Recipe: Dreamy, Crispy Roasted Potatoes

Make winter cooking a family affair by recruiting your kiddos to help make this simple-yet-irresistible side for any upcoming feast. Little ones will love scrubbing the spuds and older kids—with supervision—can even help peel and chop. And because they love when we let them in on a good secret, be sure to mention that this recipe includes baking soda, a surprise ingredient that makes the potatoes extra fluffy on the inside and perfectly golden on the outside! Serves 4.

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Ingredients:

• 2 lbs. yukon gold potatoes, scrubbed, peeled and cut into 1-inch dice
• 1/2 cup kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper

Instructions:

Place a large sheet pan in a cold oven, then preheat the oven to 500 degrees.

• In a large pot, bring eight cups water to boil.
• Add potatoes, salt, and baking soda. return the pot to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer. cook the potatoes for five minutes.
• Drain the potatoes in a colander and shake vigorously to roughen edges. transfer potatoes to a large bowl and toss with one tablespoon olive oil and pepper. Working quickly, carefully remove the sheet pan from the oven and pour the remaining one tablespoon oil onto the surface. arrange the potatoes on the sheet in an even layer.
• Bake until potatoes are crisp and skins are deep golden brown, about 20-25 minutes, stirring halfway through roasting. 6. Let cool on sheet for five minutes and serve.

Suzy Scherr, author of The Apple Cider Vinegar Companion, The Baking Soda Companion, and The Honey Companion is a personal chef, writer and culinary instructor and busy Westchester mom with a knack for finding new ways to make being in the kitchen or at the table exciting, fun and accessible. Scherr teaches, cooks for and cooks with adults and kids, making delicious, healthy meals that utilize new products, unfamiliar ingredients and unique ways of incorporating everyday items.

Excerpted from “The Baking Soda Companion,” originally published by The Countryman Press, a division of W.W. Norton & Company.