This is the first post in our short series of easy potato recipes! Check out the other recipes at the bottom of the post!

By now, it’s pretty much a universal truth that potatoes make for the most budget-friendly recipes as they’re the cheapest vegetable ever. Seriously. Whenever I’m strapped for cash or trying to keep to a strict budget, I always reach for sacks of potatoes at the grocery store.

There are just so many different ways to prepare potatoes that I could eat a potato dish every day of the week and never repeat the same recipe twice. Or even make two similar potato recipes. It’s pretty impressive.

This week, we’ll be sharing three easy potato recipes with you that our friend Judith Hines created for us in our test kitchen. The first in our series is this recipe for Salt-Baked Potatoes. I personally had never heard or thought of baking potatoes on a bed of salt, but it’s absolutely delicious! They give the potatoes such a wonderful flavor.

My favorite part about this recipe, however, has to be the rosemary butter spread. After tasting it for the first time, I wanted to dip everything in sight into it. (I’m not kidding!)

Simple Salt Baked Potatoes

Judith Hines for Cheap Eats and Thrifty Crafts
Serves 4, but can be easily multiplied

Ingredients

4 baking potatoes
3 cups Kosher coarse salt
1 head garlic
3 sprigs fresh rosemary, divided
1 Tablespoon olive oil
4 Tablespoons softened butter

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Scrub potatoes and dry them. Place salt into a baking dish which will hold the four potatoes comfortably and tuck the potatoes into the salt.
2. Cut the top off the head of garlic but do not remove the skins. Set the garlic into the salt with the potatoes and place 2 sprigs of rosemary on top. Cover tightly with foil and bake for 1 hour.

3. Remove foil, take out the garlic and rosemary and set aside. Brush potatoes with the oil and return the dish to the oven for an additional 15-20 minutes or until potatoes are soft in the center when tested with the point of a knife.

4. Meanwhile, squeeze the roasted garlic from the skins into a small bowl with the softened butter. Chop the remaining fresh rosemary sprig and add ½ tablespoon to the butter and mash and stir with a fork to combine.

5. When the potatoes are baked, pinch them to open up a slit in the center and tuck some of the butter mixture inside. Serve remaining butter at the table or use it on crusty bread to serve at the side.

Other Easy Potato Recipes from This Series:
Easy Hasselback Potatoes
Smashed Potatoes with Garlic

What’s your favorite way to cook potatoes?