When it comes to side dishes for a roast dinner or holiday meal, you can't beat vegan roast potatoes! The great news is that they're incredibly easy to make and only need 3 ingredients. They're gluten free and vegan, super crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. And they go great as part of a vegan roast dinner.
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🌟 Why this recipe works
Best side dish – it's difficult to beat the humble roast potato when it comes to sides for a roast or holiday meal. Vegan roast potatoes are like the foundations that all good roast dinners are made on. The main dish and other sides might vary, but the roasties will be there to see you through. If you pushed us for a top 3 side dish list, vegan Yorkshire puddings and vegan cauliflower cheese would probably round out the list.
Only 3 ingredients – humble and simple! With only 3 ingredients, vegan roast potatoes are cheap to make, simple to prepare and easy to cook. Now that's a strong combination. Potatoes, oil and salt are all you need. You can upgrade them further if you want to. We have a great suggestion if polenta roast potatoes sound like your thing.
Make them in advance – another reason we love them is that you can make them in advance and freeze them! There are a couple of ways to do it too. You can parboil (and coat in polenta) and freeze them, then finish the cooking later, or you can just cook them completely before freezing and reheat later.
📋 Ingredients
Potatoes – grab some nice floury potatoes and get peeling, there's not much more to it! We'll talk a bit more about why we recommend floury potatoes over waxy ones a bit later. King Edward, Russet and Maris Piper potatoes are our top picks. Yukon gold are kind of in the middle of waxy and floury, so they're not a bad choice either. Floury potatoes are also used in these amazing vegan dauphinoise potatoes.
Oil – for the perfect roast potatoes there's no single oil that is the 'right' one. The oil needs to have a high smoke point and be mild in flavour. Our top picks are rapeseed (canola), sunflower, vegetable and virgin olive oil.
Polenta – now, this is completely optional and you can crack on without it and still get perfect roasties. However, if you fancy giving it a go we think you'll be pleasantly surprised. The polenta crisps up beautifully and gives the polenta roast potatoes a little extra crunch. That really takes them to another level! Polenta is basically a coarsely ground cornmeal, so the recipe is still gluten free if you include it.
Check out the recipe card at the bottom of this article for exact measurements to make this delicious vegan roast potatoes recipe.
🥔 How to make your vegan roast potatoes crispy
Making golden crispy roast potatoes is an essential life skill here in the UK. We have plenty of tips on how to get your vegan roast potatoes extra crispy on the outside and perfectly fluffy on the inside – the dream outcome.
Par-boil – boiling the potatoes for around 8 minutes in a saucepan helps to soften up the outside of the potato. That helps to create extra crispy roast potatoes. Especially when you get to the next step...
Fluff – when we talk about fluffing the potatoes, we mean putting them in a colander to toss or shake them around. The holes in the colander help to ruffle up the soft edges of each potato. In turn this creates lots of cracks and crevices which increases the surface area of the potato. And that results in even crispier edges.
Hot oil – whether it's vegetable or olive oil, get it nice and hot before carefully dropping in the par-boiled and fluffed potatoes. Once the oven has been preheated, pour the oil into the baking tray and leave it in the oven for 10 minutes to get really hot. The potatoes should sizzle when they hit the oil.
Don’t overcrowd them – this one is easily overlooked, but try not to overcrowd the roasting tray. If you need to, cook them in a couple of batches or in two separate trays. If the potatoes are touching they won't get as crispy.
Bonus: polenta – OK, so this one is optional, but we love the extra bit of crunch that polenta adds to vegan roast potatoes. However, you can easily omit it altogether and still end up with delicious crispy roast potatoes.
🔪 Step-by-step instructions
This is a step-by-step overview with photos for making vegan roasted potatoes. The full recipe, along with measurements and detailed instructions can be found in the recipe card at the bottom of the page.
1. Preheat the oven to 200°c / 390°f. Chop potatoes into even chunks.
2. Put a saucepan of water on to boil and carefully place the chopped potatoes in. Get the water boiling then reduce to a simmer for around 8 minutes until the edges have softened.
3. Pour the oil into the bottom of your baking tray and put in the oven to heat up for 10 minutes.
4. Drain the potatoes in a colander and then shake them to ruffle up all the edges. The outside of the potatoes should look fluffy all over.
5. If you're using polenta, sprinkle it over now and toss the potatoes to coat them as evenly as possible.
Carefully add the potatoes to the tray of oil and generously season with salt (and optionally black pepper). Put in the oven to roast for 20 minutes.
6. After 20 minutes flip the potatoes over and roast them for another 20 minutes. At this point, depending on your oven, the potatoes should be golden brown and crispy. But they may need another 10-20 minutes, especially if you want to get them extra crispy.
👩🍳 Expert tips
Pick the right potatoes – floury (AKA starchy) potatoes are the best choice for making roasted potatoes. Think Russet, King Edward or Maris Piper potatoes. Floury potatoes are perfect for roast potatoes because they produce the creamiest, fluffiest inside which is essential for a great roastie. Crispy on the outside and fluffy in the middle!
Level them up – we've kept this recipe straightforward, with an option to include an added crunch from polenta. But you can level up these vegan roast potatoes further with other basic ingredients. Try throwing in whole cloves of garlic or sprigs of herbs like fresh rosemary or thyme. You could even add marmite – check out our marmite roast potatoes for another amazing roasted potatoes recipe!
If you're adding garlic, 4-6 cloves is a great amount. Leave the skin on the garlic cloves. If fresh rosemary is your thing, try throwing in a couple sprigs of rosemary before cooking in the oven and remove before serving.
Prepare and freeze them – you can prepare these perfect roasties ahead of time and store them in the fridge or freezer. If storing in the fridge, they'll be good for up to 3 days and you can reheat them in the oven or even crisp them back up in an air fryer.
If you're freezing them, there are two options. Either completely cook them and then reheat straight from frozen, or stop after you've par-boiled, fluffed and (optionally) coated them in polenta. Then cook them straight from frozen. Either way, they'll store for up to 3 months in an airtight container. We think they come out slightly better if you only part-cook them before freezing.
💭 FAQs
There are lots of things you can do to get perfect, crispy, golden and fluffy roasted potatoes. Par-boiling, fluffing and getting the fat nice and hot (and using plenty of it) are all essential. Also make sure you choose a floury potato like Maris Piper. Check out the full article for all our top tips.
Potatoes are vegan, of course, but whether roast potatoes are vegan depends on how they're cooked! A lot of recipes use duck or goose fat to cook them in. You don't need that though. It's easy to get a delicious and crispy vegan roast potato using vegetable oil or olive oil.
We don't think there's any one oil that's 'the best', but it's best to use a fairly flavourless oil with a high smoke point. Sunflower oil, rapeseed (canola) oil, vegetable oil and virgin olive oil are all pretty great choices.
🍛 Serve with:
🥔 More vegan potato recipes
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📖 Recipe
Vegan Roast Potatoes
Ingredients
- 800 g white potatoes – floury potatoes, peeled and cut into large 2-3" chunks
- 0.5 cup oil – virgin olive oil vegetable, rapeseed (canola) or sunflower oil
- Salt – to taste
- 2 tablespoon polenta – optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200°c / 390°f.
- Put a saucepan of water on to boil and carefully place the chopped potatoes in. Get the water boiling then reduce to a simmer for around 8 minutes until the edges have softened.800 g white potatoes
- Pour the oil into the bottom of your baking tray and put in the oven to heat up for 10 minutes.0.5 cup oil – virgin olive oil
- Drain the potatoes in a colander and then shake them to ruffle up all the edges. The outside of the potatoes should look fluffy all over once you're done.
- If you're using polenta, sprinkle it over now and toss the potatoes to coat them as evenly as possible.2 tablespoon polenta
- Carefully add the potatoes to the tray of oil and generously season with salt (and optionally black pepper). Put in the oven to roast for 20 minutes.Salt
- After 20 minutes flip the potatoes over and roast them for another 20 minutes. At this point, depending on your oven, the potatoes should be golden brown and crispy. But they may need another 10-20 minutes, especially if you want to get them extra crispy.
Video
Notes
- Use a floury white potato like a Maris Piper, Russet or King Edward. Yukon Gold potatoes are somewhere between floury and waxy so aren't a bad choice either.
- Make sure to use a mild flavoured oil with a high smoke point like vegetable, rapeseed (canola), vegetable or virgin olive oil.
- If you'd like to add garlic cloves fresh rosemary sprigs or other herbs, add them just before putting in the oven to roast.
- Freezes in an airtight container for up to 3 months. Make ahead by freezing after boiling, then cooking from frozen when ready to eat them.
Brendan Casey
Amazing roast spuds! Made these for Xmas dinner and everyone said "Wow!". Cracking outer crunch and fluffy inside.
Tavo
I love the simplicity and texture of these roasted potatoes! I have made them a couple of times already and arrived at my kitchen to stay!
Jess Saunders
So pleased to hear this Tavo! Hope you continue to enjoy them, they are perfect for Christmas time! Jess 😋
Nicki
This roast potato recipe is simple, and a total game changer for roasting potatoes for me. It’s absolutely my new standard. Love it!
Vegan Punks
Hey Nicki! Thanks so much for the feedback 🙂 Roughing the potatoes up in a colander really makes a difference, doesn't it? Dan x