Never Throw Away Your Potato Peels
SOS= Save Our Skins
Eating these may not put me up for environmentalist of the year, but they still are so delicious.
There is a story that is family legend regarding my younger sister, Emily. Growing up, she used to love eating baked potatoes. Even more important than the potatoes insides to her were their skins. Starting at a very young age, she would wait until the fluffy bits were finished, then lovingly slather the skins with about a half a stick of butter. She would proceed to roll the skins tightly into a cigar. The grand finale to her performance would come: whether or not anyone was watching, she would proceed to swallow her snack whole with unprecedented gusto (or, at least, that’s the way we remember it). It was so funny to see this little person chow down on the skins, and we probably ate a lot more baked potatoes than we would have otherwise as a result. I wondered recently if Emily remembered this story; that is, until I posted this picture on social media. She was quick to respond: “Please drop these off at my place so I can roll them with butter.”
As much as her statement made me laugh, Emily is really on to something: Potato Skins are a superior snack, and it doesn’t take much effort to give them a “glow-up.” It doesn’t matter if your skins are already pre-roasted like in the picture above or peeled off your potatoes when they were raw— you can still make a delicious quick fix that’ll make you wonder what other vegetable scraps you’ve been missing out on.
Low Brow: Simple Roasted Skins
With snacks like these, the sriracha is never far behind.
This is the most basic way to enjoy roasted potato skins, as recommended on The Kitchn. Heat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Oil and season your potato skins with salt and other seasonings of choice (pepper is a classic move, but I would recommend Old Bay). Place on a parchment or silpat-lined baking sheet for 20-25 minutes, opening the oven and moving your skins around a bit halfway through. Throw on some cheese for the last five minutes if you’d like, and then finish with some scallions.
According to The Kitchn link above, this trick also works to make a sweet treat with apple skins and cinnamon-sugar. Can’t wait to give that one a go!
Medium Brow: Potato Skin “Jackets”
This method takes a little more planning, as you can only used baked potato skins rather than raw peels. Once your potatoes have been baked, be careful in spooning out the insides so that you have complete halves of the skins left over. Oil and season them like you did above, and bake the skins for at least 15 minutes. Then, you can either re-stuff the skins with mashed potatoes or fill them with whatever you desire (cheese, spinach-artichoke dip, etc.) and rebake them. Certainly a crowd-pleaser…
Last, But Not Least: Potato Broth
You can dehydrate your skins in a low oven without any oil. Once they are dried through, you can add them to a stock pot with or without any other vegetable scraps and they will contribute an extra-concentrated flavor of broth to the stock you make.
