The Orange Kitchen

Crispy Smashed Potatoes with Avocado and Garlic Aioli. 

I love potato. Potato is so damn good, like you can mash it, have it as chips, bake it, eat it with just about everything - basically potato is brilliant. But sometimes potato gets a bit boring. However, being the brilliant vegetable that it is, potato is super easy to make fancy, add flavours to and devour in new and highly tasty ways.

I told my mum that I was going to make smashed potatoes with an avocado based aioli and she laughed at me and said 'one, how the heck does a potato become smashed, and two, avocado will never go with potato'. I then laughed in return and said 'watch me'.

Potatoes often receive a bad wrap for being a high GI food, but that is entirely dependent upon the way in which they are cooked and, more so, what they are eaten with. These crispy smashed potatoes have no butter, no salt, no oil and no other nasty add ons which means, they are actually really good for you, super filling, and still taste amazing.

Ingredients;
(serves 2)
6 potatoes
1 hass avocado
1 tsp minced garlic (or 2 cloves)
1 Spring onion (shallot0
pepper
fresh chives

1. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius (fan-forced).
2. Fill a large pot with cold water and add in the potatoes. Place this over high heat on the stove top and bring to the boil. Boil the potatoes until a skewer can easily be inserted into the middle of each potato (approx. 10 minutes).
3. Remove the potatoes from the pot and place on a lined baking tray. Put the potatoes into the oven for approx. 10-15 minutes, just enough time to let them become crispy. Be careful to not let them burn! When they're cooking, using the back of a spatula or knife, press down on the potatoes until the smash outwards being careful not to smash them too much otherwise you might end up with a potato mess. I like to put the potatoes back in the oven for 5 minutes after smashing them to make them go a bit crispier, but that's entirely up to your personal preference.
4. Meanwhile, take the garlic, avocado and spring onion and put them all in a blender. Blend that until it is smooth and delicious looking. Using a spatula/knife/spoon, scoop this avocado and garlic goodness into a zip-lock bag that has the corner cut off (only allowing a small hole - about 0.5cm at the most!).
5. When the potatoes are crispy and smell amazing, take them out of the oven. Generously garnish them with pepper and chopped up chives before using the zip-lock bag to pipe the avocado and garlic aioli over the top to make them look pretty and taste amazing.