Low Fat Potato Roast

Low Fat Potato Roast

If you have heard anyone say I do not like potato, please let me know because I am yet to come across such a person. Some people may try to avoid it thinking it causes gastric problems but still not because they dislike it. What a globally loved vegetable it is. Interestingly, potatoes are not considered one of the five a day vegetables although you may happily finish even two servings of it. It is considered a vital part of the diet but more as a starchy vegetable. It is probably well known that it contains a lot of carbohydrates but it also contains other goodies like phytochemicals (carotenoids, polyphenols). With skin, it also has a good portion of vitamin C and vitamin K. It has so much goodness and it is a shame that it needs quite a bit of oil to create one of its best form – roast! But not anymore. I tried this method having two things in mind. One was that the oil consumption must be less but still have a crispy outside. Second point was that my brother used to tell me that his attempt to make roast would always result in charred potatoes. This recipe is fairly failure proof and obviously needs far lesser oil. Here is how I did it...
Potatoes (I used about 10 baby potatoes and you do not really need baking potatoes for this)
½ teaspoon chilly powder
2 teaspoons oil
Asafoetida
Turmeric powder
Salt as required
Mustard seeds to temper (optional)

I prefer to peel the potatoes, but that is upto you. Cut them into bite size pieces. Typically baby potatoes that we used to get in India will be so tiny you do not have to cut them but ones I get here are still big. You can use normal white potatoes also. In a saucepan add 2 teaspoons oil, the potatoes, chilly powder, turmeric powder, asafoetida and mix well. In a baking tray, put a sheet of aluminium foil and preheat the oven to 230 deg Centigrade. Cook the potatoes in the oven and keep moving them around in between so all sides get evenly cooked and they do not stick to the foil. It took about 30 minutes for mine to be done. If you wish, you can splutter some mustard seeds in few drops of oil and add to the potatoes finally along with desired amount of salt. Yummy, crispy roast is ready !!