Rosemary Roasted Potatoes with Lemon

The Best Potatoes for Roasting

I love pretty much any type of potato, but the best ones for roasting are small, specifically fingerling potatoes. Skip russet potatoes and save them for baked potatoes or mashing.

Available in lots of different colors and varieties, most fingerlings are short and stubby. At the grocery, I buy them in assorted bags, but when I’m at the farmers market, I pick them out one by one to create my own mix.

From yellow to red to purple, typical fingerling potatoes include Russian Banana, Rose Finn Apple, French Fingerling, Swedish Peanut and Purple Peruvian.

The Ingredients

This is what you need:

• Potatoes: Choose potatoes that have smooth skin, don’t have any soft spots and haven’t sprouted. You can pick one specific type of fingerling potato to keep things uniform or include a few different ones.
• Rosemary: Along with lemon, olive oil and seasonings, I stir the potatoes with chopped rosemary. For the best taste, use fresh herbs rather than dried rosemary.
• Lemon juice is wonderful with anything roasted because citrus adds something zesty and bright.
• Olive oil: Use extra-virgin olive oil for these potatoes.
• Salt & pepper: Potatoes always need lots of seasoning, so be generous with kosher salt and black pepper.
• Parsley: Once the potatoes are out of the oven, I sprinkle them with chopped parsley.

Variations

These rosemary potatoes can be your blank canvas even with their beautiful lemon and herb flavor. The base recipe is vegan; so keep that in mind if you do one of these additions:

• Parmesan cheese: Finely grate the cheese over the hot potatoes when they come out of the oven.
• Pesto: Stir a tablespoon of basil pesto into the roasted potatoes to make them even more herby.

How To Make Rosemary Roasted Potatoes

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

1. Combine the potatoes with the rosemary, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper in a large bowl.

2. Spread the potatoes cut side down across a baking sheet. It’s best if they are in a single layer. They will be snug on the pan. Try not to have them overlapping.

3. Roast the potatoes until they are golden brown on the outside and fork tender in the middle, about 40-45 minutes. Flip them over in the last 5-10 minutes of roasting.

4. Sprinkle the potatoes with fresh parsley.

Serving

One of the many things so wonderful about roasted potatoes is that they go with pretty much any main dish. It can be something as formal as a holiday meal like Thanksgiving and Dry Rubbed Turkey, or any weeknight and roasted chicken. I also love adding these potatoes to a salad with hearty, sturdy leaves like kale.

These roasted potatoes are best served warm right after they have finished roasting. If you do have leftovers, they can be warmed in a 350-degree F oven. Keep in mind they won’t be as crisp as when you first made them. Store them in an airtight container in the fridge up to 3 days.

Leftover potatoes are also good in egg dishes like frittatas and scrambles. Just dice them into bite-sized pieces, so they heat up faster and combine better with the other ingredients.