Potatoes are the forgotten middle child of the supermarket veg isle, huddled together in their pointless plastic wrapper plastered with bucolic pictures of grass, tractors and Union Jacks. How did we stray so far from the humble yet mighty workhorse of carbs, as cheap and easy to cook as it is? Almost every culture in the world has their own iconic potato dishes, from Spanish patatas bravas, German Bratkartoffeln and Italian patate al forno, to Indian saag aloo and Mexican enchiladas and tacos, to every hearty wintery soup up and down Japan, to our very own familiar favourites from every corner of our little islands: colcannon, neeps and tatties, Lancashire hotpot, Welsh cawl to the classic Cornish pasty. So it’s not like we’re running out of ideas any time soon.
4.4 million whole, edible potatoes are thrown out of UK homes every day – this is around 700000 tonnes of potatoes annually, costing us £230 million and drinking about 65 billion litres of clean water, or 26000 Olympic-sized swimming pools, during production. Incidentally, last year Britain’s Environment Secretary warned us that that we could run out of clean water as soon as 2035, so why are we still using it to grow potatoes to put them in the bin?
That’s pretty sad when you think about it. That’s about 40% of all the potatoes sold nationally – that despite being the 6th wealthiest nation in the world, we still have school teachers keeping supplies of emergency rations for hungry pupils and parents skipping meals to feed their kids; but nationally we somehow have enough food lying around to just put almost half of it straight in the bin? Almost 15% of potatoes produced never even make it as far as being sold because they’re the wrong shape or the wrong colour. What happened?
Spoilage is our first hurdle at home; around half of the avoidable (not counting bones, shells or other inedible parts) food waste from households wasn’t stored well or used in time. By storing potatoes more effectively, they can last for weeks, not days – choose somewhere cool and dark, not in the fridge, with good ventilation. If you absolutely have to buy potatoes in plastic, take it out of the super(ficial)market packaging when you get home to let them breathe; a repurposed ice cream tub with the lid off is perfect for this. Make sure you have a separate tub for garlic and onions, as these will encourage your potatoes to sprout. If they do start to sprout, don’t panic! You can just pull the smaller sprouts off with your fingernails and cut out any bigger ones, and use the potato as normal. Or if you really can’t face eating the potato after this, bury it in a free-draining container of loose soil about a foot deep and wait. Keep in mind that potatoes planted like this won’t crop as reliably as ones planted from ‘seed potatoes’. We can also plan ahead to avoid buying more than we need – there’s a lot of meal planner templates available online, and it’ll also save you a lot of time when cooking and shopping.
The big supermarkets are really good at making our food seem value-less and disposable while also encouraging us to buy bigger bags of perishable produce than we really need, so if you can buy vegetables loose at a farm shop or farmers market, even some supermarkets offer some kinds of veg loose, you can save a bit of money and we can avoid plastic waste at the same time. About a quarter of this waste is down to personal preference, such as not eating the skin of vegetables. For the most part, the skins are perfectly edible and the most nutritious part. Mashed potatoes are often peeled before cooking for a smooth and fluffy mound, so I’ve created an alternative, but no less delicious, way of making mash and a way of repurposing the skins. You could, of course, leave the skins on in almost any recipe instead if you like. Since about 15% of the vegetable is the skin, and you’re paying for them by weight, you’re basically saving yourself 15% of the money you paid too!
The other quarter of this avoidable food waste is as simple as serving sizes being too large. We have got a little better at this as a nation since Covid, but still a long way to go – the average household bins the equivalent of 2 meals a week just by putting too much on the plate. I’ve included a recipe in tomorrow’s post to make tortillas out of leftover cooked potato, perfect for quesadillas or all kinds of nutritious lunches on-the-go to save you even more money.
Mashed potato three ways (serves 6-8)
The benefits of baking mashed potatoes this way are twofold: firstly, the potatoes dry out better, making for a smoother, fluffier mound of steaming potato and giving a mega smoky baked note to the mash, and secondly, you will have lots of empty potato skins to fill with whatever delights take your fancy. Long live baked mash.
- 2.5kg baking potatoes, such as Maris Piper
The beefy one
- 275ml double cream or oat cream
- 175g chilled diced butter or vegan butter
- 4 halves of beef shin bone, split lengthways and marrow scooped out, optional – ask your butcher for ‘canoe cut marrow bones’
- 1 garlic clove
- Salt, white pepper, chopped parsley and a squeeze of lemon juice
- Hot gravy, to serve
Heat the oven to 200C. Wash the potatoes, then bake in the oven for 45 minutes to an hour. Meanwhile, put the raw bone marrow into a blender with the garlic clove and a squeeze of lemon juice. Blitz for 10 minutes, until smooth, glossy and nicely whipped. Set aside 150g of this mixture and freeze the rest for spreading on toast or enriching stews or baked beans.
When the potatoes are ready, start to gently warm the cream in a large pan. Remove the potatoes from the oven, cut them in half and let them stand for a minute to let some of the steam escape. Scoop the potato flesh from the skins into a large bowl and mash using a potato masher while still hot. Stir into the warm cream and beat in the chilled butter, a few cubes at a time. Season to taste with salt, pepper and a handful of chopped parsley, then serve immediately, dotting small spoonfuls of the whipped marrow over the top followed by the hot gravy. Watch the marrow melting slowly into the gravy before diving in!
The garlicky one
- 5 bulbs of garlic
- 200ml extra-virgin olive oil
- 200ml oat milk
- Salt, white pepper, chopped tarragon and a squeeze of lemon juice
Preheat the oven to 180C. Cut the top quarter off of each bulb of garlic to expose the cloves, keeping the tops for stock. Place the cloves into a small, deep oven tray and cover with the olive oil. Cover the tray with foil or a lid and roast for 35-45 minutes, until the garlic is soft and golden-brown. Bake the potatoes as before. When the garlic is ready, remove the cloves from the oil and allow to cool enough to handle. Squeeze the roasted garlic out of its skins, an oddly satisfying job, and set aside.
When the potatoes are ready, start warming the milk in a large pan. Scoop out the flesh from the potatoes and mash in a large bowl, then add it to the warmed milk. Beat until smooth, then slowly pour in the garlicky olive oil through a sieve along with 2tbsp of the garlic paste. The remaining garlic paste in an incredible trump card for adding a turbo-charge to almost any dish when you’re short on time.
This one is well suited to leftovers, the garlicky sweetness complementing cabbage in colcannon or kimchi bubble and squeak nicely when tied together with a fried egg or thick-cut bacon.
The champ’n one
Growing up in a Hairy Bikers household, this is probably the one I’m most likely to make at home on an everyday basis. The beefy one is pretty naughty, but I tend to save that one for feast days and special occasions.
- 290ml milk or oat milk
- 85g butter, chilled and diced, or olive oil
- 1 large bunch spring onions, roughly chopped
- 1-2tbsp English or wholegrain mustard, optional
- Salt and white pepper, to taste.
Same drill, bake the spuds at 200C as in the beefy one. Warm the milk in a large pan and beat in the mashed flesh until smooth, followed by the butter. Add the mustard and onions, and season well. This one makes super awesome bubble and squeak or potato bread, but isn’t so good for tortillas because the spring onions make holes in the thinly rolled dough.
Statistics from WRAP, The Guardian, UNEP, & FairShare, among others.