Roast potatoes (in an air fryer or standard oven)

Prep list

The below items will need to be laid out on the surface, ready for display and use.

Script

Andrea: Hello, my name is Andrea and I'm a qualified chef working at Greenwich Pantry, a social enterprise that teaches cookery skills. In this video, we’re talking about making roast potatoes. We’re going to look at how to make them in an air fryer, but you can make them in the oven instead. Joining me today is [Stroke Assoc].

[Stroke Assoc]: Hello Andrea and everyone. I have to say that I have really been looking forward to this recipe, I do love roast potatoes.

Andrea: You and everyone else, I think. And by doing them in an air fryer we can really reduce how much oil we’re using in cooking.

[Stroke Assoc]: I should add here that we’re not being sponsored or anything to promote any particular air fryer brand or even air fryers in general. But they are becoming so popular, we thought it would be a good idea to include them.

Andrea: Exactly. The prep for this recipe will probably take between 10-15 minutes. If you’re cooking in an air fryer, the cooking time will be around 20 minutes. In the oven, it will be closer to 45 minutes to an hour.

The ingredients are listed in the video description below. But you can see we have our potatoes and then some herbs and spices. So we’ve got paprika, garlic paste, salt, and black pepper. We’ve also got a bit of olive oil.

Andrea: For this recipe, you will need a large bowl, something to stir with, a chopping board, knife and some measuring spoons. If you’re using your air fryer, you won’t need anything else. If you’re going to use your standard oven, you’ll also need a roasting dish and a large saucepan.

Andrea: Let’s get started. We’ll start by peeling and chopping up our potatoes. The size is up to you, but if you are using an air fryer, you can go for slightly smaller than you usually would. That’s because you don’t get the shrinkage from the parboiling.

[Stroke Assoc]: If someone is struggling with their dexterity or can’t use one hand, is there anything you can recommend for doing all this peeling and chopping?

Andrea: I suppose the first thing I’d say is that you don’t have to peel your potatoes. Just give them a good wash, a little scrub, and use them with the skins on. I personally really like the flavour and it gives you some extra nutrients.

Andrea: In terms of chopping, you can either use one of these chopping boards that will hold your potato in place while you chop it. Or just buy smaller potatoes that you don’t need to chop, I have made roast potatoes with little new potatoes and they work great.

I’m going to stop recording now to get all these potatoes chopped up. No one wants to sit here and watch me cut these all up.

Andrea: Now that those are chopped, you can always take a break. The next bit needs to be done all together, so please take a break if you need. If you are, I would recommend covering your potatoes with a bit of water to stop them drying out.

Otherwise, we’ll go ahead and make our spice mix. If you’re using a standard oven, now is the time to preheat your oven.

Right, back to the spice mix. We’re going to add 1.5 tablespoons of oil, a little paprika, garlic paste and black pepper to our large bowl. If there are other spices or herbs you want to add, you can do that too. Rosemary or thyme work quite well, if you’re a fan of those.

If you’re cooking these in the oven, you could also add a little plain flour. It just helps to build up a crust on the potatoes.

[Stroke Assoc]: I notice you’re not adding any salt to these.

Andrea: No, I think the smoked paprika and other seasonings make it unnecessary. If you do want to add a little, I would recommend always using a measuring spoon because then you know exactly how much you’ve used. And can then reduce how much you add in future if that’s something you’re looking to do with a particular recipe.

[Stroke Assoc]: That’s a good idea for keeping track of how much salt you’re eating as well. And that can actually be quite difficult, the keeping track I mean.

Andrea: Yeah, it really can because of all the hidden salt in our food. Especially with a lot of convenience foods, like this garlic paste, which can be quite high in oil and salt. So you want to make sure to read the ingredients.

You can make your own by grinding some garlic up in a mortar and pestle with some olive oil. But not everyone wants to or can do this, but the option is certainly there.

Ok, if you’re cooking in an air fryer, you can go ahead and put the potatoes straight into this mix. If you’re using a standard oven, you’ll need to parboil your potatoes before adding them to the spice mix.

These only need a couple minutes at a full, rolling boil.

Once that’s done, you can drop them into your bowl with the spices and give them a little stir. I like to do this with a fork so that you can rough them up a little as you go.

The goal here is to get your potatoes evenly but thinly coated with the spice mix.

Now it’s time for cooking.

With an air fryer you’re going to pop those potatoes straight into the basket. You don’t need any extra oil. These will roast at 195*C for 10 minutes. After those 10 minutes, you’ll open the basket, flip them, and go for another 10 minutes. Then the potatoes are done.

[Stroke Assoc]: 20 minutes? Would it be much longer if you wanted to make a larger batch?

Andrea: No, it shouldn’t be. The only thing that would change that is if your air fryer basket was too small for how many potatoes you wanted to do. And then you had to make them in batches. But yeah, you can see why air fryers are so popular at the minute. Less time and less oil.

[Stroke Assoc]: What about for people who don’t have an air fryer?

If you’re using a standard oven, you’ll need to add more oil to the potatoes, around 30ml. Measuring your oil here is very important as just glugging it into the pan means you’ll end up using a lot more than you probably should.

Give them a quick turn around in the oil and then spread them out into a single layer and cook for between 45-50 minutes. Turning them every 15 minutes or so. This regular turning ensures even cooking on all sides. You don’t want potatoes burnt on one side and dry on the other.

[Stroke Assoc]: We had a question from a stroke survivor about how to safely lift things out of a hot oven or off the top of the cooker. They said that they drop them or are worried about dropping them. Do you have any advice for them?

Andrea: One thing you can do is to use a spatula or spoon to pick the potatoes straight up off the pan, rather than picking the pan itself up. ADVICE STILL NEEDED HERE.

[Stroke Assoc]: Thanks Andrea.

[Stroke Assoc]: And we’re back with our air fryer roast potatoes and I’ve got to say, Andrea, those smell amazing.

Andrea: Thanks! I would encourage people to play around with the spice mix as well, make these potatoes your own.

[Stroke Assoc]: Definitely, please do let us know in the comments if you’ve tried it out yourself or if you have any questions. We’d love to hear what other herbs and spices you use for your roasties.

Please like the video and subscribe to our channel if you want to see more content like this. Thanks for watching.