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Breakfast

Greek Yogurt Bowls with Crisp Potatoes

Potatoes crushed flat and fried until the edges shatter, over cold salted yogurt.

5 minprep

15 mincook

4servings

Crushed potatoes fried crisp, scattered with parsley and garlic, on a white plate

Make it when

the fridge is nearly empty and you still want to eat properly

Skip it if

you want protein at the centre of the plate

Crushing a boiled potato flat before it hits the pan is the whole trick: you triple the surface area, and every torn edge goes glassy in hot oil. Cold yogurt underneath, salted and sharpened with lemon, so the first mouthful is hot and cold at once.

What you buy

800 g potatoes, halved and boiled
500 g Greek yogurt
1 lemon

And from the cupboard

2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp smoked paprika
0.5 tsp salt

Boil the potatoes the night before and this takes ten minutes flat.

What you do

Crush the boiled potatoes flat with the base of a pan and fry them hard in the oil until the edges shatter.
Yogurt on the plate first, salted and lemoned. Potatoes on top, paprika over.

Three things that decide it

Crush the potatoes flat before frying. You triple the surface area and every torn edge goes glassy.
The pan has to be properly hot, or they absorb the oil instead of crisping in it.
Salt the yogurt. Unsalted yogurt under salty potatoes tastes like a mistake.

If you have not got it

Greek yogurt: Skyr, labneh, or thick natural yogurt strained for an hour.
Potatoes: New potatoes, or cauliflower florets roasted hard.
Smoked paprika: Zaatar, chilli flakes, or a spoon of chilli crisp.

Ahead, and afterwards

Boil the potatoes up to two days ahead and keep them cold; cold boiled potatoes actually crisp better than warm ones. The frying has to happen at the last minute.

If it went wrong

Soggy: The pan was not hot enough, or too many went in at once. Two batches.
They stuck: Moved too early. Leave them alone until they release on their own.
It tasted thin: The yogurt was not salted or lemoned. That layer is a component, not a garnish.

Three ways to change it

Egg on top

A soft-boiled egg turns this into a proper meal.

Herby

A handful of dill and mint through the yogurt.

Spiced butter

Butter melted with chilli flakes and cumin, spooned over at the table.

Questions people ask

Why boil the potatoes first?

Boiling cooks the inside so the frying only has to do the outside. Raw potato fried this way comes out brown outside and hard in the middle.

Can I do this in an air fryer?

Yes. Crush them, oil them, 200°C for 15 minutes, shaking once. Slightly less shattered than a pan, but close.

Is this breakfast or dinner?

Both. It is filed under breakfast only because that is where people search for it; with an egg on top it is a perfectly good supper.

Cooking it for a different number

Written for 4. For two, halve the 800 g potatoes and leave the seasonings as they are — they scale badly by arithmetic and well by taste. For six or more, add half again rather than double, and use two trays or two pans instead of crowding one.

Or change the number once and let the shopping list follow. That is the one bit of this a person should never do by hand.