Golden Crispy Roasted Potatoes without a single drop of oil. Easy, healthy, low calorie and virtually fat-free!
It's all about the simple things in life today. Like potatoes ❤️ I adore them. Nothing beats Crispy Roasted Potatoes to serve alongside your vegan beef, vegan turkey style roast and maybe some roasted red cabbage too. But, with all that lovely yummy crispiness comes oil and fat and grease.
Until now.....
Since the creation of my completely oil-free Loaded Taco Fries, I have been wanting to experiment a little more with using aquafaba as a substitute for oil when roasting.
Well I finally got around to it and these Healthy No Oil Crispy Roasted Potatoes happened.
Jump to:
Healthy roasted potatoes
I love traditionally cooked roast potatoes a lot and I am not going to lie, these don't taste quite as good as those. After all, as unhealthy as using copious amounts of oil is, it tastes pretty good when roasted up with the humble spud. However, these healthy oil-free roasted potatoes with aquafaba are a pretty close runner up, and what you lose (just) a little bit in taste, you make up for in low calories, virtually non existent fat content and smug, feel good healthiness.
Plus if you are anything like me, you can put those calories you saved on the potatoes to good use when it comes to dessert.
And your oven will thank you muchly too! Oily things splatter EVERYWHERE and I'm sure you are all aware of how thoroughly awful cleaning ovens is. I literally have to not show mine ever in my recipe videos because I hate cleaning it and if you so much as caught a glimpse I might die of embarrassment.
Ingredient & equipment notes
These Healthy No Oil Crispy Roasted Potatoes are super simple to make. All you need is a rimmed baking tray or roasting pan and just 3 ingredients plus some some salt and pepper.
The ingredients are:
- Potatoes (obvi!)
- Semolina (or cornmeal)
- Aquafaba a.k.a magic bean juice
What is aquafaba?
Aquafaba is the liquid that is in a can of chickpeas. When you use chickpeas save it to use in all kinds of recipes such as these oil-free roasted potatoes and vegan baking. It freezes well so if you open a can and have no need for the aquafaba save it for a later date.
How to make oil-free roasted potatoes
It's such an easy process too. Check out my video to see exactly how, but basically, you boil the potatoes for a bit, drain and allow to steam dry, Then drizzle over aquafaba and sprinkle on semolina. Shake well to rough 'em up, then roast. Flip, roast some more, then EAT!
The roughing up is an essential part of the process. It creates a thick slurry of aquafaba, soft potato and semolina which coats and clings and crisps up beautifully. It also makes them turn gloriously golden as all perfect roast potatoes should be!
Hungry for more?
If you love potatoes then you might also enjoy my Lemon Garlic Air Fryer Roasted Potatoes, Vegan Potato Soup, Green Bean Potato Curry and my Melting Cinnamon Roasted Sweet Potatoes.
📖 Recipe
Healthy No Oil Crispy Roasted Potatoes
Author:
Ingredients
- 900g / 2 lbs potatoes , see notes
- 80mls / ⅓ cup aquafaba , the liquid from a can of chickpeas (or use 4 tablespoons of oil instead)
- 3 tablespoons semolina , cornmeal can also be used but make sure it isn't too course. Semolina is not gluten-free so be sure to use the cornmeal option if you need to keep this recipe gluten-free
- Salt
- Pepper
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat oven to 450°F
- Peel the potatoes and cut into chunks. Timings here are based on a medium potato being cut into about 5 pieces. Make sure all pieces are pretty even.
- Place the potatoes in a pan, cover with water and bring to a boil. Once boiling they should take about 5 - 6 minutes to become just fork tender. As soon as they do, drain through a colander then leave for a few minutes to steam dry before returning to the saucepan.
- Line a baking tray or roaster with parchment paper or a Silpat. This is essential because no oil is used.
- Add the aquafaba and semolina to the potatoes, put the lid on the saucepan and shake vigorously a good few times to rough up the potatoes, then dig in with a spoon and stir them around a bit to get the potatoes slurry that has settled on the bottom to coat them thoroughly.
- Tip the potatoes onto the lined tray and spread them out so they are not touching each other then season with a generous amount of salt and freshly ground pepper.
- Place in the hot oven and cook for 25 minutes. Remove, flip them all over then return to the oven and cook for around another 20 minutes or until a lovely golden brown. The time will vary a little depending on your oven and the type of pan you are cooking them in.
- Serve immediately.
NOTES
NUTRITION
Nutritional information is provided for convenience & as a courtesy. The data is a computer generated estimate so should be used as a guide only.
Elizabeth says
I need some further guidance to the step after draining in colander. Although you don’t state to return the potatoes to the parboil pan, I assume that’s what you did. But when you say to shake the pan vigorously to coat the potatoes, I’m wondering what kind of pan/pot you’re using in the first place. Was it just a saucepan with a lid? Thanks. Sorry to be so unclear about this. I’m truly intrigued by the idea of no oil, so I want to try it.
A Virtual Vegan says
See my previous reply. There is also a video in the post that you can watch if it helps!
Sita says
Hi there,
Can regular ww flour be used in place of the semolina?
Thanks so much for your awesome recipes.
Sita
A Virtual Vegan says
Cornmeal is a good alternative to semolina. I haven't tried them with flour. It might be ok but I don't know for sure.
Glenn E Arnold says
Just made these tonight and they were DELICIOUS! I added some additional spice seasoning with the salt and pepper to give it a little heat! ? Yum! My wife loves them. We killed a whole bowl full (about two pounds of potatoes) with ketchup – in addition to the plant burgers I also made. Ha ha! A FEAST! Thanks for another AWESOME recipe, and OIL-FREE TOO! BONUS!! ????????
Wendy says
Of all the potatoes I’ve ever made, including oil, never have mine been this crispy and perfect. Excellent recipe. Served with the pot roast...sooo yummy!!
Bernie says
Wonderful!!
elisabetta says
Didn't think oil free roasted potatoes could taste nice and had given up on the idea of having them and then tried this recipe and everything changed. The potatoes are crispy on the outside and really fluffy inside and don't miss the oil at all! This recipe is a lifesaver! Will make it again and again
A Virtual Vegan says
I'm really pleased you enjoyed them so much. Thank you!
Nomnom says
Does this also work with yams/sweet potatoes?
A Virtual Vegan says
It would need changes to work with yams/sweet potatoes. They don't really need to be parboiled before roasting. But you could still coat them in aquafaba (you will need less as they will be hard and raw) then roast, or coat them in aquafaba, then toss through the cornmeal/semolina and roast until tender and crispy.
Julia Rossen says
Any idea how you would need to modify this recipe to make in an air fryer?
A Virtual Vegan says
I have just got an air fryer myself, but haven't had a chance to try this recipe in it, or to try using aquafaba instead of oil. I think that maybe the semolina/cornmeal might blow off while they were cooking? I'd have to try it to know for sure though.
I just published this new recipe for roasted potatoes in an air fryer today: https://avirtualvegan.com/air-fryer-roasted-potatoes/ . It might be easier to follow that one. I think you could safely replace the oil with aquafaba as long as your basket is definitely non stick. You might need a tablespoon or 2 more to coat them though. You don't have to add the lemon, garlic and rosemary if you prefer them plain but at least you'll have the timings and temperature etc down. Hope that helps!
JudyToronto says
I'm loving the raves for this recipe. Would it work with sweet potatoes?
Melanie McDonald says
I haven't tried it with sweet potatoes. I find they cook much more quickly than regular potatoes and I don't generally parboil them like I do with regular potatoes either. I'm sure it would work but it would probably need some tweaking.
Annie says
Mmm. I want to take a go at these. We are corn-free. What would be the next best thing to semolina?
A Virtual Vegan says
Semolina is made from wheat not corn so will be fine!
Frances says
These were fantastic! I eat WFPBNO and hadn't found a recipe for crispy potatoes and this one came to the rescue! Love it and have made it several times since.
A Virtual Vegan says
Thank you! That's awesome. I'm so pleased you are enjoying the recipe.
Barbara Lindsey says
Thank you for the recipes. I will definitely be trying this one. I really love potatoes and without the oil, even better.
A Virtual Vegan says
You're welcome. Hope you enjoy them!
Jillie says
We tried these tonight. Followed the recipe exactly and they came out perfect!! Big hit and we'll be making them again soon! Thank you!
A Virtual Vegan says
Yay! That's great. I'm so glad you enjoyed them!
Anna says
I almost decided to make mash potatoes for xmas this year (I try to avoid oil), when suddenly I disovered your recipe - thank you so much! :-)
A Virtual Vegan says
Awesome! So glad you enjoyed them!
Kathy says
You mentioned several times how unhealthy oil is. That is very far from the truth.. Olive oil and coconut oil and avocado oil or very healthy for you. Please do the research. They help with cholesterol levels and slow down digestion which aids in weight loss. Not to mention lots of other nutrients especially the coconut oil. They also help with the immune system
A Virtual Vegan says
I don't say oil is unhealthy. I say using copious amounts of oil is unhealthy, which it is. No-one can argue that potatoes covered in oil then roasted are a health food. Any nutritional benefits the oil might have had, when roasted at high temperatures like you need to with roasted potatoes, are probably almost completely lost. You will also notice my disclaimer just below the video that says "*Please note that by providing oil-free recipes, I am not recommending an oil-free diet. I use oil myself in a lot of recipes, but sometimes I like to shave off a few calories if I can (because I eat too much ????) and I also like to provide recipes for those of you who are trying to reduce your consumption of added oils. "
Regardless though, there are lots of different schools of thought on oil in the diet and we should be open minded and respect other people's opinions. If people choose to eat an oil-free diet then that is up to them. The same for people who choose to eat oil. That is up to them and a personal choice.
If you don't like oil-free roasted potatoes, it's simple. Don't make them.