My Mom's Parsley Potatoes

Last night was Dinner’s for Twelve, an adult small group we meet with once at month.  What started out as Dinner’s for Twelve (6 couples) has now turned into anywhere from 20-40 on any given month.  We have a theme for each month and this month’s theme was “Bring a Dish Your Mom Used to Cook”.

I knew instantly what mine would be. 

Parsley Potatoes.

Mom made these potatoes almost every Sunday.  We would switch up meats with everything from chicken to steak, but she always got up early and put the potatoes on the stove in water so that when we got home from church, they’d be easy to finish off.

They’re pretty easy to make.  Just peel up 10-12 russet potatoes.

See that tiny bit of peel left on that potato? She’s gonna yell at me for that…

Cut them into bite-size pieces.

Toss them into a pot of salted water.

Then chop up one onion and add it to the pot.

Also squeeze in 3 cloves of garlic, or just mince them up with a knife and dump them in.

Then bring the water to a simmer and let it all cook together until you can stick a fork in the potatoes and they’re soft – about 10-15 minutes. You don’t want them too done or they’ll get too mushy.  There should be a little firmness to them.

Drain your pot into a colander.

Let the potato mixture drain pretty good, and then put it right back into the now-empty pot.

Add in one and one-half sticks of butter, 1 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper.

And yes I did say one and one-half sticks of butter.  Quit freaking out! You can do a couple ten miles on the treadmill later.  

Chop up a bunch of fresh parsley – I used an entire bunch of curly parsley.  My grocery store was out of flat-leaf, which would have been my first choice.  You’re going for about a cup.  Mom always used about 2 tablespoons of dry parsley but I just grabbed some fresh.  Just remember dry spices are much stronger than fresh, so if you opt for the dried, only use 2 tablespoons to start and see what you think.

And dump it right into the pot.

Now take a large spoon and just begin to fold the potatoes over on top of each other.  Stir gently, you don’t want mashed potatoes. You still want them to be a little chunky.

You could serve them just like this.  But mom said to put them into an oven-safe dish.

And pop it into a 350º oven for about 20 minutes.

This kind of bakes the butter into the potatoes and makes them oh-so-delicious.

You can also make these up ahead of time and keep in the refrigerator and then just bake them off right before your dinner.  Bake for 30 minutes and you’re ready to roll!

Do you have a favorite dish that your mom used to make? Tell me about it!

Katie’s Printable Recipe – Mom’s Parsley Potatoes