Crispy vegetarian roast potatoes??

[ArthurandGeorge]

Every year I struggle with my roast potatoes at Xmas. I am vegetarian so can't use animal fats, I usually try olive oil but they never get nice and crispy. What can I try??

Peel spuds and boil in cold water for 5-10 mins, drain, then put lid on and shake pot to roughen edges and leave in pot covered by tea towel for a few mins.

Heat vegetable oil in roasting tin for the time the spuds a cooling then coat each spud in pan with oil and cook for hour turning at thirty mins.

clarified butter?

white flora/trex?
(it's vegetable shortening)

the trick is parboiling the potatoes then tossing them around before putting them in a baking tray of red hot fat

I use olive oil and they get nice and crispy. I parboil beforehand, shake to fluff up the outside, I also use salt but not always then cook for a longish time on a high heat.

If yours aren't crispy try making sure they are really coated in oil then cook them til they are good and crisp. The meat can rest. If needed whilst the pots finish off.

I'm not veggie, but I par boil my pots, so they're still a bit hard on the outside, and just heat up some vegetable oil in the dish in the oven, and then add the potatoes after. They seem to crisp up really well, and I've never had a complaint. I'm actually famous amongst family and friends for my roast potatoes :)

You don't need animal fat to make roast potatoes crispy. I use olive oil (not extra virgin), parboil the potatoes first and rough them up in the saucepan. Preheat the oil in a roasting tin in a hot oven and roast for up to an hour depending on the size of the potatoes.

I use olive oil and get crispy roasties. I bar poil first and then give them a rattle about in a colander to fluff up the edges. I also add a sprinkling of salt.

Try using block margarine or Trex, also the variety of potato makes a difference, I like King Edward for roasting.

I am veggy. You must rough them up. Also ensur the oil is very hot before you add the spuds.

Pick a potato that is not a "traditional" roasting potato, something waxier rather than floury (e.g. Estima will be commonest in the supermarket) use vegetable oil - rape preferably - that's the normal supermarket "vegetable oil" in the UK. Steam or parboil the potatoes so they're a little cooked but not falling apart at all - the opposite of what Delia etc. says to do - you want them whole.

Heat a few tablespoons of oil in the oven in a deep roasting pan. Get some breadcrumbs - just grate/food process whatever slightly going old bread you have. Add fresh rosemary chopped up and garlic powder to the breadcrumbs (do this just before you need it as otherwise it all clumps together)

Add your spuds to the hot oil, springle the breadcrumb mix over the top. Have a really hot oven and give the pan a shake every so often - if the oil disappears and things are sticking chuck some more on and shake the pan more.

Can be ready in 60-90 minutes, or you can cook in a cooler oven during the roasting of the meat and just turn the oven up while the meat is resting.

Much nicer than the floury potatoes soaked in goose fat or lard.

If you're not a potato connoisseur so don't know your waxy from from your floury - look for the brands that say "good for mash" "good for boiling" and not the ones that say good for roasting.

Sorry to contradict FredFred - must be a matter of personal taste but I think Maris Piper or King Edwards make the best roasties.

I think the key points are: parboil until quite soft, rough up in pan, leave for a minute to dry a bit. Heat the oil (I use olive oil very successfully) in the tin on the hob, quickly tip in spuds and baste all over. They need an hour imho to get them nice and crispy, ideally at 220C for at least the last 20mins (can get away with lower temp say 180-200 before that)

They also need to be served immediately or they will go rubbery - no turning the oven down or covering with foil if you can help it! Good luck OP.

DewDr0p The difference is if you do all that roughing up in the pan to get the floury texture out - what that does is encourage the outside of the potato to go crispy - but at a big cost of both the amount of fat absorbed (which is why it may well work better with animal fat that has a flavour and texture people tend to like unlike vegetable fats which tend to be more overwhelming particularly olive oil unless you actually love olive oil) but more importantly to me it destroys the taste of the inside.

My technique uses the breadcrumbs to help hold the oil next to the outside of the waxy potato rather than parts of the potato. You could possible have sucess using an over-cooked floury potato (smash maybe?) as the binding agent to the outside but I've never tried that - the breadcrumbs work very well for me.

And the waxy potato means you can turn the oven down etc. to move the timing :)

Yy to maris piper or king edwards. I get crap roasties if i use othr potatoes but perfect with these.

I use olive oil sometimes and Gino did them with olive oil last week, he just said make sure you use regular, don't use extra virgin as you can't get the temperature hot enough.

I use cold extra virgin olive oil but this year I am doing two trays: olive oil and butter/semolina.

I use Maris Piper which I bring to the boil from cold water and then poach with the flames out for 10 minutes. You have to fluff them up before you coat in oil and turn half way through (at least). I'm going to try the trick for Jamie's roasties and flatten the olive oil ones half way through.

I am even thinking of practising the semolina ones on Sunday. Roast potatoes are the best bit.

I never use animal fat and I'm not even a veggie. Agree with parboiling then jigging around in the pan or colander to rough up the edges.

Very hot/smoking olive oil with a knob of butter, take it out of the oven and put onto the heat so the spuds get a bit fried when you drop them in.
Make sure you turn them so they're completely coated before going back in the oven.

I turn each individual spud after about 20 mins, then sometimes again - it's tedious but it gives much more consistent results than just jiggling the pan about.

I do use extra virgin but maybe the butter helps in that respect. Vefetable oil works as well but I don't really use that any more.

Groundnut oil! Can get to higher temps without smoking.

The nigella trick of sprinkling semolina over use boiled potatoes and giving them a little shake works well too.

Make sure oil is really hot

DH does great roast potatoes and the trick seems to be to salt the water fairly heavily which is used for parboiling. He then drains them and leaves them in the colander for a couple of minutes to dry. Next he puts them back into the now dry saucepan and jiggles them. They go into rapeseed oil which has been in the oven getting hot at 220 degrees.

I find that non-olive oil definitely gets hotter in my oven. I do mine in veggie oil rather than meat fat anyway but have tried groundnut oil and sunflower oil the last two years and they seem to get crispier than with olive oil.

I find the floury potatoes get much crispier than waxy ones. I tend to boil them until they are almost cooked through, that way you can really rough them up and get a good coating of "fluff". I use olive oil too.

My DH makes the roasties as he's far better at it than I am. His trick is: use more oil than you think you'd dare.

Heat oven and put the roasting tray in it.

Use floury spuds - King Edwards or Duke of York. Peel and half them. Boil for 5-10 mins, drain and shake them gently for a second or two in the pan to make the edges fluffy. Douse them in plain cooking oil, sunflower or corn. Really douse them, so every single edge of the spud is glistening, then tip onto the heated roasting tin, sprinkle with salt and bake in a hot oven for about 35-45 mins.

You can take them out once or twice and shovel them about a bit to stop them sticking.

Rough up the skins of the par-boiled tatties with a tines of a fork. It's important that the fat is very hot when you put the potatoes in the roasting tray (and make sure they are completely dry otherwise they will spit). I am not veggie so use goose fat but I have used Trex before and it works well. Olive oil not so good and I think that's because you can't get the temp high enough.

Argh! I can't spell today - it must be the Quality Street.

I thought olive oil was a bad idea because of it's low smoking point. I use mazola oil even though you aren't supposed to heat that above 190degrees. I think Coconut oil has a high smoking point but flavour might not be the best.

I agree with using maris piper, parboiling and roughing them up. You can even add a bit of flour to the pan, shake it around after. The flour gives the oil something to stick to.