These AMAZING Greek Lemon Potatoes are an absolute delight and the most delicious way to serve potatoes especially when pairing with meat like lamb. Greek lemon potatoes are easy to make - you keep the skin on and then toss them in a delicious mixture of garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, oregano and salt and then roast them in chicken stock. The potatoes soak up the stock and caramelise so that they come out perfectly cooked! This is a pushy recipe Dear Reader!
I've mentioned before that I get a vege box delivered fortnightly. I usually get a great range of fruit and veg and while it changes every fortnight there are always some staples of carrots, potatoes, lemon, garlic and onion. The problem is that we don't generally eat that many potatoes. I know, to some this sounds sacrilegious and it's not because I don't love them - I do most wholeheartedly and my favourite item is a crunchy roast potato. It's just that Mr NQN isn't fond of roast potatoes as he finds them "too crunchy" (which I've tried to explain is the point of them). He only loves mashed potato but mash is a pain to make so we end up with lots of potatoes left over. They're the vegetable that lasts the longest as well so sometimes I'd have bags of potatoes waiting in the wings.
That is, until I had Greek lemon potatoes at the Cyprus Community Club. I've had Greek lemon potatoes before but these were absolute perfection. You know when you have something so delicious that you can't stop thinking about them? The potatoes were roasted but tender and not crunchy but they had a lovely caramelised edge on them. The lemon flavour had permeated through the entire potato. I just had to re-make them at home. And these are made differently from other roast potatoes - the secret to getting this wonderful finish was roasting them in chicken stock that the potato soaks up!
Tips For Making AMAZING Greek Lemon Potatoes
1 - Please choose the right potato. In Australia Dutch Creams are a great roasting potato and ideal for this. In America you could use Yukon Gold potatoes.
2 - You generally want a medium or large potato to get the right size chip. Try to keep the potatoes around the same size to ensure even cooking.
3 - There's no need to peel the potatoes-hooray! Just scrub them well, I use a vegetable wash spray by Nontre to ensure that they're super clean.
4 - Measure the amount of lemon juice - I've specified how much lemon juice rather than say "juice of 2 lemons". Lemons can vary but the ratios here help because you want it the perfect level of lemony!
5 - I use garlic powder because when you use real garlic it can burn and become bitter when roasting.
6 - Don't use too much chicken stock. I promise what is below is perfect for the amount of potatoes in a fan forced oven (the fan will help to evaporate the stock).
7 - If you do want these a bit crisper, you can pop them under the grill for a few minutes right at the end.
8 - Pair these with any of these delicious lamb recipes and they'll be a complete hit!
9- Unfortunately these are not suitable for freezing (it will affect the texture of the potatoes).
Mr NQN and I love completely different potato dishes. I love crunchy, crisp potatoes like smashed potatoes or triple cooked fries. Mr NQN loves soft potato dishes like mashed potato and he hates crunchy food. So it's always either a potato dish for him or me. Also I hate making mashed potato because you either have to peel the potatoes or if you leave the skin on, the ricer is a pain to use because you have to scrape the skins off between each potato. He will still eat crunchy potatoes because he has no choice (the choice is to cook them himself) but I know he doesn't love them.
However these Greek lemon potatoes are the only potato dish that we can both agree on in our Venn diagram of potato dishes we like. As the person who cooks, these are my perfect potato dish for several reasons. For starters they don't require peeling and I hate peeling vegetables or fruit. They take around 5-8 minutes prep tops and they require easy items that I always have. They don't need much attention and all you do is turn them once while they are cooking. They pair well with almost anything and the delicious lemon flavour permeates through the entire chip. They also reheat easily and the flavour actually improves after a day or two. I made a big batch of these and Mr NQN had them with his dinner over 3 nights. He found that the lemon flavour intensified after the second day.
And it's goodbye to mashed potato at home - he can have it at a restaurant where I don't have to prepare it!
So tell me Dear Reader, what is your favourite way to cook and eat potatoes? Do you like Greek lemon potatoes?
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