The Prudent Wife

Herb Roasted Potatoes are a family favorite at Chez Baughn. We love the roasted herb flavor Fine Herbs give potatoes, with a touch of olive oil, cracked pepper and sea salt.  Perfect!

Preheat oven to 425 degrees

Potatoes (Idaho, Yukon Gold, Reds, Heirloom varieties - what you have on hand!)

EVOO (Extra virgin olive oil) 

sea salt (or salt)

freshly cracked pepper (or pepper)

Fine Herbs 

Baking Stone for crisp, delicious potatoes, or use a cookie sheet or oven safe pan. 

Wash and scrub the potatoes.  Cut in 1 inch chunks if you have some time, or 1/2 inch chunks if you need a quicker cook time. Drizzle a little olive oil over the cut potatoes, we probably use about 1 1/2 teaspoons for a small batch, a full tablespoon for a larger batch. Sprinkle with Fine Herbs, 1-2 teaspoons and salt and pepper to taste. 

How much? As you fill up a baking stone with cut potatoes, eyeball how much you want to cook for your family for this meal, and extra if you choose. Our family of 3 will take less than a family of 9! With the versatility of the recipe - eyeballing it is the best way to do it. This is the ideal recipe to put a bag of aging potatoes to use. Cook and freeze for later.

 I often do a double batch of Herb Roasted Potatoes, and freeze one in a Ziploc, it is easily reheated in the oven, 350 degrees for 30 minutes. OR - we love to make batches as bagged potatoes (rather than buying Ore-Ida which are full of chemicals)

Fine Herbs are a traditional French blend of four herbs — Parsley, Chervil, Chives and Tarragon. This blend can be made either from dried herbs or fresh herbs. Fine Herbs is particularly good with potatoes,  eggs, poached fish and chicken as well as stemmed vegetables and whipped into a delicious herbed butter. Heat diminishes the taste of this blend, so be sure to add toward the end of cooking.

I found Fine herbs in a Farm Fresh Market in Roanoke, VA, as we were exploring that area of Virginia when we first moved. Realizing all of my herbs and spices were in storage, I would wander around grocery stores in shock. When we first got to the East, we lived in hotels and scouted the 18 target locations we had, looking for just the right one. It was so hard to live on the road and not be in our home, creating fabulous meals and being a stay at home mom. So we would get what little things we could to make these borrowed lodgings home. Fine Herbs were a  happy discovery in that difficult time. I bought a few new herbs to experiment with while traveling, as we would do meals in crockpots, or stay where there were kitchens if we could. When we finally moved into a home, we had the most fun with that packet of herbs, after months of eating on the road, and used it in all sorts of things. It had been so long since we had baked, that we made Herb Roasted Potatoes for breakfast and dinner almost daily - they tasted so fresh and good and homey in the chill of winter!! Although they heat up the house, they are delicious in the summer as well.