Smashed and Roasted Potatoes

I'm not really a fan of standard white potatoes (love sweet potatoes though).  Sometimes potatoes are ok, like mashed potatoes and gravy are pretty good and sometimes fast food salty-and-greasy french fries can tempt me, but otherwise potatoes don't thrill me much.  But this recipe for roasted potatoes got me interested.  I liked the concept of boiling some small potatoes, smashing 'em, and then baking 'em.  I figured let's try it, so I bought potatoes from the farmers' market and gave it a shot.

Inspiration

Shrinking Kitchen's lightened up crash potatoes
 
This is a lightened version of the Pioneer Woman's recipe for crash potatoes. The Pioneer Woman isn't known for having light recipes, so I probably would have passed this recipe by on her website.

I used smaller new potatoes while the original recipe used more of a full-size potato.  

Directions

Wash your potatoes under running water and rub them with your hands to get any dirt off.

Put the potatoes in a large pot and cover them with water and bring them to a boil.  Cook until they are tender.

When the potatoes finish, drain them and heat your oven to 450 degrees.

boiled potatoes on the baking sheet.

Spray a rimmed baking sheet with cooking spray, pour out the potatoes onto the sheet and smash them.  I don't actually remember what I smashed them with, maybe a glass? A large fork?

smashed potatoes, sprayed with olive oil spray.

Spray them with a little more cooking spray (I use Trader Joe's olive oil or coconut oil) and sprinkle with herbs, spices, and salt and pepper.  I used salt and pepper, Penzey's Mural of Flavor, and seasoned salt.

Seasoned smashed potatoes, ready to go in the oven.

Bake for 20-25 minutes.

golden brown smashed potatoes.

Verdict 

Good but not great.  Could have used more of everything.  

I should have smashed them more, we liked the parts that were thinner and crispier, otherwise they were like a boring baked potato. 

They also could have used more salt and seasoning.  Maybe I should have boiled them with some herbs or garlic to infuse them?   More salt while boiling?  I'm always scared about the amount of salt I use, I tend to be really restrained because I know I like a lot more salt than some people, so I don't want to over-do it, but instead I under-do it. More salt on them once they were smashed would have been good, too.

I don't recall seeing Sonny D eat any of these, but Husband Jeff and I liked them well enough.  Definitely try to eat them all the first time around because I don't think they reheat very well.  But we didn't really try to reheat them since we ate them in the back of the car while stopped at a gas station on our way driving up to Minneapolis.  Not much tastes good in that situation. 

To make this not dairy-free, you could throw some shredded cheese on at the end and pop them back in the oven for a few more minutes.  Or make a sauce of sour cream and a packet of ranch dressing, kind of like a hot potato salad.  Yum!  Another version would be to smash them out nice and thin and treat them like nachos by adding ground beef taco meat, nacho cheese sauce, salsa, onion, pickled jalapenos, etc.  Man, kinda sad when I come up with these better ideas after the fact.