Turkish Potato Recipe – Tavada Patates Salatasi
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These sweet, slightly spicy Turkish-style potatoes are the perfect side dish. You can enjoy them warm or cold. So easy to prepare and full of flavor. This potato recipe is a keeper for sure.
The post has extra tips to make sure the recipe comes out amazing on your first try. If you're in a rush, use the link above to jump to the recipe card at the end! 👩🍳🔝
Turkish potato recipes
Why do we love this recipe?
Well, if the photo above hasn’t convinced you yet to give this simple recipe a go, here are a couple more reasons to love it:
- Easy to prepare. Absolutely beginner friendly. Watch the video below to see how it is done.
- Budget-friendly. Potatoes are cheap and filling. T
- Can be enjoyed as a main dish, side dish or a part of a mezze spread.
These delicious Turkish potatoes are from Rebecca’s Seal recipe book Istanbul. This book is beautiful and filled with delicious Turkish recipes, including many popular Turkish street food. If you like Turkish cuisine as much as I do, make sure to check it out.
Ingredients
- Potatoes. I used regular white-washed potatoes to make this recipe. I think pretty much any potato variety will work. You can try and use Russet Potatoes, Yukon Gold, King Edward, or baby potatoes.
- Onion. Just a brown onion is perfect, but red onion or white will do too.
- Good quality extra virgin olive oil.
- Tomato paste. You can look for Turkish tomato paste in Middle Eastern grocery stores, but just regular tomato paste is fine too.
- Fresh parsley or cilantro, which we call coriander in Australia. It is completely up to you, which herb you want to use.
- Mild chilli flakes, use Aleppo pepper if you can find it. It has a slightly salty flavour. You can leave them out if cooking for young kids.
- Freshly squeezed lemon juice.
Find the full ingredients list in a recipe card below.
How to make it
Start by washing and parboiling the potatoes. The cooking time will depend on the size of the potatoes. You want them to be quite firm, slightly undercooked. Once the potatoes are cooked, let them cool a little and cut them into bite-sized pieces.
While the potatoes are cooking, cut the onion, chop the parsley and set aside. Now we have all the ingredients ready to go, let’s cook.
- Heat some olive oil in a large frying pan.
- Add the onions and gently cook them over medium heat until onions are soft, but not too caramelised.
- Add the potatoes to the cooked onions and cook them together for 15 minutes on low-medium heat. The potatoes should become golden, but not burnt.
- At this stage add the tomato paste, mix to combine and cook for another 3-4 minutes. Cook for a little bit longer if you want the potatoes to have crispy skin.
5. Add chilli flakes, salt and pepper, and sprinkle with some lemon juice.
6. Serve with chopped fresh parsley leaves! Soo good!!
How to serve
You can enjoy it as a warm potato salad straight from the pan, served with some plain yoghurt, sour cream or hummus.
Serve it as part of a mezze. They taste delicious cold or at room temperature.
These potatoes also make an excellent side dish. They will go very well with
Storage
These delicious potatoes can be easily enjoyed over a couple of days. Just store them in an airtight container in a fridge for 2-3 days.
You can also freeze them in a freezer-safe container for up to 3 months. Defrost naturally in the fridge overnight, warm them up in a pan and enjoy.
Frequently asked questions
While you can cook these potatoes in a pan without parboiling them first, for this recipe I would strongly recommend you use pre-cooked potatoes. It reduces the cooking time dramatically. If you want to use raw potatoes, cut them into very small pieces.
No, you don’t need to peel the potatoes before cooking. Make sure to wash them properly, using a vegetable brush, like this one.
More potato recipes to try
Have you tried this recipe? If so, I'd greatly appreciate it if you could leave a star rating and share your thoughts in a comment. Your feedback means a lot to me, and it can also help others who are interested in trying it out. Thank you! 🌟👩🍳
RECIPE
Turkish Potato Recipe – Tavada Patates Salatasi
Ingredients
- 700 g Potatoes. I used 4 medium-large potatoes to make this recipe.
- 1 large brown onion. Feel free to use white or red onion if this is what you have on hand.
- 6-8 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons of tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon of mild red chilli flakes
- 1/2 cup of chopped parsley or cilantro coriander leaves.
- Freshly squeezed lemon juice from 1/2 a lemon.
Instructions
- Start by washing the potatoes. Place them in a pot and cook until the potatoes are cooked but still firm. Use a sharp knife to check if the potatoes are cooked (when the knife easily pierces the potatoes). Once they are cooked, drain them and set them aside to cool a little before cutting them into bite-sized pieces.
- While the potatoes are cooking, peel and slice the onions and wash and chop the parsley or cilantro.
- Heat some olive oil in a large frying pan and add the sliced onions to the hot oil.
- Cook the onions stiring frequently until the onions are soft, but not caramelised. It will take approximately 10 minutes.
- Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil along with potatoes and cook them together for 15 minutes, until potatoes are fully cooked and the skin starts to crispen up. Season with some salt and pepper.
- Finally add the tomato paste, mix and cook for another 3-4 minutes.
- Stir in chilli flakes, herbs and a sprinkle of lemon juice.
- Serve and enjoy.
Really loved the recipe. My boyfriend and I didn’t want to spend time cooking yet have a delicious meal. This recipe was perfect!
What a great way to prepare potatoes! Thank you for a delicious recipe!!