Crispy Garlic Smashed Potatoes – Vegan

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Vegan crispy garlic smashed potatoes with olive oil and rosemary – one of the best potato side dishes ever!

Oven-baked potatoes are our favorite potato side dish. I make them more often than any other side dish I could possibly make. And these vegan smashed potatoes are just out of this world, beyond goo!

These crispy garlic smashed potatoes are a rather new potato side dish discovery for us. I first saw a similar recipe here, and going from there I kept making my own smashed potatoes, playing with the spices and the fat I used.

At the beginning, I mostly made them with butter and I must say that the results were very satisfying indeed. However, shortly after I used a mixture of butter and olive oil, and the last times I made these garlic smashed potatoes I used olive oil only.

And although we all absolutely adored these crispy smashed potatoes in all their versions, we did like the olive oil version the best. I can’t even exactly say why, but somehow they were even crispier and tastier than before.

Ingredients

Potatoes:

• I used small potatoes, weighing about 20 g/0.7 oz a potato. In Germany they are called Drillinge, meaning only that they are very small, the name doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the sort of potato they are.
• But, from the way they felt and tasted they were primarily waxy potatoes.

Fat:

• As mentioned above I have made the potatoes with butter, with a mixture of butter and olive oil and only with olive oil.
• We loved all versions, but my personal favorite were the smashed potatoes with olive oil. By using oil you also keep this dish vegan.
• However, if you decide to make them with butter instead of olive oil, please do, they are wonderful. In this case replace the olive oil with 3 tablespoons butter, which you have melted, and proceed with the recipe.

Garlic and spices:

• Garlic is mandatory if you ask me, but then again, I am a garlic junkie.
• I’ve made these crispy smashed potatoes without the garlic as well (only a small portion for my brother-in-law, who can taste one tiny garlic clove in a 2-liter pot of soup and complain about it) and they were OK, however, I like the garlic version better.

• I often add rosemary to oven potatoes, it has become almost a reflex. It is lovely, but it can definitely be replaced with thyme or any other kind of dry herbs or dry herbs mixes you like, like Italian herbs or Herbs de Provence.
• You can use fresh rosemary (even better, but I don’t always have it), fresh thyme, parsley or chives. Please, trust your taste buds and change the spices for this potato side dish accordingly.
• The potatoes can also be sprinkled with some sweet or hot paprika powder before baking. Chili flakes would also be an options, if you would like the potatoes to be spicier.
• Do use good quality coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper for these crispy smashed potatoes, I do feel coarse salt and coarsely ground pepper are a much better fit than the finer sorts.
• I sprinkle the garlic smashed potatoes twice with salt and pepper: once before and once after baking and I just love to bite on those tiny pieces of salt and pepper.

How to make vegan smashed potatoes?

• Boil the potatoes in salted water. The potatoes are very small, so the cooking time will be rather short. To speed things up, I often place the potatoes in the pot and cover them with boiling water from the kettle. I add the salt, let them come to a boil again (this will happen much faster now) and cook them for about 15-20 minutes.
• Start checking after 15 minutes or so, they should be fork-tender. If the potatoes are slightly larger, they will need some extra minutes, so do check.
• Drain the potatoes and let them stand in the colander for about 5 minutes, just to make sure that as much of the water as possible has evaporated from their surface.
• Grease a baking tray with olive oil.
• Mix oil, garlic, and rosemary in a small bowl.
• Place the potatoes on the tray and smash them carefully and lightly using a fork. I have tried smashing them with a potato masher as well, but I think a fork works better, I crushed them too much when using a potato masher.
• Don’t press the potatoes flat or you will not have those nice ridges anymore and they are mandatory, as they will be the ones getting crispy. The inside of the smashed potatoes will remain soft and comforting, while the outside will get crispy.
• Drizzle the olive oil garlic mixture on top of each potato using a teaspoon. About ½ teaspoon first to make sure that there is enough for all the potatoes. Divide what’s left again.
• Sprinkle with coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
• Bake for about 20 minutes or until they are golden and crispy. Give the potatoes more time, if they are not crispy enough after 20 minutes.
• Sprinkle again with salt and pepper after baking and serve immediately.

What to serve with?

I’ve last served this potato side dish with roast lamb, but we also had them with roast chicken, roast chicken legs and skillet chicken breasts. You could serve them with most anything actually, they will always be delicious!

For a vegetarian meal, I can even imagine serving them with poached eggs or fried halloumi cheese.

I do hope you will try this version of a potato side dish, the garlic smashed potatoes are really a delight!

More potato side dishes:

Icelandic Caramelized Potatoes

Cauliflower and Potato Mash

Baked Cornmeal Potatoes

Irish Potato and Cabbage Dish – Colcannon

Potato Confit