Looking for a super simple polenta roast potatoes recipe? Well, you're in luck! My easy-to-follow recipe will have you making the crispiest roast potatoes every time.
This recipe doesn't use animal fat so they also make the perfect vegetarian roast potatoes.
Polenta Roast Potatoes Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 kg potatoe (any type)
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 3 tbsp polenta
- 1 pinch salt and pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200-225'C (200 if fan assisted)
- Get a large pan of cold water, add a large pinch of salt and put on a medium heat.
- While the pan of water is heating up peel and chop your potatoes. In my house we all like the smaller crispy ones so I cut each potato to roughly the size of a small egg.
- By the time you've peeled and chopped your potatoes the water should be warm, not boiling. Add the potatoes to the pan at this stage and allow to heat to a slow simmer. This should take around 7 minutes.
- Get a large roasting tray, the wide shallow ones are better than the smaller deep ones as if the potatoes are too cramped they won't brown.
- Line the tray with a sheet of baking paper... this may seem like a step which you can leave out, but trust me it's so much easier if you do it! (cleaning and cooking wise).
- Drizzle the olive oil onto the baking tray (lined with baking paper) and place the potatoes onto the tray. Next scatter the polenta on top.
- Just shaking the pan doesn't do a great job of coating each potato in oil and polenta, so I tend to lift each side of the baking paper up in turn to roll the potatoes over each other. I find this coats them better and they also don't break up so much (especially if you've used over ripe fluffy potatoes which can crumble easily).
- Season with salt and pepper and put in the oven for 30-40 minutes.
Notes
You can use any potatoes for this recipe.
I've used cheap 'white potatoes', maris piper, disiree, and even new potatoes which needed to be used up.Better Than Mum's Roast Potatoes Recipe?!
I'm not one to blow my own trumpet. Usually, when I click the 'publish' button it's with a few nerves at the reception my recipe will receive.
Not this one!
I can confidently say that these polenta roast potatoes are the best I've ever had! They've even taken the top spot over my Mums and Grandmothers! (shock horror).
They're also reliable!
I've used the following recipe with different types of potatoes repeatedly, and the results are always good. An added bonus is that they're also veggie-friendly, but taste really good so us meat eaters won't mind (drools over roast potatoes cooked in pork fat...).
Why Use Polenta on Roast Potatoes?
It's a brilliant way over getting cripsy potatoes every time.
The idea to put polenta on roast potatoes isn't one of my own. It's one of those tips thrown around by TV chefs (probably Jamie Oliver in my case) while cooking something else.
Either way, the seed was sown and one Sunday I thought I'd give it a go and it was a game changer. The potatoes we light and fluffy with a lovely crispy skin.
Polenta Roast Potatoes Serving Suggestions
You can serve these with so much more than a Sunday roast.
Last night I made them for a friend and served them with a chicken breast wrapped in baking paper with lemon, thyme, garlic and cherry tomatoes cooked in the oven for 25 mins and it was delicious!
Ooh, I really like the look of these! I think my toddler would love them,as would I! Did you find it hard to avoid burning the polenta? X
Thanks! I've made them quite a lot recently and the polenta has never burnt. I've got a fan assisted electric oven and 200'C for 30-40 mins was fine. The baking paper helps too, so much easier to wash up afterwards as well š
Looking very good.
I have a slight variant; I peel and chop my potatoes in the morning and leave them to one side in a pan of cold water - that stops them deteriorating but also makes logistics for the day a lot easier.
That pan then gets brought to the boil and then left in the water with the heat off for two minutes, the potatoes are then drained and shaken in the colander to rough them up - this gives a nice outer texture to crisp up, though the action in your polenta coating I can see would achieve a similar result. Roasting time the same, though I prefer to use beef dripping if no vegetarians around; and I do my parsnips with them (though prepare them differently before roasting) and a larger quantity as I like to baste them.
I also like them small, but larger ones, once roughed, can have incisions made into them, kind of like making a fan in the top - this helps crisp them even though they are large!
Ah yes that sounds great! Ill try that next time! Must admit I LOVE roasties cooked in pork fat as my first choice.
[…] I’ve used them most days to enhance my regular recipes. The Rosemary salt goes so well on my polenta roast potatoes, and after running out of soy sauce I’ve even used the Thai salt as a substitute in an egg […]