Harissa Potatoes

If you're the kind of person who likes a little bit of spice on everything, these Harissa Potatoes are for you! They're super easy to make - easier than regular roasted potatoes - and have just the right amount of heat and flavor without being too spicy. The perfect side dish!

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• Harissa roasted potatoes
• Quick recipe tips
• Ingredients
• Equipment
• Instructions
• What to serve with harissa potatoes
• Harissa Potatoes
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Harissa roasted potatoes

We love potatoes around here, in every shape and form. We make some sort of roasted potatoes at least once a week. Some of my favorites are za'atar roasted potatoes, young potatoes with crispy skin, and Parmesan truffle potato wedges. Harissa potatoes are a new favorite because of all the flavor that harissa paste adds to the humble potato. 

Harissa is a seasoning paste that adds a lot of flavor and some spice to potatoes. Harissa originated from north Africa. Like many seasoning mixtures it varies in ingredients and its level of spice depending on where it is from and who prepares it. The main ingredients are typically roasted peppers (both sweet and hot), roasted garlic, and seasonings such as cumin, caraway, and others. The ingredients are mashed together with olive oil to create a paste.

I personally love harissa that has a little bit of a lemony flavor in it, either from preserved/fermented lemons, lemon juice, or lemon zest or rind added to the mixture. This is the one I use. It is spicy when you taste it raw, but the flavor mellows out when the harissa is cooked on potatoes. Don't get me wrong, it still has a nice heat. But it's more subtle and flavorful than simply dousing your food in hot sauce.

I use harissa in my harissa chicken bowls recipe. It can also be used to add spice to shakshuka, added to Moroccan meatballs, on top of fried eggs, or stirred into any soup or sauce that needs some spice and flavor. So if you buy some for this recipe, don't worry, you'll use the jar up quickly!

Quick recipe tips

→ Harissa can be spicy, mild, smoky. Give yours a taste and adjust the amount you use to your liking. I use 1 tablespoon of medium-spice harissa for every 1 lb of potatoes and that's perfect for me. 

→ Harissa can vary in thickness and the amount of oil. If yours is a thick paste without any oil pooling around it, you'll need to add a little oil to the potatoes so that the harissa coats the potatoes easier. I recommend using avocado oil or another oil with a high smoke point because these potatoes are roasted at a high temperature of 415F, and that is above the smoke point of some olive oils.

→ Harissa can vary in the amount of salt it has, so give yours a try and see if you need to add any salt to the potatoes. I find that harissa is good for a lower-sodium diet because it has so much flavor that you might not need to add much salt to your dishes. That's not to say that harissa is sodium-free or suitable for people who can't have any extra salt. 

→ A good substitute for harissa in this recipe would be a flavorful chili oil. Chili oil is usually more spicy with less "flavor" so you can add some salt, garlic powder, cumin, lemon juice, and other seasonings of your choice to make the seasoning for these potatoes.

→ The smaller you cut the potatoes, the quicker they will roast. I like cutting young potatoes in half or thirds for bite-sized potatoes. Of course, the trade-off for chopping smaller pieces is that you'll spend more time chopping.

Instructions

Preheat oven to 415F. Spray or brush a large baking sheet with avocado oil.

Slice the young potatoes in half, thirds or quarters to make them all bite-sized and about the same size. The smaller the potatoes, the quicker the roasting time.

What to serve with harissa potatoes

We usually cook a couple of Cornish hens in the air fryer while the potatoes roast. They cook in a similar amount of time and are both perfect for an easy hands-off dinner. We just put together a salad while the potatoes and Cornish hens are cooking.

Baked perch cooks quickly at a similar temperature so you can cook it at the same time as the potatoes.

Burgers are also a great option with potatoes on the side instead of French fries. Chicken avocado burgers or pork burgers go great with spicy roasted potatoes. 

If you enjoyed this recipe, let me know with a comment and a star rating below. And don't forget to share it on Facebook and save it on Pinterest for later!