5 Nourishing Potato Recipes I Learned in Culinary School

During my time at culinary school, the students had access to a large bin of potatoes to practice knife skills, and we’d use the leftover scraps in meals later on—a waste-free teaching trick of sorts. Of course, once we got bored of eating mashed potatoes five days a week (despite my adoration for the dish, one does need some variation in their diet), my fellow classmates and I challenged ourselves with hundreds of different creative ways to cook this spud.

TL; DR? Yes, I’m still obsessed with potatoes, and yes, I still cook them on a near-daily basis. Here are a few of my favorite nourishing potato recipes to date—they’re all economical, versatile, and the perfect side dishes for your upcoming holiday season.

5 nourishing potato recipes that aren’t your average mashed potatoes

1. Pommes Aligot

Pommes Aligot, a classic French dish, is like the upgraded (and way cheesier) version of mashed potatoes. It hails from the southern region of France and is made with cream and plenty of melted Tomme, a creamy cheese produced in the French Alps and Switzerland. If you imagine the most epic of cheese pulls, this dish definitely would come to mind.

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The key to achieving the gooiest Pommes Aligot texture is the type of cheese used. While it may be difficult to find Tomme cheese stateside, you can also use cheeses that melt well (i.e. ones you’d use for fondue), like Swiss, Fontina, or Comté, as demonstrated in this TikTok video by @iceculinary.

@iceculinary Culinary Arts Chef Cyril shared this cheesy mashed potato (pommes aligot) recipe on ice.edu/blog. ? #iceculinary #fyp #potatoes #recipe #howto ♬ Howl’s Moving Castle – Merry Go Round of Life – Vitamin String Quartet

2. Potato Leek Au Gratin

Potato au gratin, which is a dish made from creamy potatoes covered with crispy bread crumbs or browned grated cheese, was definitely a culinary school staple, and it’s incredibly easy to make. My favorite variation on au gratin potatoes involves adding leeks into the base for added sweetness and flavor. To get the perfect lasagna-like layers of potato, I use a mandoline slicer to thinly and evenly slice the spuds. Then, I cook the leeks until golden brown before stirring them with cream to make a sauce infused with herbs and spices like thyme and nutmeg. This divine mixture gets poured overtop the layers of sliced potatoes arranged in a baking dish and covered with tons of melty cheese (I like Gruyère). Finally, bake until golden brown and tender, like in this TikTok video by @maddisonskitchen.

@maddisonskitchen #ad cheesy & delicious potatoes au gratin ? #easyrecipe #potatoaugratin #scallopedpotatoes #sponsored ♬ Just Walked In-JP – Riverdeep Mountaindue

3. Fondant Potatoes

If you want to impress your friends with an elegant and classy potato dish, look no further. A fondant potato is a method of preparing the spuds by cutting them into cylinders (save the scraps for making mashed potatoes!), browning the ends, and then slowly roasting them in butter and stock. Though this dish takes patience and attention to detail, the moment you take a bite, everything will make sense. As the potatoes slowly cook, they become buttery soft, making them well worth the trouble. If that’s not convincing enough, maybe this TikTok video by @poppycooks will change your mind.

@poppycooks Day 6 and it’s the gorgeous ✨ potato fondants ✨ #potato #potatoes #potatotiktok #chefsoftiktok #hunry #fondant #french ♬ sweet dreams x seven nation made by POLY – Johnathon “NIGHTMÆR” Miranda

4. Brûléed Japanese Sweet Potato

Not all delicious potato recipes need to take a lot of time or use heavy ingredients. This is why I love eating plain and simple baked Japanese sweet potatoes on their own, which is a staple ingredient for some of the longest-living people in the world. However, when I’m craving something sweet, I love to brûlée them, like in this two-ingredient recipe TikTok video by @veggiekins. All you have to do is cut the potato lengthwise, bake it until soft and tender, coat it with sugar, and torch it until it’s caramelized. Then, serve with your favorite vegan ice cream for a delicious fiber-packed dish that’s what dreams are made of.

@veggiekins This is sweet potato heaven ? brûléed japanese sweet potato and vegan vanilla ice cream. Do it!! #foodontiktok #japanesesweetpotato #sweetpotato #healthydessert #veganrecipes #vegan #plantbased #vegantiktok #healthyrecipes #asmrfood ♬ pyramids – hearts2tyler ?

5. Pommes Anna

Alright, I confess: My all-time favorite nourishing potato dish is definitely pommes Anna. For starters, it’s a real showstopper. It’s made by arranging very thin slices of potato layered in ripples that form a concentric-like shape (similar to a flower’s petals). Aside from being gorgeous to look at, it’s super crispy and crunchy on the edges. Most pommes anna recipes call for just two ingredients: potatoes and butter. However, if you want to take things up a notch, @poppycooks uses butter confit garlic to infuse the potatoes with even more aromatic flavor in this TikTok video. *Slow claps.*

@poppycooks Replying to @ellieharney0 ✨ gorgeous garlic confit pommes Anna ✨ #garlic #confit #potatotiktok ♬ original sound – Poppy O’Toole

An RD answers the question we’ve all been waiting for: Are potatoes healthy?: