Ingredients That Will Seriously Upgrade Your Roasted Potatoes

Roasted potatoes are a versatile and delicious side dish. Everyone has their favorite way of cooking them, but sometimes it's good to mix things up once in a while. No matter what you're adding to your roasted potatoes, there are some basic tips to keep in mind. One of the most important decisions you'll make is the choice of potato. According to Real Simple, floury, starchy varieties like Yukon golds or russet work best, as they have a creamy texture, and crispy outside. If you want to enjoy the contrast between the fluffy inside and crunchy exterior, make sure you don't cut your potatoes too small either.

When it comes to cooking, parboiling your potatoes for 10 minutes before roasting them will help you achieve that perfect, crispy crust. Before they go in the oven, make sure your potatoes are dry, and give them a good shake to break up the edges a little bit. It's also a good idea to get your fat nice and hot in the roasting pan before adding your potatoes, and make sure they're well coated. Again, this helps with the all-important crunch. Roast at a relatively high temperature — 400 degrees Fahrenheit should do it. While they're in the oven, give them a toss halfway through to ensure even cooking.

Once you've mastered roasting your potatoes to perfection, experiment with seasonings and flavor combinations. Try adding new ingredients to your next batch. Any of the following will seriously upgrade your roasted potatoes.

If you're a fan of salt, you will love this dish. This salt-roasted potatoes recipe calls for garlic, rosemary, parsley, and peppercorns. What sets it apart is that you don't just toss your potatoes with salt when preparing them, you build a salt bed for your potatoes to roast on top of.

To start, toss your potatoes in oil and minced garlic. Using coarse sea salt, build a bed in a sheet pan or roasting dish, then sprinkle peppercorns and rosemary on top. Line the pan with your potatoes and pop them in the oven, then bake at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for 30-40 minutes. According to Alpha Foodie, cooking your potatoes on a bed of salt traps any moisture that escapes during cooking. This is then reabsorbed by the potato, so you end up with a perfectly fluffy result. The salt bed also helps to regulate oven temperature, so everything cooks more evenly.

Classics are classics for a reason, like this traditional recipe from McCormick. Garlic and herbs are some of the best seasonings you will ever find for roasted potatoes. McCormick uses oregano, paprika, thyme, sea salt, and garlic, mixed with oil, and tossed with your potatoes before roasting. You could certainly mix up all these ingredients and make the recipe once. Or make the seasoning blend in batch to use each time the urge strikes for garlic and herb roasted potatoes.

Combine dried oregano, dried thyme, garlic granules or garlic powder, dried parsley, and pepper (via The Dinner Bite). Mix up your seasonings and save them in a mason jar or other airtight container, and keep somewhere away from sunlight for up to six months. Use 1 tablespoon of seasoning per 2 pounds of potatoes. Once your potatoes have been in the oven for half their cooking time, gently squash them with the back of a spoon or a large jar, so you end up with even more crispy edges.

Are you dreaming of spending the summer in Greece? Or Italy? Both regions produce gorgeous lemons loved around the world. Whatever time of year, even if summer seems far away, feel like you're in the Mediterranean with these roasted baby red potatoes with lemon and bay leaves. We promise this recipe makes the fall and winter months a little brighter and sunnier.

To get a taste of the Med, combine potatoes with six cloves of garlic, a very thinly sliced lemon, and dried bay leaves in a roasting pan. Drizzle with olive oil, salt, pepper, and toss. Cover tightly with aluminum foil, and roast in an oven at 450 degrees Fahrenheit for 25 minutes. Remove the foil, toss, then cover again, and return to the oven for another 20-25 minutes.

Really love the fresh taste of citrus? Try using lemon-infused olive oil instead of regular in this recipe.

Another perfect partner for roasted potatoes is garam masala. You can either buy this Indian spice blend ready made, or make it yourself, using cardamom seeds, peppercorns, cloves, star anise, cumin seeds, cinnamon, coriander, and nutmeg.

You'll need to toast your whole spices in a skillet first, which helps to release the oils, giving you a better, more complex flavor. Be careful not to burn the spices though, as they'll be bitter and unpleasant. Toast carefully for two-three minutes, allow them to cool down, then add them into a spice grinder or food processor along with the spices that are already ground. Blend these spices together. You can use the garam masala immediately, or store it in an airtight container

To make garam masala roasted potatoes, preheat your oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Preheat a roasting dish with 1 tablespoon of canola oil. Dice your potatoes relatively small (skin on or off) and toss with 2 tablespoons of the garam masala, plus salt. Roast the potatoes until cooked through and crispy, which should take around 30-40 minutes, depending on the size of your potatoes.

Ash-roasted potatoes are just what they sound like — potatoes cooked directly in the ashes of a fire. The concept for these tasty spuds began in South Africa using a braai, which resembles an American barbeque. The original idea involves throwing whole, unpeeled potatoes into the coals of a grill and covering them with more ashes. This process makes the outside crisp and charbroiled, while the inside remains tender.

If you have a wood-burning fireplace, you can use those ashes instead of the ones in a charcoal grill. Sprinkle the ashes (carefully) over some foil and wrap your potatoes, before putting them in the oven. Spice things up even more by scooping the potato out of the charred shells, mash with sour cream, chives, caviar, or lox, and then stuff back into the shells. And if you want to go old-school and cook them right in the ashes, these will make an amazing campfire treat for your next trip.

Want to make roasted potatoes in hardly any time at all? Try air fryer roasted potatoes instead. From start to finish, this recipe only takes 20 minutes, which is roughly half the time it would take to roast your spuds in the oven.

Begin by chopping your potatoes into chunks — about 3-inch slices will do. Place the potatoes in a bowl and toss them with olive oil, oregano, salt, and pepper. Once your potatoes are oiled and seasoned, line your air fryer basket with parchment to prevent sticking and add in your seasoned potatoes. Cook at 380 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes, then turn and cook for another 10 minutes. Your potatoes are done when they're golden and crispy. This technique will give you extra crunchy potatoes with fewer calories than if you were frying them, in a fraction of the time the oven-roasted variety would take.