38 Ways with Potatoes

This recipe loads up garden potatoes with crisp sage leaves—but feel free to use less if you prefer a milder flavor. Either way, don’t pass up chicken pan juices poured on top.

Recipe: Potatoes with Sage Brown Butter

Crisp-edged bacon, starchy potatoes, and juicy onions together make an unbeatable side for just about any summer dish. The recipe, by Greg Denton and Gabrielle Quiñónez Denton of Ox restaurant in Portland, is adapted from their book Around the Fire with Stacy Adimando. You'll need 6 flat metal skewers, each 14 in., or a dozen 7-in. skewers. You’ll need 6 flat metal skewers, each 14 in., or a dozen 7-in. skewers. Recipe: Grilled Potato, Onion, and Bacon Skewers

The tricks to achieving very creamy mashed potatoes are to not overcook them and to whip them just until smooth (if you overwhip, they’ll get gluey). Serve some of the butter on the side, so guests can determine their level of richness.

Recipe: Whipped Potatoes with Three-Onion Butter

In a lighter take on classic picnic fare, substitute olive oil for mayo. You'll gain Italian flair (and lose 1/2 the calories) with puttanesca-inspired ingredients.

Recipe: Grilled Potato Salad

Meet your new picnic staple: a potato salad classic enough to satisfy purists, but with onions, peas, and tarragon for fresh flavor and pretty hits of green.

Recipe: Spring Bounty Potato Salad

This creamy, zingy side dish celebrates the bounty of spring.

Recipe: Potato Salad with Artichokes and Asparagus

Roasted garlic, tangy buttermilk, and chicken stock pack a lot of flavor into these low-fat mashed potatoes.

Recipe: Yukon Gold Mashed Potatoes with Roasted Garlic and Buttermilk

These spiced potato and cauliflower samosas with two chutneys appetizer is baked instead of fried, and made with purchased dough instead of homemade to save time.

Recipe: Spiced Potato and Cauliflower Samosas

The beauty of galettes is their no-fuss, free-form shape.

Recipe: Chorizo, Red Pepper, and Potato Galette with Arugula

We’ve used two low-calorie tricks in here: broth instead of whipping cream, and neufchâtel cheese for rich creaminess with one-fourth the fat of butter.

Recipe: Green Onion Mashed Potatoes

Using yogurt instead of mayo lightens up this chicken salad without sacrificing flavor.

Recipe: New Potato and Chicken Salad with Yogurt Chive Dressing

Good old vichyssoise, but with spinach and without cream―so it’s a beautiful electric green and kind to your waistline.

Recipe: Spinach, Leek, and Potato Soup

Mashed potatoes are good just about any way, but here they’re smoky, filled with crunchy bits of corn, and irresistible.

Recipe: Chipotle-Corn Mashed Potatoes

These potato pancakes are a bit lighter than the traditional version and will wow guests at a Hanukkah party.

Recipe: Best Latkes

This Spanish classic is typically a thin omelet filled with fried potatoes and onions. The recipe is easy to assemble, can be made ahead, warmed when ready, and is great for serving to guests as an appetizer or as part of a meal. It's great on its own, but a little garlicky aïoli is good, too.

Recipe: Tortilla Española

The bacon cream melts to give the potatoes a rich, salty glaze.

Recipe: Makah Ozette Potatoes with Bacon Cream

We grill these potatoes to add Western flair and sprinkle on dill for a dash of fresh herby flavor.

Recipe: Grilled Fingerlings with Dill

The clean, bracing flavor comes from celery root―the weird, hairy vegetable that baffles many a cook. Here, we just slice off the hairier end, peel and chop the rest of the root, and boil it with the potatoes.

Recipe: Mashed Celery-root Potatoes

We love tzatiki so much that it inspired us to create this fresh version of potato salad with lots of dill, red onion, and cucumber. This would be especially great served with grilled lamb.

Recipe: Cucumber Potato Salad

Using a skillet on the grill browns potatoes on the bottom, while the hot air inside the covered grill cooks the top. You wind up with a lightly crisped, delicious side dish.

Recipe: Grilled Potato Rosemary Cake

This reader-submitted recipe puts an elegant spin on the BBQ mainstay by grilling the potatoes and stacking the rest of the ingredients on top.

Recipe: Potato Salad Stacks

Spooned around the pie, mashed potatoes offer casual comfort, but they can be piped for a more formal effect. To lighten up the dish, you can substitute ground turkey for the beef.

Recipe: Meatball Shepherd's Pie

Sage adds an earthy flavor to these mashed potatoes, parsnips lend sweetness, and sour cream brings a bit of tang.

Recipe: Sage-infused Mashed Potatoes and Parsnips

Enjoy the Hanukkah favorite any time of year. Flavored with chives, parsley, rosemary, and thyme, these elegant latkes make a great starter course or brunch entrée.

Recipe: Herbed Yukon Gold Potato Latkes

Making the ultimate snack food is surprisingly easy! Give it a whirl.

Recipe: Potato Chips

This omelet, almost solid with potatoes, is called tortilla outside Catalonia, Spain.

Recipe: Spanish Potato Omelet

Nothing more than good olive oil and crunchy sea salt turn super-simple potatoes into an irresistible side dish.

Recipe: Golden Olive Oil-roasted Potatoes

Rich, brown butter infused with the flavor of hazelnuts makes a decadent but easy addition to mashed potatoes.

Recipe: Browned Butter and Hazelnut Mashed Potatoes

Tender potatoes and carrots need very little fussing over. Simply roast them and toss with thyme and butter for an easy side dish.

Recipe: Oven-Roasted Potatoes and Carrots with Thyme

Right before serving, grind fresh pepper straight into the serving bowl—you want that spicy burst mingling with the sweet smell of melting butter.

Recipe: Peas and Potatoes with Bay Leaves and Black Pepper

These little nuggets from The Garage restaurant, in Salt Lake City, are based on Mormon funeral potatoes, a crunchy, cheesy, creamy casserole dish that is served at just about any big function in that town. Rolled into balls and deep-fried, they are totally over the top.

Recipe: Fried Mormon Funeral Potatoes

Mashed potatoes are even better blended with celery root, which has a gentle but penetrating flavor. Don’t be deterred by the root’s hairy exterior; just trim it off with a knife. This recipe is adapted from one in Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone (1997), by Deborah Madison.

Recipe: Celery Root and Potato Mash

The secret to perfect mashed potatoes? Knowing when to stop. Mash potatoes with softened butter and warm milk until they’re creamy but still have some chunks remaining. Thin-skinned potatoes, cut into pieces, cook quickly and are easiest to mash.

Recipe: Creamy Chunky Mashed Potatoes

Roasted cauliflower adds a nutty flavor and tender-chewy texture to creamy mashed potatoes.

Recipe: Roasted Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes

Leeks can be hard to clean, but they’re worth the effort for their sweet, subtle yet unmistakable flavor. Cooked until very tender, they blend beautifully with mashed potatoes.

Recipe: Mashed Potatoes with Melted Leeks

These bright green potatoes add a bolt of color to the Thanksgiving table. Although luxuriously creamy, they have a nice tang to balance the richness.

Recipe: Mashed Potatoes with Herbed Greek Yogurt

You can make these in mere minutes, with any melty cheese you have lying around. Our video shows you how. Get Sunday off to a good start and indulge in a batch!

Recipe: Cheesy Leftover Mashed Potato Waffles

Noisette, “hazelnut” in French, here refers to tiny potato balls that are are crisped until brown. Then they’re piled on a bed of rich potato purée. Despite the vast amount of butter, the purée doesn’t taste greasy. That said, you can still make luscious potatoes with half the butter.

Recipe: Potatoes Noisette on Potato Purée