Few crops are as useful as the potato. A staple across the Western world, it is used in countless different ways. Far from just a filler, the potato can be an exciting, delicious ingredient. From French fries and chips to roasted and mashed potatoes, we’ve rounded up our favorite potato recipes.
One of our favorite down-home side dishes of all time is creamy potato salad. The mix of tender—but never mushy—potatoes and mayonnaise is incredibly comforting. For a basic potato salad, go with mayo, mustard, celery, onion, and hard-boiled eggs. From there, you can vary the recipe a million ways. We’ve got versions flavored with curry powder, chives, parsley, and more.
Roasted potatoes are a simple, hearty side perfect for a winter meal. All you really need to do is cook the potatoes with salt and oil, but there is lots of potential to add flavors. Try roasting potatoes with saffron or serving them with lemon olive oil. Roast chicken is another winter favorite—roast it on a bed of potatoes and the spuds will absorb all the delicious juices.
The opportunities for using potatoes are endless. Find these dishes and many more in our collection of 50 delicious potato recipes.
Boiled buttery Yukon gold potatoes are smashed and roasted crisp in this side dish. A finishing sprinkle of za’atar, a heady Middle Eastern mix of spices, seeds, and herbs, brings these potatoes to the next level. Get the recipe for Crispy Smashed Za’atar Potatoes »Farideh Sadeghin
This recipe makes a party-size batch of chips, perfect as a snack (with or without a dip) or as a side dish—not only with sandwiches but also on the plate with roasted or grilled meats (or game). If there are chips left over, cover them loosely with aluminum foil and store in a cool, dry place. Get the recipe for Potato Chips »Matt Taylor-Gross
Ignacio Mattos’ Potato Salad
Boiling potatoes whole and unpeeled means they don’t absorb too much water as they cook. Mixing them with an egg yolk and olive oil yields a rich dressing without the heavy creaminess of mayonnaise. Get the recipe for Ignacio Mattos’ Potato Salad »Marcus Nilsson
Ricotta and Egg Gnocchi with Olives, Capers, and Tomato Sauce
These soft gnocchi from Tuscany are the ultimate version of the kind most commonly served at Italian-American restaurants. The dish is amped up with briny chopped capers and green olives. Get the recipe for Ricotta and Egg Gnocchi with Olives, Capers, and Tomato Sauce »Con PoulosA chilled tomato sauce with sundried tomatoes makes a pleasant contrast to these hot potato and spinach dumplings, which chef Josita Hartanto of Berlin’s Lucky Leek binds together with firm tofu and durum wheat semolina. Dry the potatoes and spinach thoroughly so the dumplings will hold their shape. Get the recipe for Spinach and Potato Dumplings with Cold Tomato Sauce »Matt Taylor-Gross
Spinach and Potato Dumplings with Cold Tomato Sauce
The pleasantly bitter and floral flavor of saffron adds a complex taste to these otherwise ordinary roasted potatoes. Get the recipe for Potatoes Roasted with Saffron »Farideh Sadeghin
Fingerling Potato Salad with Chive Mayonnaise
“This recipe came about when I had a fat bunch of chives threatening to wilt in my fridge. Our test kitchen director, Farideh Sadeghin, suggested I make chive oil, and then chive mayonnaise; I had some teeny-tiny fingerlings from the farmers market sitting on my counter, and a salad was born. —Marian BullGet the recipe for Fingerling Potato Salad with Chive Mayonnaise »Matt Taylor-Gross
This creamy, rich soup potato soup accented with leeks is a favorite in Mexico City. In spring and summer it’s usually chilled, like a vichyssoise, but it’s also served hot, especially in the cooler months. Get the recipe for Potato and Leek Soup »
The secret to this simple dish is to use the best quality bacon available. Delicious and straightforward, you can whip this dish together quickly while keeping the oven available for other jobs.
Barbecue chips’ smoky, tangy flavors are easy to create at home with a simple mixture that combines classic barbecue sauce spices such as chile powder, garlic powder, and onion powder, with the added kick of cayenne pepper.
Applesauce is the perfect foil for these savory, golden fried pancakes, a mix of starchy potatoes, flour, and eggs. Get the recipe for Potato Pancakes »
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. Get the recipe for Swiss Hash Browns (Rösti) »
Kroppkakor, hearty mashed potato dumplings stuffed with an allspice-laden filling of bacon and onion, are a specialty of Oland, an island off the southern coast of Sweden. Get the recipe for Swedish Potato Dumplings »
These squares of crispy potato flatbread are similar to potato farls, the fried potato bread that’s a traditional part of the Northern Irish breakfast known as an Ulster Fry. Get the recipe for Irish Potato Bread »
Leave it to the potato-loving Irish to dream up colcannon, spuds mashed with finely chopped cabbage and enriched with lots of cream. There are as many versions of this classic dish as there are Irishmen: Some cooks add carrots or kale to the mix, others incorporate butter, bacon, and caramelized onions. Get the recipe for Colcannon »
Seniard Creek cook Clarence Bratton’s method for roasted potatoes, which calls for cooking them at a high temperature, turns them golden brown on the outside and creamy within.
The buttery, creamy indulgence of mashed potatoes meets the visceral joy of digging into a baked potato in this iconic side dish. Get the recipe for Twice-Baked Potatoes »
Leaving the skins on your potatoes saves on prep time and gives a rustic feel to the finished dish. We love the technique of infusing the milk and butter with sage—start heating a saucepan of milk and sage when you set the water to boil to speed up this process. Get the recipe for Sage Mashed Potatoes »
The Provençal version of this gratin calls for a French pumpkin called potiron, but a combination of acorn and butternut squash will make a good substitute.
