Roast potatoes and apples with bacon and herb salt

Roast potatoes and apples with bacon and herb salt
  • Serves icon Serves 8
  • Time icon Hands-on time 25 min, oven time 1 hour 25 min

Just when you thought roast potatoes couldn’t get any better we’ve combined perfectly crisp roasties with caramelised apples and salty bacon in this fantastic side dish.

Check out our roast potato recipe with spring onions, bacon and parsley too for another roast dinner winner.

Nutrition: per serving

Calories
483kcals
Fat
21.6g (6.4g saturated)
Protein
8g
Carbohydrates
60.5g (12.6g sugars)
Fibre
6.8g
Salt
2.1g
Calories
483kcals
Fat
21.6g (6.4g saturated)
Protein
8g
Carbohydrates
60.5g (12.6g sugars)
Fibre
6.8g
Salt
2.1g

Ingredients

  • 150g goose or duck fat
  • 2kg floury potatoes, cut into chunks
  • 2 tbsp plain flour
  • 5 eating apples (such as braeburn or cox), cored and cut into fat wedges

For the bacon and herb salt

  • 4 British free-range streaky bacon rashers
  • 2 sprigs each fresh sage and rosemary, leaves picked
  • 4 fresh thyme sprigs, leaves picked
  • ½ bunch fresh parsley or chives
  • 2 tbsp sea salt flakes

Method

  1. For the bacon and herb salt, heat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/gas 6. Line a roasting tray with foil, lay out the bacon rashers and cook for 20-25 minutes, turning once, until completely crisp. Five minutes before the end of cooking, sprinkle over the sage and rosemary leaves. Once everything is crisp, pat dry with kitchen paper and remove to a wire rack to cool.
  2. Put the crisp bacon, cooked and fresh herbs and salt into a food processor or mini chopper, and whizz (or pound with a pestle and mortar) to coarse crumbs. Put in an airtight container and set aside.
  3. Put the potatoes in a pan of well-salted boiling water and cook at a brisk boil for about 10 minutes until nearly cooked (you don’t want them too soft but the longer you dare leave them, the crisper they’ll be once roasted). Drain, leave to steam for a minute, then return to the pan. Add the flour and some salt and toss gently, trying not to break them up. Meanwhile, put the goose fat into your largest available roasting tin. Heat in the oven until the fat has melted and is starting to spit.
  4. Remove and carefully scatter the potatoes into the tin, tossing in the hot fat to coat. Roast for 50-60 minutes, turning occasionally. Add the apple wedges after 20 minutes. They’re ready when the potatoes are crisp and golden and the apples are caramelised and chewy. Scatter a little herb and bacon salt over the top just before serving (see tip).

delicious. tips

  1. The roast apples caramelise, providing a gorgeous contrast to the potatoes. Leftover bacon and herb salt is great on almost any savoury food.

  2. Make the bacon and herb salt, without the parsley or chives, up to 2 days ahead. Keep somewhere cool and dry. The salt helps to preserve the bacon, so it’s fine to keep out of the fridge. The potatoes can be peeled, chopped and kept in lightly salted water for up to 6 hours or unsalted water overnight. Keep them somewhere cool – but not in the fridge or they’ll go sticky.

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