Still think potatoes are just a sidekick to the main event on the plate? Thanks to a surge in popularity over the past decade, potatoes are now enjoying the ultimate glow-up as the perfect base for building delicious and diverse dishes. As a meal choice they have been enhanced by modern cookery methods, including air fryers, and clever convenience trends such as tray bakes and batch cooking; meanwhile, inspiration from a huge range of global cuisines has introduced a whole new dimension to enjoying potatoes.
Nutritious, healthy and filling at any mealtime, they are super versatile, from baby potatoes in salads to big, baked jacket potatoes, primed to be adorned with your favourite topping. The ultimate flavour carrier, there is little limit to their potential as the star in any recipe, from curries to tagines, satay to dal. Try them stir-fried, spiced, skewered or stuffed in samosa. Grate potatoes into rösti, dice them into pyttipanna, roll them into gnocchi. Pop potato on pizza, fill into tacos or luxuriously layer into a tortilla.
For endlessly delicious inspiration, potato.ie and its Potato Recipe Calendar is your new recipe hub, with 365 potato recipes – one for every day of the year – to suit all tastes and dietary requirements, and spanning a range of cuisines.
Did you know potatoes are a nutritional powerhouse and the most popular main-meal carbohydrate in Ireland? They are an unprocessed, complex carbohydrate with zero additives; they are also naturally fat free, gluten free and easy to digest.
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Although many of us may be in the habit of peeling our potatoes, the skin is actually the most nutritious part and a good source of dietary fibre. Keeping the skin on when cooking potatoes is also convenient; it’s easier and involves shorter prep time, and less cooking time if you cut them into smaller pieces, which is a game changer.
So, loaded potato skins or smashed, skin-on potatoes not only represent a highly nutritious and convenient meal to fuel body and mind but also a zero-waste recipe for using every part of this surprising super ingredient.
“The one thing we find in all our research is that, compared to other carbohydrates, potatoes always comes out on top in terms of taste,” says Kate Foley, public relations officer of O’Shea Farms in Piltown, Co Kilkenny. The family-run farm has been growing potatoes by the banks of the river Suir for more than 200 years and works in collaboration with more than 50 other growers in the southeast.
Widely grown in local communities, potatoes represent a low-carbon-footprint staple compared to popular grain-based carbohydrates, which tend to be processed, polished and imported.
“If you think about how far other main-meal carbohydrates have travelled, potatoes can land fresh on your doorstep, having been grown, harvested, stored and sold locally as a sustainable crop by a neighbour or your friend’s family,” says Kate
As a mother of five children, all millennials, and a grandmother of eight, Kate recognises how important convenience and speed/time are to younger generations and how that has changed cookery habits in the home.
“With busy lives and young kids, they tend to pivot towards baby potatoes as they are smaller and quicker to cook and have the added convenience of not needing to remove the skin, which they actually recognise and appreciate for both taste and nutrition, which is great,” says Kate.
“My kids and their generation totally embrace the convenience of the microwave and air fryer to speed up the process, while retaining the flavour and quality. They also have a very strong understanding and awareness of energy usage and the cost of living, so they have embraced slow cookers – again as a great, economical, low-energy, low-cost, easy cooking method.”
Batch cooking is the ultimate timesaver when it comes to meal prep and potatoes offer the perfect base to build upon.
“On weekends, we use the oven, if it’s already on, to batch-cook and then keep potatoes covered in the fridge, pre-cooked,” Kate says. “So handy to have at arm’s reach throughout the week for lunch and dinner, potatoes really are the ultimate base and jumping-off point for any meal, from midweek dinners to weekend catch-ups with the wider family or friends.”
While potatoes are long-established as a cornerstone ingredient of Irish cooking heritage, our tastes have evolved and palates have progressed to embrace cuisines from around the world. The great thing is that the potato tends to pop up in all of them.
“People tend to overlook just how widespread the potato is grown, embraced and eaten around the globe,” says Kate. “Potatoes are grown across all continents, from the Antarctic to the Arctic, at every elevation, and effectively every culture and cuisine eats and appreciates them, which has made the potato the third most important crop on the planet feeding humanity”.
O’Shea Farms grows a “chipping” potato variety called Markies, which makes a top-quality “chipper chip”, used by traditional chip shops and restaurants around the country. As the choice of chip sauces and seasonings has broadened, a bag of chips nowadays can be a gourmet offering. Aside from the classic salt and vinegar, spice bag, jalapeño, chilli mayo, barbecue and other flavours are favourites among younger people and those with thrill-seeking taste buds.
From Caribbean to Chinese cuisine, and from Mediterranean to Middle Eastern, the potato is embraced as a base for so many dishes. This allows us to travel via the food we eat, by recreating diverse and exciting recipes from different cuisines, all the while knowing the main ingredient is hyperlocal and that we are supporting Irish producers.
Grown widely across Ireland for centuries, potatoes are a sustainable crop but one that is not without challenges.
“Over the last number of years the reality of just how difficult it is to get potatoes on to the table has to be appreciated,” Lorcan Bourke, sector manager for fresh produce and potatoes in Bord Bia, says.
“We have had two extraordinarily wet years preceded by a drought year. As a result, growing all potato and vegetable crops outdoors has become a huge challenge at sowing, growing and harvesting stage. Weather unpredictability has become the greatest natural challenge to potato growers. Any pattern of weather may arise from spring to autumn and it seems like no two years are the same.
“Extremes of weather conditions has tested the growing skills of farmers, who deserve massive respect and serious support in producing a fantastic, local, seasonal product.”
Irish growers are currently harvesting new main crop “Rooster” potatoes. This is Ireland’s most popular potato variety, accounting for 65 per cent of the country’s potato purchase volume. But whether you choose Rooster or Kerr’s Pinks, Queens or Records, Maris Piper or Golden Wonder, by buying local, seasonal potatoes you are supporting farming communities all across Ireland, which is good for the entire farming sector and economy.
“There’s an old Irish expression: if you have potatoes in the house, there is a meal in the home,” Kate Foley says. “And while potatoes are one of the most traditional ingredients in Irish cuisine, in the modern day they really do offer the perfect starting point for any meal, with such delicious versatility across a multitude of cooking styles, cuisines and recipes”.
In celebration of this year’s National Potato Day and for more recipe inspiration follow @potatosurprises.eu and visit potato.ie to discover our Potato Recipe Calendar with 365 (one for every day of the year!) delicious potato recipes from all over the world.
Swedish-style cheese potatoes
Ingredients
- 4 large floury baking potatoes (eg Rooster) (approximately 800g)
- 1 tsp fresh thyme leaves, chopped
- 1 tsp fresh oregano leaves, chopped
- 1 tsp fresh rosemary leaves, chopped
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp tumeric
- 1 tsp curry powder
- 4 knobs of butter (100g)
- 1 tsp rapeseed or olive oil
- 4 slices of Emmental cheese
- 4 rashers of bacon (approximately 40g)
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees/gas 4.
- Wash the potatoes. Cut even slices, taking care not to cut all the way through so that the potato spreads like a fan.
- Sprinkle each potato with herbs and spices, making sure that each potato slice is garnished.
- Place a small knob of butter on each potato. Drizzle lightly with oil.
- Place the potatoes on a baking tray covered with baking paper and bake for 40-50 minutes depending on the size of the potatoes.
- Cut the slices of Emmental cheese in four and the bacon slices in half. Remove the potatoes from the oven.
- Insert the slices of Emmental cheese and bacon into the potatoes, taking care not to burn yourself.
- Cook under the grill for 5 to 10 minutes (until the cheese has melted).
Recipe by AnneCé Bretin
