
How to prepare potatoes
There are many ways to prepare potatoes for yourself and/or your family. We’ve compiled a few helpful hints here. Have your own tips on how to prepare potatoes? Send them in!
- Consider cooking and eating your potatoes with the skins on, as the skin contains a great deal of nutrients and dietary fiber. If you are peeling, use a peeler or sharp knife to slice off just the skin, because the flesh close to the skin is also rich in nutrients
- If peeling potatoes in advance of when you intend to cook them, cover them in cold water and add a little vinegar or lemon juice to the water to avoid browning.
- If boiling potatoes, cut into small pieces to speed up cooking time. Avoid bringing to a rapid boil as this will often cook the potatoes unevenly. Remove from water immediately after potatoes are tender to the touch of a fork to avoid soggy/mushy potatoes.
- When mashing potatoes, avoid using an electric mixer or food processor as this often makes potatoes very sticky. If you enjoy your mashed potatoes moist, add a little heated milk, butter or margarine as desired!
- When baking potatoes, choose uniform sized potatoes so they will finish at the same time. Pierce the skins several times to allow steam to escape. A medium sized potato should take 40-50 minutes at 425°F in the oven or 4-6 minutes on high in the microwave, although this time will increase if microwaving multiple potatoes.
- Potatoes can be prepared on the barbeque in a variety of ways, but one popular way is slicing uncooked potatoes, placing in an aluminum pie plate or foil packet, adding vegetable/olive oil or butter and spices, and placing the foil on the grill. You can also bake potatoes on the barbeque…wrap in foil and make several holes with a fork through the potato and the foil.