How I batch-cook potatoes five ways

There's a five-pound bag of russets in my kitchen at all times, and on Sunday most of it gets cooked. Not into one dish. Into a fridge full of potatoes ready to become five different dinners, none of which need oil and none of which go soggy by Wednesday. This is the how-to. If you want the why, read potatoes for weight loss first.

Five pounds on Sunday, potatoes all week

Potatoes are the batch food for three reasons. They're the most filling food ever tested, at about 130 calories a cup, so a fridge full of them is a fridge full of meals that work. They're cheap: a five-pound bag costs less than one takeout lunch. And they reheat better than almost anything, especially once you know the two or three tricks below.

A raw potato is forty minutes away from dinner. A cooked one is two. That gap is the whole reason I batch them. When the potatoes are already done, the healthy dinner is faster than the delivery app, and faster wins at 6pm.

One bag, five methods. I don't do all five every week. Usually two, sometimes three. Pick the ones that match what you want to eat.

1. Boiled and cooled

The base for everything. Yukon golds or russets, scrubbed, skin on, cut into big chunks. Into cold salted water, bring to a boil, cook until a fork slides in without resistance (about 15 minutes for chunks, 25 for whole small potatoes). Drain and spread them on a tray to cool before they go in a container. Crowding them hot is how they get waterlogged.

Cooling does something useful. Some of the starch changes into resistant starch, which your body digests slowly and your gut likes. Reheating only undoes part of it. So a boiled-and-cooled potato is a slightly better potato than a fresh one, and it's the base for potato salad, hash, and the roasting method below.

Keeps: five days in the fridge. Don't freeze boiled chunks; they turn grainy.

2. Baked whole

A tray of whole russets, scrubbed, pricked with a fork, straight on the rack at 400°F for 50 to 60 minutes. No foil, no oil. The skin gets crisp and papery, which is the good part.

Let them cool completely and keep them whole in the fridge. To reheat, split one and microwave it for two minutes, then finish it in a hot dry pan or under the broiler for a few minutes if you want the skin back. The mistake is wrapping them in foil to store, which steams the skin into a wet sock. Store them bare.

Keeps: five days. This is the loaded-potato dinner waiting to happen.

3. Oil-free roasted wedges

This is the one people don't believe until they try it. The trick for crisp edges without oil isn't a coating. It's a parboil.

1. Cut potatoes into wedges, skin on. Boil in salted water for 6 to 8 minutes, until the edges just start to soften.
2. Drain and shake them hard in the colander so the outsides rough up. That roughness is what crisps.
3. Toss with garlic powder, smoked paprika, salt, and black pepper. A splash of soy sauce or a spoon of mustard helps the spices stick.
4. Spread on parchment with space between them. Roast at 425°F for about 30 minutes, flipping once.

They brown at the edges, stay fluffy inside, and taste like the fries you were told to give up. Cooled and reheated in a hot oven, they crisp again.

Keeps: four days. Reheat in the oven or air fryer, never the microwave.

4. Air-fried cubes

Ten minutes to crispy, and the fastest route from "nothing's ready" to dinner. Start from the boiled-and-cooled chunks. Cut them smaller if you want, toss with your spices (mine: cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, salt), and air-fry at 400°F for 8 to 10 minutes, shaking once.

Because the potatoes are already cooked, the air fryer only has to make the outside crisp. From raw it takes twice as long and never gets as good. This is the reheating method for almost every potato in this post, and the reason I bought an air fryer at all.

Keeps: best fresh, but they hold up in the fridge for a day.

5. Mashed without butter

Boiled potatoes, drained well, mashed with warm unsweetened plant milk (soy works best), roasted garlic, a spoon of Dijon mustard, salt, and pepper. The texture secret is two things: dry the potatoes for a minute back in the hot pot before mashing, so they're not watery, and add the milk warm, a little at a time. Cold milk makes gluey mash.

Roasted garlic and mustard replace what the butter was doing, which was flavor and richness. Nutritional yeast, a couple of tablespoons, adds a cheesy note. Chives on top. Nobody has ever asked where the butter went.

Keeps: four days in the fridge, and mash freezes well in portions.

Five meals from one batch

Here's what the bag becomes. Most of these have a free version on my recipes page, so search the dish type there for exact amounts.

• Breakfast potato hash. Boiled chunks crisped in a hot nonstick pan with peppers, onions, and smoked paprika. Hot sauce. Black beans if it's a big morning.
• Potato salad. Cooled boiled potatoes with a mustard-and-plant-yogurt dressing, celery, dill, and green onion. Better on day two.
• Loaded baked potato. A whole baked russet split open with black beans, salsa, corn, and a creamy sauce. My default lunch.
• Potato soup. Boiled potatoes simmered with leeks and broth, half of it blended for creaminess. A big pot, half in the freezer.
• Wedges with chili. The oil-free wedges under a ladle of bean chili, with a spoon of the creamy sauce on top. The dinner that makes people stop asking why I don't eat fries.

Five meals, one bag, one Sunday. The starch is done for the week. Add a bean pot, a tray of vegetables, and a sauce, and you've got the whole system I described in lazy plant-based meal prep. The sauces that make each of these taste different are in oil-free sauces that make anything taste good.

Try this today: boil two pounds of potatoes tonight. Just boil them. Tomorrow, cube some for hash, and the day after, air-fry the rest. You've batch-cooked, and it took fifteen minutes of attention.