Roasted Baby Red Potatoes Recipe (Vegan)

We have potatoes (sweet, russet, yams, red, etc.) with our suppers once a week or so. We especially like roasted baby red potatoes. These potatoes are sweet and flavorful and are a great side dish for almost any meal.

Roasted Baby Red Potatoes Recipe

10 baby red potatoes
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Wash and dry the potatoes, do not peel. Spray a baking pan with non-stick cooking spray. Cut the potatoes in half (cut the really big ones in quarters) and put them cut side up in a single layer in the pan. Drizzle olive oil over the potatoes and salt and pepper to taste. Cover the pan with aluminum foil and put it in the oven for 1 hour total roasting time. At the 50 minute mark, uncover the potatoes for the last 10 minutes. Serves 2 adults (and one small child) as a side dish.

Homemade Gnocchi Recipe (Vegetarian)

I created this gnocchi recipe originally because I wanted a use for my leftover Baked Mashed Potatoes (Vegan). I know that homemade gnocchi traditionally has mashed potatoes, flour, egg yolk, and a dash of salt in it. My Baked Mashed Potatoes (Vegan) have just baked potatoes, olive oil, and salt and pepper in them, so I figured they would work great in gnocchi. Here is what I came up with. We love this gnocchi browned in some olive oil with shredded parmesan. You can also serve it with your favorite tomato sauce.

Homemade Gnocchi Recipe

1 large russet potato (1-1.15 lbs)
Olive oil for rubbing on the potato
1 tbsp + 1 tsp olive oil
Salt and pepper

-OR- 1-1/2 cup leftover Baked Mashed Potatoes (Vegan)

1-1/2 cup unbleached flour
1 egg yolk
Unbleached flour for dusting
Water by the tbsp if using leftover cold Baked Mashed Potatoes (Vegan)

To prepare the potato:

Place a piece of aluminum foil on the middle/top rack of your oven, large enough for the potato to sit on. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Wash the potato, dry it, and poke it with a fork a few times in various places. Remove your rings and drizzle a little olive oil on the potato and rub the oil over it entirely. Place it in the oven on the aluminum foil and bake it for 1-1/2 hours, until it is baked through and soft.

When the potato is done, have a mixing bowl ready. Cut it in half and squish out (or remove using a spoon) the potato from the skin into the bowl. Discard the skin (or you can eat it separately if you want). Add the olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste, and use an electric hand mixer to whip up the mashed potatoes. You should have around 1-1/2 cup of mashed potatoes using one large russet potato.

To make the gnocchi:

Remove your rings. Then mix together by hand the mashed potatoes, flour, and egg yolk. If you're using just-made mashed potatoes, the dough should form a ball without having to add any water to it. If using leftover Baked Mashed Potatoes (Vegan) from the fridge, use 1-1/2 cup of the potatoes, and when the potatoes, flour, and egg yolk are thoroughly mixed, add water 1 tbsp at a time just until the dough forms a ball.

Lightly dust your working surface with flour. Take a small handful of dough, dust it with flour, and using your hands, roll it into a long stick shape. Use a knife to cut 1/2" pieces into the strip of dough.


For each piece of gnocchi you cut, press your finger into it to make a dimple, then round the edges a bit.

Lay out the gnocchi side by side, not touching, in an aluminum 9x12 pan lined with wax paper. When the first layer is full, start another layer right on top of it (you can have mulitiple layers of gnocchi-lined wax paper in the pan).

Either cover the pan with plastic wrap and freeze the gnocchi for later, or cover and refrigerate the gnocchi until you are ready to boil them that day. If you freeze them, remember to take the pan out of the freezer after a few hours, remove the wax paper, and relocate the frozen gnocchi to a large Ziploc freezer bag.

To cook the gnocchi:

Non-stick cooking spray
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Handful of shredded parmesan cheese (fresh)

Heat a large pot of water, with a dash of salt, to boiling over High heat. Drop in gnocchi a small handful at a time until all of the gnocchi are in the pot. The gnocchi will float to the top when they are ready to take out.

Meanwhile, on another burner, heat a large skillet sprayed with non-stick cooking spray to Low heat.

Use a slotted spoon to remove the floating gnocchi from the pot. Shake the spoon over the pot to drain off as much water as possible. Put the drained gnocchi in the heated skillet. Use a spatula to move the gnocchi around every couple of minutes, until all of the gnocchi are finally in the skillet. Raise the skillet heat to Med. and drizzle a little olive oil over the gnocchi, salt and pepper to taste, and saute them until all of the gnocchi are lightly browned. This will take around 15 minutes. Turn off the heat and add a handful of shredded parmesan cheese to the gnocchi and mix together. Serves 4 as a side dish, or 2 adults (and one small child) as a main course topped with tomato sauce (or served with a grilled meat if not vegetarian) and a side of vegetables.

Baked Sweet Potato/Yam Fries Recipe (Vegan)

I stopped buying packaged french fries years ago because of Sam's hydrogenated soybean oil sensitivity. We love roasted sweet potatoes and yams, so to do something different, I started making fries, baking them instead of frying them. The nice thing is you don't need ketchup with these fries. They are flavorful enough to eat by themselves, and are a great finger-food to eat with tacos, fried fish, or hamburgers. The picture above are yam fries (sweet potato fries are not orange).

Baked Sweet Potato/Yam Fries Recipe

1 large sweet potato or yam (or 2 small)
Non-stick cooking spray
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray. Peel the skin off of the sweet potato/yam. Cut it into steak fry-sized strips, not too wide or thick. Place the strips on the cookie sheet side-by-side, not overlapping, with space in between them like this (this is one large yam):


When all of the strips are layed out on the cookie sheet, spray them with cooking spray, and then salt and pepper them to taste. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Fries will be slightly carmelized when done. Serves 2 adults (and one small child) as a side dish.

Chicken and Mashed Potatoes with Mushroom Gravy Recipe

My absolute favorite supper growing up was when my Mom made her "chicken with mushroom gravy" and mashed potatoes. She would flour and pan fry the chicken to brown it, then add the chicken to a large pan and pour cream of mushroom soup mixed with milk over it and bake it in the oven until the chicken was fully cooked and the gravy was bubbly. She would serve it with mashed potatoes. This meal was Heaven on a plate in my mind, and still is, the rare times I get to eat it when we visit my parents. I decided I needed to recreate this meal for Sam, using ingredients she can eat, so she can have a memory built around it like I do. This is my version, and my family loves it.

Chicken and Mashed Potatoes with Mushroom Gravy Recipe

For the mashed potatoes:

Make baked mashed potatoes using this recipe. It will take about 1-1/2 hours to make the potatoes from beginning to end.

For the mushroom gravy:

Make the mushroom gravy using this recipe. It will take about 25 minutes to make the gravy.

For the chicken:

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Salt and pepper

Butterfly the raw chicken breasts so they are not so thick and tenderize them using a fork to prick them. Heat a non-stick skillet, sprayed with cooking spray, to High heat and cook the chicken for about 7 minutes per side or until browned and fully cooked. Salt and pepper to taste.

When all of the components are done, plate the mashed potatoes and a serving of chicken breast, and cover everything with the mushroom gravy. I also serve a green vegetable, like green beans, with this dish on the side. Serves 2 adults (and one small child) with a little mashed potatoes and gravy left over.

Baked Mashed Potatoes Recipe (Vegan)

Since we do not use butter or milk to cook with, I had to come up with a mashed potato recipe that still tasted great, and would be worthy of my Chicken and Mashed Potatoes with Mushroom Gravy recipe. I am a huge fan of baking potatoes instead of boiling them. It takes longer to do, but the results are well worth the wait.

Baked Mashed Potatoes Recipe

3 medium russet potatoes (2.5 lbs total)
Olive oil for rubbing on potatoes
1/4 cup olive oil for mixing in potatoes
Salt and pepper

Place a piece of aluminum foil on the middle/top rack of your oven, large enough for 3 potatoes to sit on. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Wash the potatoes, dry them, and poke them with a fork a few times in various places. Now is a good time to remove your rings. Drizzle a little olive oil on each potato and rub the oil over them entirely. Place them in the oven on the aluminum foil and bake them for 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 hours, until they are baked through and soft.

When the potatoes are done, have a mixing bowl ready. For each potato, cut it in half and squish out (or remove using a spoon) the potato from the skin into the bowl. Discard the skins (or you can eat them separately if you want). Add 1/4 cup of olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste, and use an electric hand mixer to whip up the mashed potatoes. Serves 4 to 6 as a side dish.