Roasted Potato Wedges with Herbs and Lemon Aioli

I loved, loved, loved cooking school. It honestly was one of the best experiences ever. I still have my textbooks and binder from cooking school that I look back through often for inspiration and recipes. I was looking back through it recently and I realized there were a couple things from my cooking school experience that I will never make/do again.

The first being turning a potato. The world’s most useless culinary technique in my opinion – you basically turn a potato (or any other dense vegetable like a carrot or sweet potato) into a football shape (with 7 sides) and it is hard as hell. It sounds easy but it is not, here is how you do it if you want to try. It doesn’t make it taste different but apparently it makes you look all sorts of fancy.

Also, I will never make homemade poultry essence which is essentially chicken stock or some sort of animal protein stock that is reduced down, then reduced down again until thick and flavorful. It adds a ton of flavor but takes forever. FOREVER. So I will add that to the column of things that I buy because there are plenty of great store bought demi-glace options.

Mayo is also in that camp. Mayonnaise was one of those elusive stuffy techniques that our instructor made a big deal about. There were so many myths surrounding making your own mayo that it seemed impossible. Is it too humid? Nope can’t make mayo. Is it a full moon? Nope can’t make mayo. I don’t know who came up with these ideas but lets categorize mayo as one of the things I only did in cooking and don’t need to make again. I appreciate them, but I am good.

Speaking of mayo, you know what you can make from store bought mayo to make it seem a little fancier? Semi-homemade? Aioli (again one of those things you never need to make from scratch). Aioli is just a fancy word for flavored mayonnaise. There will be some people who disagree with me on that statement, but just trust me they are very, very similar.

So in honor of some the cooking school techniques that I will never use again here is a recipe for easy roasted potato wedges with herbs and lemon aioli.

Let me breakdown this recipe for you:

This recipe is super simple and is perfect as a side dish. Wedges of potatoes are toss with some olive oil, salt and pepper then roasted at 350F. for about 1 hour until tender and golden brown. From there the potato wedges are toss with fresh herbs to add some brightness to the potatoes. Any fresh leafy herb will do such as cilantro, parsley, chives, dill etc. I mixed mayonnaise with lemon juice and lemon zest and created a tasty lemon aioli

Why this recipe works:

In my opinion roasting potatoes (or any other vegetable) is the easiest way to cook them. Make sure you toss them with olive oil and salt and pepper and you are golden.

Tips/tricks/Shortcuts:

The potatoes take about 1 hour to cook, so if you are adding this as a side dish to a meal, make sure to put these in the oven before you start cooking the rest of your meal.

The aioli is not just for potatoes, serve it with crudité, fish or steamed artichokes.

Enjoy!