Potatoes are the bridge-builders, the peacemakers, the United Nations of the thanksgiving table. Some people hate Turkey. Others hate yams. Not everyone likes pie. But everyone likes potatoes. Mash-em, bake-em, roast-em, shake-em … as long as they’re not raw or made from a powdered mix, people will eat your potatoes.
Here’s a collection of interesting, delicious-sounding, or well-reviewed potato recipes to help you tame the Thanksgiving table. We’ll keep it updated with new ones we find over the next few weeks (send suggestions to [email protected] or leave them in the comments).
Oh, and be sure to check out all of our Ultimate Thanksgiving posts. Nothing will help make you menu and decor planning easier.
Potato(e) Primer
- Everything you need to know about potatoes, from the queen of instructional cooking herself, Kathy Maister.Â
- If you can never spell ‘potato’ right, feel free to blame Dan Quayle
Mashed
Personally, I’ll just have mine mashed, fluffy and rich, maybe a little on the chunky side.Â
- SeriousEats tackles the fluffy vs. creamy debate (as usual, with great rigor)
- Horseradish makes everything (yes, literally, every thing) taste better. Horseradish potatoes are amazing.
- Coconut mashed potatoes sound very tasty
- Straight-up, old-school mashed potatoes
In the OvenÂ
- StartCooking.com’s detailed, easy-to-follow directions for oven-baked potatoes.
- Oven fried potato chips. Non-standard for Thanksgiving, perhaps, but maybe that’s a good thing.
- Paula Deen’s oven-fried potato wedges. Is Paula Deen for real? Mommy, her eyes are touching me!Â
Microwave
- Have I mentioned I love StartCooking.com? Go watch this video on how to microwave a potato, then thank Kathy for not wasting your time.
- Just one recipe in this section. Hah!
Salad
Is potato salad at a Thanksgiving table a good idea? Just askin’.
- Rachel Ray would tell you how to make a red, white and blue BBQ potato salad. She just would.
- Curried Potato salad from Martha Stewart
On the Grill
I wouldn’t fire up the grill just to throw some spuds on, but if you’re grilling a bird anway…
Sauteed
Why not just have a breakfast-for-dinner Thanksgiving? Hashbrowns, anyone?
- America’s Test Kitchen Potatoes Lyonnaise [subscription required, and worth it]
- Latkes, Latkes, and more Latkes!
- Aaaannnd … Â asian latkes.Â
(From “The Latke Who Couldn’t Stop Screaming: A Christmas Story” at McSweeny’s)
Soup
Hey! Remember about soup!? Yeah! Soup is actually pretty good; and for some reason I never see it on Thanksgiving tables. Here are some potato soups to try on your unsuspecting pilgrims this year:
- Top rated! Wow, this Ham & Potato soup recipe has been reviewed 4,233 times, and still has a five-star rating. Do you realize how incredible that is? I’d leave the ham out, though, since it might make the turkey feel insecure.
- Baked potato soup. Fewer ratings; still sounds good.Â
- SeriousEats’ Kenji Lopez-Alt brings us the ‘Ajiaco’, a Colombian potato soup that uses three kinds of potatoes, corn, jalapeños, and avocado. Take that, boring food!