Farmhouse Ranch Smashed Potatoes

Featuring Veggie Season’s Farmhouse Ranch Seasoning

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Farmhouse Ranch Smashed Potatoes with a Thyme Garlic compound butter is a showstopper for your taste buds! These potatoes are roasted to perfection giving them the ultimate texture on the inside and out!

Roasted potatoes that have a little crust on them are one of our favorite things. There are many ways to roast potatoes, but we have found that a little extra effort on these smashed potatoes is more than worth it. We have eaten these so many times and tried many different variations. So, after using many types of potatoes and seasoning combinations, this is our undisputed champion!

What are smashed potatoes?

If you haven’t heard of smashed potatoes before, well you are in for a treat! Smashed potatoes are the love child of a roasted or baked potato and mashed potatoes. They pack that amazingly soft and creamy texture of mashed potatoes on the inside with a perfectly crispy crunch on the outside.

The Key to the Perfect Smashed Potato

What are the keys to this dish? The three most important ones are the type and size of the potato, the cooking method, and the seasoning.

What type of potato is best for this recipe?

The new potato (red creamer, etc.) is what you want to use. They don’t have to be uniform in size since you are smashing them anyway, but we have found that the younger ones – golf ball or slightly larger sized – are the best for texture and water content. Using large red potatoes that you quarter will not work as well, but if that is all you can find, they’re better than russets or waxy white or yellow potatoes.

How do you cook smashed potatoes?

The next key to great smashed potatoes is the cooking method. The potatoes need to first be boiled, then smashed, then roasted to get the ultimate creamy, soft and crunchy texture. A quick note on the potato simmering. The potatoes benefit from boiling/simmering whole first. The skins keep the moisture level to a minimum and potato flavor to a maximum. We also recommend removing the potatoes from the water once tender and placing them on a towel to remove excess moisture before smashing. When the smashed potatoes are complete, they should have a bit of a crunchy exterior and a creamy, soft interior.

How do you season smashed potatoes?

The third, and most important, key is the seasoning. This is where Veggie Season’s comes into play. As mentioned, we have tried numerous ways to season these babies, and had several winners, but once we tried the Veggie Season’s Farmhouse Ranch, it was like an explosion of flavor in our mouths! It was better than all the times we made these in the past and we knew this was the recipe we had to share with our readers. It elevated the entire dish to the best we’ve ever tried. Generally, ranch dressing is about #10 on
Mark’s list of dressings to eat so he was skeptical. But this was off-the-chart greatness. Put some on during the cook and a little dusting after it’s finished, and you have the perfect seasoning producing incredible flavor.

We also enhanced our smashed potatoes with some garlic and thyme while it cooked. But that’s just the beginning! We used the roasted garlic and some additional fresh thyme leaves to make a quick compound butter that can be dotted on top of the hot smashed gems right before serving.

Can I experiment with different flavors?

We are all about experimenting with these, and we love to have options for different flavors depending on what our main dish will be for that night. As for seasoning, Veggie Season’s line of products are highly recommended. They are absolute flavor bombs but made with natural ingredients. We haven’t tried the others on this particular dish, but we have tried each of them on other vegetable dishes, and they are all outstanding. Their lineup of 6 flavors includes Red Pepper Cajun, Roasted Garlic Butter, Parmesan Herb, Sharp Cheddar, Spicy Herb and, of course, Farmhouse Ranch.

Check out all of Veggie Season’s flavors HERE and use the promocode COOKINGWITHWINE40 for 40% off orders over $15.

If you plan to experiment with the flavors, just follow the directions below and add your preferred choice of seasoning right before roasting the potatoes.

We hope you enjoy this recipe for Farmhouse Ranch Smashed Potatoes! If you give it a try, leave us a comment below or tag us on Instagram @cooking_with_wine.

Check out some of our other popular side dishes below:

• Stuffed Poblano Peppers
• Hasselback Red Potatoes with Chive Butter
• Roasted Cherry Tomatoes and Burrata
• Cauliflower “Risotto”