Because potatoes take awhile to cook it is sometimes useful to give them a bit of a head start, and that is where parboiling comes in. Once they have parboiled they have many uses. I put them in salads, fry them up for hash browns or cut them in thin slices and put them on pizza.
How to Parboil Potatoes:
Cover the potatoes with room temperature water and bring to a light boil. Boil for 10-15 minutes (about 15 for a large potato). Take potatoes off the heat and immerse in cool water. Let cool before you handle them. This works best with boiling potatoes.
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We always parboil unpeeled yukon gold (baking) potatoes before oven roasting them – drizzling the parboiled potatoes with olive oil and sprinkling with seasalt. Sometimes we add onions and/or garlic and/or fresh herbs too. Delicious!
-Elizabeth
P.S. Found you through Kalyn’s Weekend Herb Blogging (2nd anniv)
I don't actually do that this often, but it sounds delicious!
The real mystery here is; what would possess someone to put potato on pizza?
lol, a terrible affliction and addiction to carbs?
I really like thin slices of potatoes on pizza!
Yes, Potatoes on Pizza is wonderful!! That's why I needed to know how to parboil them : )
It would be helpful to have a calculator to see if 10 pounds of potatoes would still take only 15 minutes after boiling. We are making sausage with them today. Happy New Year!
Steak fries are great on pizza! My favorite pizzeria in the town I grew up in had an Italian Hot Dog Pizza. Hotdogs, onions, peppers and steak fries- yum!
potatoes on pizza is VERY Italian, when I traveled there last, they had thinly sliced potatoes on pizza dough with rosemary baked until the potato was golden and crispy, I ate a slice almost everyday on the way home from the job I was doing there.
What does parboiling before frying do to the potatoes?I have never heard of doing both.Interesting.
Melodie – it cooks them through so it doesn’t take as long when you are frying them! You can get them nice and crispy on the outside quickly and you don’t have to wait for the middle to finish cooking.
Speaking of potatoes on pizza, when I lived in South Korea one of the more popular pizza orders there is called the “goh-gu-mah pizza,” which is a pizza topped with creamy sweet potatoes. I know it sounds strange but it ended up being one of my favs!
Adrian – that sounds good! I just google a korea sweet potato and apparently it is less sweet and has a chestnut like flavour. Neat!
sorry i may be dumb but it doesnt actually say anywhere if you cut the potatoes up before you parboil or if you just do it whole??
You don’t cut them up first. You do this whole, and you can cut them up afterwards.
I had never heard of parboiling potatoes before! Fantastic! You guys inspired me to experiment… I parboiled diced potatoes in salted water, then let them cool for ten minutes. I then put them in a ziplock bag filled with a a drizzle of oil rosemary and chives, shook it about to make sure the potatoes were thoroughly coated and roasted them. I also tried the same with pumpkin but instead of salt in the water, I added honey, and shook it about with oil and finely chopped lemongrass. My version of sweet and sour potato!
Fun! Thanks for the ideas Teresa.
Why isn’t this just called boiling potatoes? What’s the “par” for? It’s not like 10-15 minutes is much shorter than the regular amount of time to boil them.
The idea is parboiling = partial boiling.
Are any vitamins or nutrients lost using this process?
Michael, I honestly am not sure. Because you are only cooking them the minimum amount I should think not much.
Oh, yes! I love chunks of potato on pizza. I had it the first time living in South Korea…yummy! Sometimes I get the urge to get a Hot-n-Ready pizza from the local pizza place and potato wedges from the local chicken place and then eat the wedges on top of the pizza with ranch dressing on top. Parboiling will help me come up with a potato pizza version at home
Potatoes will boil whole or cut in to any size or shape. Most of the usable nutrients found in potatoes are in the skin. So yes, much of value is lost. Thanks for the fun.
very helpful, thanks!
how long will parboiled potatoes keep in the fridge/freezer?
The idea is to boil some, and store for use over the week.
thanks.
Potatoes are actually quite perishable so I would be conservative – maybe 2-3 days? You will find different answers if you google. Also make sure you cool and refrigerate quickly!
I boiled mine in salt water, cooked them in olive oil until the turned golden brown, seasoned with basil and onion powder.
Hint: use an apple divider (the one you push down on) to instantly cut up the parboiled potatoes, then pan fry in olive oil for 10min – the best wedges you will ever eat!
Great tip!
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