This year for Easter, we decided we wanted to do some grilling. A little bit of a risky thing to do in Minnesota that time of year – yes you can always grill (provided your grill isn’t buried under the snow), but would it be a nice day to be standing out over the grill? One of the things we decided we wanted to grill was potatoes, but potatoes need some sort of sauce or something to add some flavor. We ended up finding these herby, baby potatoes on She Likes Food and adapting them slightly. They have since become one of my favorite ways to make potatoes on the grill.
The potatoes are tender and just a little crispy on the edges from the grill, with a little smoky flavor – because of course we had to toss some wood chips in the smoke box (#EarnsCommission). Then we toss them in a bright fresh, herby dressing with cilantro, parsley, green onion, and some lemon that’s a bit of a riff on a chimichurri sauce. Serve the extra sauce on the side to dunk the spuds in.
Here’s what you need:
We’re going to start by par-boiling the potatoes. That means to cook them until they are only part way done. This way they finish cooking on the grill. If they cooked all the way on the grill the outside would get burnt before the inside finished.
Cover the potatoes with cold water and bring to a boil. Boil for about 10-15 minutes – when you insert a fork in the middle they shouldn’t be quite tender all the way through. It will vary a little based on the size of new potatoes you get.
While the potatoes are cooking, mix up your lemony herb sauce. Into a blender throw some parsley, cilantro, green onions, garlic, fresh lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. Blend it until it’s nice and smooth but you still see some herby bits.
Drain the potatoes and allow to cool about 5 minutes – until you can handle them. Cut them in half.
Now toss the potatoes gently with a drizzle of olive oil and some salt and pepper.
Place them on a grill over medium heat. That smoke you see is because I put some wood chips into a smoke box so we could get a little smoky flavor on the potatoes.
As they cook the skins will start to shrivel up just a little bit. Move them around if you need to if the grill is cooking unevenly – common when I cook over charcoal, but that’s half the fun right?
Pull them off once you get some nice grill marks and the bottoms are a nice golden color. It will take between 7-10 minutes.
Pour a little bit of the dressing on top of the potatoes. You’ll want just enough to coat them.
Toss the dressing with the potatoes and place them in a serving bowl with the remaining dressing on the side.
- 1 ½ pound baby potatoes, Yukon gold or reds
- Olive oil
- Salt
- Pepper
- Dressing:
- 1 c fresh cilantro leaves
- 1 c fresh flat leaf parsley leaves
- 2 green onions, cut into a couple inch chunks
- 2 cloves garlic, smashed
- Juice of two lemons
- 6 T olive oil
- 1 pinch salt
- ½ t black pepper
- Place the potatoes in a pot and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 10 minutes until tender but not all the way through when pierced with a fork. Drain and cool for 5 min. Cut in half.
- While the potatoes, boil make the herby dressing. In a blender, blend the all the dressing ingredients: cilantro, parsley, green onion, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper, until well blended.
- Preheat a grill to medium heat. Add some wood chips to the grate or coals – with a smoke box or in a foil packet.
- Toss the potatoes gently with a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper.
- Once the wood chips start to smoke, place the potatoes – cut side down – on the grill. Cook for about 7-10 minutes. Turn or move around on the grill as needed to ensure they cook evenly. Once the potatoes are nice and golden on the bottom pull them off the grill.
- In a bowl, toss with just enough dressing to lightly coat the potatoes.
- Transfer to a serving bowl and serve with extra sauce on the side.
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