Taming the Sweet in the Potato

Taming the Sweet in the Potato
These accordion-like cuts amp up the flavor as much as the presentation: The spiced seasoning oil seeps between the crevices, and the fine edges crisp up beautifully. Anna Shepulova/Shutterstock
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Hasselback potatoes never fail to get a “wow” at the dinner table. These accordion-shaped potatoes are lovely to look at, and a basting method while roasting ensures that flavor permeates the potato and crisps all the fine edges. Any potato can be prepared this way, including sweet potatoes, which may be the most striking presentation, since they fan out to reveal their orange jeweled flesh while roasting.

To make Hasselback sweet potatoes, choose long, relatively stable, and straight potatoes. The key is to cut as many thin slices as possible, crosswise, along the length of the potato. To do this—without a wayward potato rolling across your cutting board—slice a sliver of each potato lengthwise along its base to stabilize it on a work surface and in the baking dish to prevent any wobbling or tilting. Then place the potato on a work surface with a thin cutting board snugged up on either side of it. With a sharp knife, make narrow incisions crosswise in the potato, approximately 1/8-inch to 1/4-inch thick. The cutting boards will prevent the knife from cutting through the base of the potato. If a few bits break off, no worries; just continue to slice them if you can.

Lynda Balslev
Lynda Balslev
Author
Lynda Balslev is a cookbook author, food and travel writer, and recipe developer based in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she lives with her Danish husband, two children, a cat, and a dog. Balslev studied cooking at Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine in Paris and worked as a personal chef, culinary instructor, and food writer in Switzerland and Denmark. Copyright 2025 Lynda Balslev. Distributed by Andrews McMeel Syndication.
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