The first time I made melting potatoes, these were all gone within 10 minutes. Trust me when I say that this is a recipe you will make time and time and time again.

Sometimes you come across food that just simply sends you to a whole different place. Sometimes it is just the most humble ingredients that create the most incredible dishes.

This is just one of those things.

Honestly, potatoes are incredible. In chip form, in a roast, in a hash-brown or even mash. The vegetable is the perfect vessel to soak up all sorts of flavours and it’s definitely one of my favourite things to cook with.

That is where this recipe comes in. The combination of waxy, starchy potatoes, garlic, fresh thyme and rosemary, fresh lemon juice, and the key ingredient, stock, created the most unbelievably delicious melting potatoes. I don’t think I will ever make potatoes again in any other way.

What makes these the best potatoes?

The flavours are so strong in the potatoes, and the result is absolutely stunning. The potatoes soak up all the flavourful and delicious stock and become full of beautiful herby flavour. I combine some fresh olive oil, fresh thyme sprigs, fresh rosemary sprigs, a couple of cloves of garlic, lemon juice, and a couple of knobs of butter. Season with plenty of salt and pepper, and I can’t go past chilli flakes. Everything is then submerged in some stock – you can use any stock you like but I think vegetable stock, mushroom stock or chicken stock work the very best.

Once adding the potatoes, all you need to do is set these in the oven for a good 20 minutes or until the tops turn golden brown. Flip the potatoes around and return to the oven for another 15-20 minutes until this side turns golden too.

You could serve these potatoes just as is. They are unbelievably flavourful just this way.

But if you wanted just a hint of crispy on your potatoes, remove them from this tray and onto a fresh one with a touch of olive oil and place these in the grill for around 10 minutes to form a delicious crispy layer.

So these are crispy potatoes?

Look, after soaking up ALL of that delicious liquid, these potatoes really don’t have a chance to become crispy.

The result is luscious potatoes with just the slightest crunch on the outside. The name should really tell you everything you need to know though – these are MELTING potatoes and are meant to just melt away in the mouth.

You can enhance the beautiful crispy layer by adding a little bit of parmesan cheese on top to create a delicious salty topping. Whenever I am serving these at a dinner party and not necessarily as a side, I love to dress them up with parmesan, more chilli flakes, fresh parsley and even sometimes a little drizzle of yoghurt just to serve.

What about the sauce?

You can serve all the resulting liquids in the pan as a sauce – it will be a little bit sweet and little bit tangy with the beautifully reduced lemon juice. Honestly I save this sauce and even dip some toasted bread in it – it is just THAT delicious. Now it is butter based, which means that unless you are serving the sauce fresh it will thicken up harden. All you need to do is heat the sauce in the microwave for 10-15 seconds and you are good to go. Sometimes I’ll add in a bit of extra chilli to compliment the bright and tart lemon flavour, but that is totally optional.

You could alternatively make a simple gravy out of the tray liquids. Simply heat the liquids over a stove and add in some flour and corn starch or arrowroot flour to thicken the sauce. Make sure you cook off the flour before serving. This amazing gravy can be poured over some roasted vegetables, these potatoes of course, a nice cut of meat or just about anything. I love how glossy and absolutely luxurious the stock turns out, flavoured by the beautiful aromatics. Because there isn’t any meat in the roasting liquid, this is a really clean and brightly flavoured gravy.

Preparing the potatoes?

Start by preparing your potatoes. You could go the extra mile and peel them, and cut them into square shaped slices, but I think they taste just as wonderful skin on, and nobody has ever hated anything rustic looking. In terms of the variety to use, to be very honest, any potatoes would work really well – even the big dusty ones. I think little waxy baby potatoes work the very best, but the stock and butter will make anything ultra decadent.

The recipe

Here is the recipe! It’s one of the easiest recipes I have curated and it is absolutely delicious too. This is an absolute staple for our dinner parties because it is just so simple and is completely fool proof – I mean the fact that the potatoes are cooked in stock makes them burn proof!

If you do attempt this awesome recipe, be sure to tag me @theminiaturelife on Instagram and be sure to leave me a DM so that I can see, and leave a comment below too.

Super excited for the next few weeks to come, with plenty of recipes coming your way – hot cross buns anyone?