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.