Black truffle smashed potatoes.

Eating a vegetarian or even vegan diet doesn’t have to be boring.  Even if you aren’t eating a meat-free diet… adding fun veggies to your classic proteins makes any dinner special.  My kids aren’t fans of potatoes -not even french fries.  But they did like these and the adults quickly realized the addictive nature of these crispy, flat, potato chip-like crunchy texture with a unique flavor.  If you haven’t tried black truffle oil – you must!  I am not a mushroom fan at all but love LOVE love black truffles.  In cheese, popcorn… infused oils… I’m smitten!  It is pricey but you can easily spend less on a small bottle that will last you a good amount of time because you use it sparingly.

These are easy to make and a great project for the kids to help you with.  Totally vegan (gasp) for those of you who think this is a crazy way of eating… it so isn’t when you can indulge in veggies like this from time to time!

Great weeknight side dish.  Can be prepared ahead of time and reheated or par-cooked a few days prior.  You have to try these… seriously!

Ingredients:

2 lbs of white new potatoes, washed and dried
Sea salt
Pepper
Olive oil
Black truffle oil

Directions:

Bring a medium sized pot of water to a rapid boil and add about 2 tablespoons of salt to the boiling water.  Gently add your new potatoes to the water to cook until you can easily pierce the potato with the tip of a knife.  Cooking time will vary but around 6 minutes or so.  Drain completely.  Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.  Pull out a large broiler pan or cookie sheet and drizzle some olive oil on the bottom of the pan.  Make sure your pan has sides and start placing the potatoes on the sheet.  Taking a large water glass, using the bottom, gently place the bottom of the glass on top of the potato and press down – smashing the potato open.  See photo below.

 

Once you have repeated the process with all of your potatoes.  Drizzle with additional olive oil and truffle oil (again, use the truffle oil sparingly).  Then sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Bake for about 15 minutes then flip each one gently, trying not to break them up further.  This will inevitably happen with a few.  Then drizzle with a bit more truffle oil and salt/pepper.  Bake until golden brown – another 15-20 minutes.

If you aren’t serving right away – you can boil/smash the potatoes and store in the refrigerator until you wish to bake/consume them.  OR you can full bake and store in a covered container and then reheat in the oven at 375 degrees for about 18 minutes or so.

Serve immediately.

— Knead to Cook