to secondary ingredients and an array of herbs and spices. When made in casserole form, the addition of ground meats like chicken and beef and veggies like squash and bell peppers turn the humble hash brown into an all-in-one meal for the budget-minded cook.

Baked potato dishes

food dip baked potato
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While they might not be as convenient to eat on the go as their fried counterparts, potatoes that are baked are still a popular side dish. Check out a few ways you can prepare delicious oven-baked potatoes.

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Baked potatoes

baked potato
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You can likely thank the American steakhouse for the popularity of the giant buttered bakers that fit oh-so-naturally beside your New York strip or rib-eye, but the list of baked potato variations, built up by cooks innumerable, could conceivably run in the thousands without repeating.

You might not break any new ground in the baked-potato game, but don't hesitate to design your own loaded bakers to suit your tastes. A few topping variations to experiment with include bacon topped with an over-easy egg, diced pancetta with bocconcini cheese and sautéed rapini with West Country farmhouse Cheddar.

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Twice baked potatoes

twice baked potatoes
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Think of twice-baked potatoes as deconstructed loaded baked potatoes. You basically take a leftover baker, scoop out the flesh and mix it with secondary ingredients before returning it to its shell for a second run in the oven.

Just like with loaded baked potatoes, you have a lot of room for creativity here. Next time you find a few day-old baked potatoes hanging out in your fridge practically begging for a second chance at life, try out some innovative ingredient combinations, such as chèvre.

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Hasselback potatoes

hasselback potatoes
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Hasselback potatoes have a lot more surface area than regular bakers, which means more real estate for secondary ingredients. Take advantage of the space between the slices and, before baking, stuff them full of fresh herbs, caraway seeds and sautéed onions, pesto and Parmesan, crispy breadcrumbs and chives, rendered bacon fat and matchstick-sliced apples — just about anything you like.

The hasselback technique likely originated at Restaurant Hasselbacken in Sweden circa 1700. Regardless of origin, make the most of the method by using generous amounts of butter or olive oil for the ultimate crispness.

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Roasted potatoes

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There's something special about the crisp edges and creamy flesh of well-made roasted potatoes. Like most iconic potato dishes, hundreds of variants exist, but they all typically call for a fat, such as olive oil or butter, to help create a pleasant texture.

You can really go wild with your own personal touches when making roasted potatoes. A few ideas to get you started include herb-crusted Parmesan, whole-grain mustard and tarragon, Lyonnaise-style with sautéed onions and parsley and polenta-crusted curried roast potatoes.

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Au gratin potatoes

Potatoes au Gratin
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Culinarily, "au gratin" refers to any dish — usually a starch — topped with a crisp coating of buttered breadcrumbs. But common variations include cheese and, occasionally, an egg binder. Au gratin potatoes stemmed from gratin dauphinois, a classic French dish comprising thinly sliced starchy potatoes baked in cream and a touch of garlic and a gratin of Gruyère or Emmentaler.

Homemade au gratin potatoes top anything that comes out of a box. To save a little money, you can substitute cream with half and half or whole milk and substitute any domestic Swiss-style cheese for Gruyère. Use a waxy potato, such as Yukon Gold, in au gratin potatoes for the best texture.

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Potato skins

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Synonymous with casual theme restaurants and sports bar fare, potato skins are enmeshed in American food culture. Usually topped with standard potato toppings — cheddar, sour cream and chives — homemade potato skins cost significantly less than restaurant skins. Even better, you can repurpose the flesh.

Reserve the flesh scooped out of the potatoes after you bake them in an airtight container for up to five days. Use the flesh to make dumplings or to thicken rustic soups, or make "baked" mashed potatoes by adding a little cream and butter.

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Scalloped potatoes

scalloped potatoes
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Scalloped potatoes come in many forms. Potatoes au gratin, crispy potato roast and pommes Anna — a crunchy-topped French classic — all use scalloped potatoes as a main ingredient.

The American version of scalloped potatoes closely resembles au gratin potatoes, and, in most recipes, you won't find much of a difference. But you have a lot of room to play with scalloped potatoes, so experiment with different cheeses and steep the milk or cream with whole spices to add layers of flavor.

Boiled potatoes dishes

boiled potatoes
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A boiled potato might seem like the world's most boring and least flavorful side dish. But don't let this humble spud fool you. With just a few tweaks, boiled potatoes can be transformed into mouthwatering sides or even meals.

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Pierogi

pierogis potatoes
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Pierogi have deep roots in Eastern Europe. Like latkes, you find a version of pierogis in most of the Slavic countries and Russia, but Poles consider the pierogi their national dish with origins dating to the 13th century BC.

Pierogi simmer until the filling — which can include just about any quick-cooking ingredient — reaches serving temperature. Next time you make pierogi, improve the flavor and texture by caramelizing them with a little olive oil in a sauté pan after simmering.

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Potato soup

potato soup
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Just about every hearty, rustic soup uses potatoes for volume, flavor retention and the thickening ability of their starch. While potatoes play a supporting role in many soups, potatoes take the lead role in soups like vichyssoise and ajiaco.

Potato-based soup takes readily to most proteins and vegetables. You can make your own version of potato soup using a homemade cream of potato soup base and adding cooked secondary ingredients to it, such as crab, corn, pancetta, broccoli rabe and sautéed kale, to name a few. For extra crunch and flavor, top your soup with crusty bread.

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Boiled potatoes

boiled potatoes
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Boiled potatoes serve as the main ingredient for many a dish, both savory and sweet. You can make a quality boiled-potato dish with Russet Burbanks, but for a creamy texture, go with a waxy variety, such as red-skinned, young potatoes and fingerlings.

Dishes like gnocchi, pomme aligot and aloo pie use boiled potatoes as a main ingredient, but perhaps the most classic boiled potato dish is pommes de terre nouvelle au beurre, which is made with boiled new potatoes slathered with French butter and garnished with roughly chopped parsley and flaky sea salt.

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Gnocchi

Gnocchi
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Gnocchi, Italy's most beloved dumpling, can be made from a variety of base ingredients, including flour, corn meal, semolina, bread, chestnut flour, ricotta or vegetables. Most classic gnocchi recipes call for the flesh of baked potatoes — the drier texture gives the finished dish a lighter, fluffier consistency. But if you have a few leftover boiled potatoes, dry them out in a warm oven and make gnocchi with them.

 

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Potato salad

German Potato Salad
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The humble potato salad is a beloved side dish synonymous with warm-weather picnics and summer cookouts.

When making potato salad, you should always use a quality, thin-skinned waxy potato, such as red finn, fingerling or new potatoes. These classification of potatoes deliver a pleasant "toothiness" and firmness that holds up well to both light sauces, such as vinaigrettes, and heavier mayonnaise-based sauces.

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Mashed potatoes

Mashed Potatoes
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Mashed potato variations abound. From classic American mash with milk and butter to the Irish heritage dish colcannon with Irish butter and kale, a good dish of mashed potatoes is a perfect side for any meat-based dish. With the addition of a few secondary ingredients, mashed potatoes can be a well-rounded main dish, too.

Shepherd's Pie is perhaps the most well-known mashed potato main dish; however, there are many others, including the classic French dishes aligot, which is made with mashed potatoes, melted Raclette and heavy cream.

Read the original article on GOBankingRates. Copyright 2017. Follow GOBankingRates on Twitter.
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