These amazing smashed potatoes go by many other names. Australians call them hot crash potatoes and some people call them crushed potatoes. Whatever you call them, you’ll want to make them soon.
By boiling the potatoes first, then smashing them open and baking them in the oven, they become crispy on the outside and tender and creamy inside. Top with Parmesan cheese and garlic. How can you beat that?
Serve these fabulous crispy roast potatoes with our herb flavored dipping sauce with lemon and garlic. They make a great appetizer or side dish.
I love them.
Smashed Potatoes with Herbed Yogurt Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 pounds potatoes, very small, 1 1/2" to 2" diameter
- 2 teaspoons salt, for boiling
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder, or to your taste
- 1 teaspoon salt, or to your taste
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, freshly cracked, or to your taste
- 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
- 2 tablespoons parsley, fresh, finely chopped, for garnishing (optional)
Dipping Sauce
- 1 1/2 cups yogurt, or Greek yogurt
- 1/2 lemon, zested
- 1/2 lemon, juiced
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons parsley, fresh, finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon chives, fresh, finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon dill, or cilantro, fresh, finely chopped
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 pinch black pepper
Instructions
- Bring about 8 cups of water to a boil and add the 2 teaspoons of salt. Add the potatoes and boil gently until they are tender and are pierced easily with a fork.
- Preheat the oven to 450ºF.
- While the potatoes are boiling, make the dipping sauce. To make the sauce, simply combine all of the ingredients together in a bowl and set it aside until you need it, to give the flavors a chance to meld together.
- Drain the potatoes really well. Transfer the well drained potatoes to a baking sheet, making sure they are evenly spaced on the pan.
- To smash the potatoes: Use a potato masher or the flat bottom of a drinking glass. Gently press down on the individual potatoes until they break open (see image below). Press down until they are about 1/2" thick. Make sure you press fairly gently on the potato masher to make sure you just break the potatoes open. You don't want them flat and totally broken apart.
- Drizzle the top of the potatoes with the olive oil then sprinkle them with garlic powder, salt and pepper. Bake in 450ºF oven for 15 minutes. Take the baking pan out of the oven, flip all of the potatoes over and drizzle the second side with the olive oil. Return the pan to the hot oven and bake for another 12 to 15 minutes, until the potatoes are crisp on the outside and the edges are a golden brown.
- Leaving them on the pan, sprinkle the potatoes with the Parmesan cheese and put them back into the oven for another 2 to 3 minutes at the same temperature. The Parmesan cheese will melt a bit.
- Garnish with the chopped parsley if desired and serve while they are nice and hot. Serve the potatoes with the dipping sauce on the side.
Nutrition
Serves 6 as an appetizer or 4 as a side dish.
Tips:
- I use garlic powder rather than fresh garlic for this recipe because the fresh garlic will have a tendency to burn quickly at this high oven temperature and burned garlic has a nasty bitter taste.
- You can make the dipping sauce several hours ahead. In fact it would be even better because it gives all of the flavors a chance to come together more and it will be even tastier.
- I have suggested some herbs to use but you can certainly experiment and use what you prefer. A touch of cumin in the yogurt with chopped cilantro would be wonderful.
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If you love smashed potatoes, have a look at our wonderful potato recipes here.
