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??

I par boil, fluff, cool, toss in oil roast.

One other thing i find causes major variance in crispiness is what else is in the oven. If you have lots of moist stuff in the oven the added general oven moisture seams to prevent crisping.

I sometimes do a vegetarian option and route veg in stock for a veg gravy for some of my family for Christmas lunch and find the moisture stops everything crisping so i cook some of it separately in the microwave (oven function)

Thanks for everyone's advice. I might do a trial run later!

i light the hob, before i pull the hot oil in the pan out, and shove it on a medium heat. then pour those potatoes on and big spatular to move them all around get them all coated and start them going. then quickly shove them back in the oven sizzling.

To get really crispy potatoes you need the fat to be as hot as you can get it so the smoking point of the oil you use is very important. The higher the smoking point of the oil is, the better, which is why extra virgin olive oil's not a great choice. Agree with roughing up - I like to do it with a bit of dried semolina added to the pan for a bit of extra crunch.

Using salted water makes a massive difference. I'm going to do a tray of olive oil with a squash half way through and one of veg oil with semolina.

Why does salting the water make a difference, I always do this but was wondering why the difference?

If you boil the spuds in salted water they go crispier.

We use veg oil.

Has someone already said sunflower oil? And make sure you parboil and whirl them around in a metal colander to rough the edges before you put them in to really super hot oil. If the oil isn't hot enough the potatoes will just absorb it.

On one of he's tons programmed he tested salted and in salted water and salt defo made a deference

A vote for Maris Pipers here, especially the M&S ones, they make the most flavoursome roasties we have ever had, goodness knows why?!? Plus I second the Nigella trick of sprinkling semolina on the par-boiled roughened-up spuds, it works a treat!!! One last tip is to let the par-boiled spuds go COMPLETELY COLD before putting them in the roasting hot fat, we use olive oil here! When you are veggie you have to get the roasties right!!!! I have been a veggie forever!!!!
Good Luck!!!

How do you know how much salt to put in the water???

I'd put in abut 1/2 teaspoon for potatoes for 4 people. Don't worry about it being a lot as it mostly gets thrown away with the water.

here, but he doesn't mention the salt, but I remember the programme where he did the experiment too.

My mum always used to tip her par-boiled potatoes onto a clean tea towel to absorb any extra moisture...

I get crispy spuds with no salt, parboil and drain and bounce until fluffy, then heat pan in the oven with a few.tablespoons of olive oil until smoking hot.
Add spuds and chivvy about until coated all over. Cook at 180 or hotter for about an hour, turning over every 20 min.
Beautiful and crispy but not too oily.

Have you done your trial run OP?

I did a trial run and the results were ok. On CD I intend to:
par boil in salted water
Coat in veg oil and semolina
Add to hot pan
Cook for at least an hour

Dinner will be ready when Taters are done

Top tip for crispy potatoes is to make sure your oven is hot and remember, that when you have a full oven, all of that heat and energy has to be divided between all the food in there, so it might not be as hot as you think.