Food

Perfect Potato Side Dishes

October 27, 2012

We've collected our 20 favorite potato recipes for the holiday table, from classics like whipped potatoes with garlic, roasted red, and cheese and fingerlings sauteed with bacon, to new ideas like potato-rutabaga gratin.

Colcannon — Leave it to the potato-loving Irish to dream up colcannon, spuds mashed with finely chopped cabbage and enriched with lots of cream. Get the recipe for Colcannon »Penny De Los Santos

Swiss Hash Browns (Rösti) — If Plato had imagined hash browns, they'd have been rösti: fresh potatoes coarsely grated, pressed, and fried. In the dish's native Switzerland, recipes include bacon, rosemary, caraway seeds, eggs, pasta, cheese, even coffee. These variations can be delicious, but we found the definitive version in Bern, at Restaurant Della Casa—golden, impeccable, ideal.Todd Coleman

Old-Fashioned Scalloped Potatoes — Thinly sliced potatoes and onions are baked in a rich cream sauce in this classic crowd-pleaser.Gemma and Andrew Ingalls

A high oven temperature results in potatoes that are crispy on the outside and creamy within. See the recipe for Roasted Potatoes »Todd Coleman

Gruyere is the perfect compliment to earthy fall vegetables. See the recipe for Potato and Rutabaga Gratin »Todd Coleman

Cooking potatoes in bacon fat adds salty, meaty depth of flavor. See the recipe for Fingerling Potatoes with Bacon »Christopher Hirsheimer

Celery root (along with a bit of grated grana padano cheese) adds a deep, earthy backbone to this potato recipe. It's a tweak even a diehard traditionalist can love. See the recipe for Whipped Potatoes with Celery Root »André Baranowski

This dish, named after a now deceased member of the Sabbathday Lake community of Shakers in New Gloucester, Maine, may also be made with leftover boiled potatoes. See the recipe for Sister Mildred's Creamed Potatoes »Christopher Hirsheimer

Comte or Emmentaler cheese, celeriac (also known as celery root), and tomatoes are combined with sliced potatoes and creme fraiche for this sumptuous gratin. This recipe is an adaptation of one in Patricia Wells's cookbook Bistro Cooking (Ted Smart, 1999). See the recipe for Potato-Celeriac Gratin »Larry Nighswander

When preparing these potatoes, use a ricer to create a luxuriously smooth texture. See the recipe for Mashed Potatoes »James Oseland

Potatoes Roasted with Saffron — The pleasantly bitter and floral flavor of saffron adds a complex taste to these otherwise ordinary roasted potatoes.Farideh Sadeghin

The key to making Casa Montaña's signature fried potatoes is to poach and then fry them in olive oil. See the recipe for Patatas Bravas »Todd Coleman

Serve this mash with pork sausages, if you like. See the recipe for Turnip-Potato Puree »Ben Fink

Cantal cheese, a pungent, aged cows' milk cheese from the Auvergne region of France, gives this dish its hearty, rustic character. See the recipe for Whipped Potatoes with Garlic and Cheese »André Baranowski

You can smell the milk and cream turn from sweet to savory as this dish bakes. See the recipe for Potatoes Baked in Milk and Cream »Ben Fink

This recipe is from a book called American Regional Cookery, authored in 1932 by Sheila Hibben, a food writer for The New Yorker. Russet potatoes are the best for this dish because their cooked flesh is dry and fluffy when mashed and their sturdy skin crisps when baked. See the recipe for Stuffed Potatoes »Stefan Anderson

As the fennel in this soup cooks in the simmering liquid, it breaks down, thickening the broth. You can prepare this dish as a hot soup, but it is just as delicious served cold. See the recipe for Fennel and Potato Soup »M. Ferruccio Carassale

Vary the level of spice to taste. For extra smokiness, add finely chopped chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, to taste. See the recipe for Pimento Cheese Potato Gratin »Christopher Hirsheimer

Almonds add a rich nuttiness to this garlicky potato pur¿e. See the recipe for Potato Skordalia »André Baranowski

This recipe works just as well with new potatoes. See the recipe for Smother-Fried Garlic Potatoes »Laurie Smith

This is an easy and impressive potato side, delicious served with creme fraiche. See the recipe for Galette de Pomme de Terre »Landon Nordeman

Twice-Baked Potatoes — The buttery, creamy indulgence of mashed potatoes meets the visceral joy of digging into a baked potato in this iconic side dish.Todd Coleman

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