Roasted Potatoes-Low Oil

I love roasted veggies. The roasted outsides and mushy insides make me happy and my husband too. I think he could eat potatoes at every meal all day and be happy. He loves them any way but roasted is one of his favorites. The only downfall to the roasted vegetable is that, often, you need to use quite a bit of oil on them so they don’t stick to the pan especially when cooking particularly starchy or sugary veggies like potatoes and sweet potatoes. Recently, our family started to adopt a low oil diet. That isn’t to say we don’t every have oil. We’ve just tried to stop using it as a food group…..I do love my olive oil. Seriously, I could almost eat it by the spoonful. Not the healthiest food choice that way. So, I’ve been trying to find ways to eat some of what we love without all the oil.

Now let me just say that I have literally fallen in love with parchment paper. Nothing sticks to it and things still brown. I’ve started using it a lot. For cookies, for packets of veggies on the grill wrapped in aluminum foil, and for ROASTED VEGETABLES!!!!! It is such a miraculous thing to me, and it makes cleaning up a piece of cake too! Always, always, always a plus for me……

Most of us roast our veggies on some sort of baking sheet. The only issue with using the parchment paper is that is moves around making it rather difficult to use a spatula to flip/stir the vegetables as they cook. One night while prepping dinner I had an idea. I had two baking sheets of the same size, so I cut the parchment paper a few inches (4 or 5 I would guess) larger than the pans. Then I put the parchment the first pan and wrapped the paper underneath the pan and placed that pan inside the second pan which held the paper in place. And Voila! It worked perfectly. I was able to easily use the spatula without the parchment moving. Perfect!

As for the recipe for the potatoes, I’ll do my best. Not a lot of measuring going on and it is a matter of taste. Pick the herbs/spices you like and remember salt.

Here is what I USUALLY put on my Low Oil Roasted Potatoes.

·    Chop up some potatoes and place in a large mixing bowl (1 inch or less cubes work well      and larger or smaller is fine too. You’ll only need to adjust your baking time.)

·    Sprinkle on some salt, pepper, garlic powder-don’t go crazy with this one (you can also use fresh chopped garlic), onion powder and sage.

·    Toss with hands to coat potatoes with spices.

·    Add about 1 tsp or less of olive oil  (per 5-6 medium potatoes) and toss with hands again.

·    Dump potatoes out onto prepared parchment lined pan.

·    Bake at 400 F for about 1 hour. Check them every 15 minutes and turn them with a spatula each time. Remember baking times will vary based on the size of the potatoes and the amount of “roastedness” desired.

And don’t forget summer is on its way. These same potatoes can be cooked on the grill in about half the time. Simply take a large piece of aluminum foil and line the foil with parchment paper leaving about a 1 1/2 to 2 space between the end of the parchment paper and the foil to allow for folding. Place prepared potatoes on the parchment and fold the parchment over to cover the potatoes (like you were folding over wrapping paper). Then fold over the foil and fold over the edges a few times and crimp tightly. Place on a hot grill for about 20-30 minutes turning once if desired. Open these pockets of yumminess and eat!!!