What's the best bit about any roast dinner is? Obviously, it's the vegan crispy roast potatoes! I mean, crunchy & crispy on the outside, fluffy in the middle roast potatoes, covered in a rich gravy, are pretty much the only thing that I consider a constant in any roast dinner. Luckily for you, I make the best Vegan Crispy Roast Potatoes in the world. (Go on. Challenge me, I DARE you!) I mean. Check out THESE bad bois.
We have LOADS of amazing roast mains and sides you can have with this, especially at Christmas. Check out these 28 Ultimate Vegan Christmas Dinner Mains and these 3 Awesome Vegan Christmas Day Side Dishes. They're great for any roast dinner, not just Christmas.
🥔Ingredients
These vegan roast potatoes have super simple ingredients. They are:
Potatoes - obviously! You need a good roasting potato variety. One that fluffs up and becomes a cloud of potatoey goodness when parboiled, then roasted. Maris Piper, Desiree or King Edward are all good varieties to use.
I get our spuds (that means potatoes in slang!) from Abel & Cole along with our weekly veg box, which means I don't know exactly what kinds I'll receive. However, the kind people there add a note in with the spuds to let us know what each type is good for, which is especially useful as sometimes they send some delicious varieties that are a little more unusual than you can find in the big supermarkets. But if I'm catering for a crowd, I stick to the tried and tested varieties for consistency.
Semolina - this is optional. Well, I say this in the sense that you can still make amazing vegan crispy roast potatoes without it. But if you can get it, that's ideal. Semolina is a coarse flour made from durum wheat that's perfect for that extra crispiness. It keeps for a long time and really isn't expensive. You'll get it online, in healthfood shops and in some supermarkets.
Olive oil - I always use olive oil to roast my potatoes as I think the flavour is superior. You could try other oils, but I 100% would never use coconut oil. It wouldn't taste right.
Salt and pepper - to taste. Salt is just essential on crispy roast potatoes.
Fresh rosemary or thyme - sage is also a great vegan roast potato herb. Fresh herbs just lift the flavour more!
🔪Potato Cutting
The next thing you need to understand for these vegan roast potatoes is how to cut them for the best surface area to fluffy inside ratio. You want your spuds to all be roughly the same size, but maximise the crunch factor. Large potatoes can be cut into three. Small ones in half. Cut them at a diagonal for the best surface area ratio. (See the diagram and close up image below!)
👩🏽🍳How-To
This crispy vegan roast potato recipe is so super simple, that you'll be getting it out at all your roast dinners!
There are also some images below to show some of the steps. What you do is:
- Peel and cut the potatoes into 2 or 3, depending on how large the potates are. You want the potato chunks to be roughly similar sizes (check out the diagram above for the optimal cutting pattern).
- Parboil (that means partially boil) the potatoes in salted water. Don't cook all the way through as they might disintegrate. Around 5-10 minutes is good.
- Use large roasting dish ready with a layer of oil in the tray. Heat it up in the oven. A large roasting tin with deep sides is always a great idea for any roast dinner.
- Drain the potatoes and return them to the hot pan briefly to steam off any of the water.
- Then bash the potatoes around in the pan. I put the lid on and shake the pan up and down.
- Sprinkle with the semolina (if using), and do some more bashing around. This gives that nice rough crispy edge to your vegan roast potatoes. Then sprinkle with salt to taste.
- Carefully add the potatoes to the prepared hot oil in the baking tin. Toss them a little to cover them in the oil, and put in the oven.
- Give the potatoes a check and a shake around after 20 minutes. This makes sure they're evenly cooked.
- After another 20 minutes (once they're mostly done and cripsy) sprinkle over half the chopped herbs.
- Give the potatoes another 5-10 minutes in the oven, or until their golden brown and crispy. You can just keep them in the oven on a lower temperature if you're not yet ready to serve them. They'll just get more and more crispy!
- Sprinkle over the rest of the herbs while the potatoes are still in the baking tray, and add extra salt and pepper to taste if needed. Serve now, or leave in a low temperature oven to serve later.
Peel and cut the potatoes 
Add to a large saucepan Parboil the potatoes for around 10 minutes. Then drain and bash them so they have a fluffiness to them, and add semolina. Put them on a baking tray with hot oil just out of the oven Add salt and pepper. Roast, taking them out half way through to give them a shake Serve with delicous vegan roast dinner wonders!
🤓Other tips
The other fail-safe tricks for these vegan roast potatoes are:
- ensure you rough the parboiled (that means partially boiled) potatoes up when you drain them, then add some semolina flour for added crunch! The semonlina is optional but I think just get it and use it for ALL your roasties.
- be sure to heat the oil you intend to roast them in a large baking tray in the oven before adding them to it. Don't skip this step. This ensures that they won't soak up all the oil, but instead form that all important delicious crunchy roast potato crust which is what these vegan roast potatoes are all about.
- you can adjust the cook time depending on what else you're cooking. Often a roast dinner involves lots of different components, so everything may not be perfectly ready at the same time. If they are made a bit ahead of time, stick them in a low temperature oven (may be with other things you want to keep warm) and they'll just continue to crisp up.
🍽️Serving
Here are some delicious ideas for what to serve with your vegan roast potatoes:
Chestnut, Mushroom & Squash Christmas Filo Wreath Pie
Vegan Cauliflower Cheese Christmas Trees
Vegan Mushroom Bourguignon Pie
If you need more inspiration, check out these 35 Amazing Vegan Roast Dinner Recipes.
📖 Recipe
The Best Vegan Crispy Roast Potatoes
Ingredients
Instructions
- Peel and cut the potatoes into 2 or 3, depending on how large the potatoes are. You want the potato chunks to be roughly similar sizes (check out the diagram for the optimal cutting pattern).
- Parboil the potatoes in salted water. Don't cook all the way through as they might disintegrate. Around 5-10 minutes.
- Get a large roasting dish ready with a decent layer of oil in the tray. Put into a moderate oven (200°C / 400°F / Gas Mark 6) to heat the oil.
- Drain the potatoes and return them to the hot pan very briefly to steam off any of the water.
- Bash the potatoes around in the pan (put the lid on and shake the pan up and down). Then sprinkle with the semolina (if using), and do some more bashing around. This gives that nice rough edge. Then sprinkle with salt to taste.
- Carefully add the potatoes to the prepared hot oil in the baking tin. Toss them a little to cover them in the oil, and put in the oven for at least 20 minutes.
- Check on the potatoes, giving them another good shake around in their pan to ensure even cooking. Sprinkle over half the chopped herbs and cook for another 20 minutes.
- Check on them again, and maybe give the potatoes another 5-10 minutes in the oven, or until they're golden brown and crispy.
- Sprinkle over the rest of the herbs while the potatoes are still in the baking tray, and add extra salt and pepper to taste if needed. Serve now, or leave in a low temperature oven to serve later.
Vida says
Innever comment on recipes but these are the VERY best!!! My partner was so impressed when i made these with maple carrots and a mushroom wellington. Yum. I hope to memorise this recipe and method and use for the rest of my life. 🙂
Thank you for all the details. I feel like I'm perfecting the art of roast potatoes whilst making these.
Now just need to learn how to make vegan gravy myself...!
Louise-Claire Cayzer says
I'm so so happy you loved these potatoes! They're our favourite forever too! We have a gravy recipe here Gravy that is easy and perfect with the roasties! xx
Vida says
My last comment wasn't with a rating. Sorry!