Apparently, once we have some success with a particular cuisine or style of cooking, we make a lot of recipes in that same style. Variety may be the spice of life, but Greek flavors seem to be the singular focus of our kitchen and blog these days. (Tabouli recipe coming soon!) We had some red potatoes on hand and needed a side to go with this Greek shrimp dish, so we did a search for “red potato” on the Epicurious site, then narrowed the results by clicking the “meal/course” and “side” categories and found this recipe, which we adapted by roasting the potatoes instead of just boiling them. The resulting recipe is similar to our regular roasted potatoes, but kicked up with Greek ingredients including kalamata olives, feta cheese and fresh mint. Combining these items with potatoes might seem odd, but all the flavors came together well in a fresh, slightly salty and tangy side dish that complemented the tomato sauce of the shrimp main dish very well.
Wash the potatoes (or you can peel them if you prefer them that way) and cut them into 1 inch pieces. Also chop up the fresh mint — you’ll use about a tablespoon of it when boiling the potatoes and the rest for garnish.
Bring a pot of salted water to a boil, then add the potatoes and mint and cook them until the potatoes are fork-tender — about 10 minutes.
Drain the potatoes, then transfer them back to the pot, add the butter and a drizzle of olive oil, season with salt and pepper and gently toss it all together.
Spread the potatoes out on a cookie sheet and roast them in the oven preheated to 400 degrees until the potatoes are golden brown — about 45-60 minutes. Turn the potatoes a couple of times while they roast so that they will brown on all sides.
During the final 20 minutes of cooking time, add the chopped olives and feta to the potatoes so that the olives get warm and the feta softens.
Sprinkle the rest of the chopped mint over the potatoes and serve. While these potatoes paired perfectly with the Greek-spiced shrimp to round out a nice little Mediterranean meal, they would also complement main dishes from other types of cuisines equally well — Tuscan-style steak, kielbasa sausages, or Coq Au Vin (braised chicken, French-style) — just to name a few. This might just be the side-dish-equivalent of “We Are the World” (without all the amazing artists singing and fantastic proceeds going to worthy charities, of course.)
Greek-Style Roasted Red Potatoes
Ingredients:
- 3-4 medium-sized red potatoes, cut into 1 inch pieces
- 2-3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ½ cup feta cheese, crumbled
- ½ cup pitted kalamata olives, chopped
- salt & pepper
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Heat a pot of salted water to a boil, add the potatoes and 1 tablespoon chopped mint and boil until the potatoes are fork-tender — about 8-10 minutes. Drain the potatoes, transfer them back to the pot, add the butter, olive oil and salt and pepper and gently toss everything together.
- Place the potatoes on a cookie sheet and roast them in the oven, turning several times, until they are golden brown on all sides — about 45-60 minutes. During the final 20 minutes of cooking time, add the olives and feta to the potatoes so that the olives get warm and the feta softens.
- Garnish with the rest of the chopped mint and serve.