Grilled Herb Potatoes in Foil Jackets

Since a lovely bit of Indian summer is blowing through this weekend, I thought I'd share this simple recipe for grilled potatoes that comes via my friend, Meadow who got the idea from our mutual friend, Willow (yes, these are Woodstock names :)), who makes them in lots of different flavor combinations.

I love the simplicity, the mix of aromatic and hearty flavors and the texture - soft but not at all mushy or grainy - of these potatoes. For this batch, I made a simple herb butter using basil, oregano and parsley, salt and pepper but don't let that hem you in. The possibilities are nearly endless.

If you have pesto on hand, use that! Or smash some garlic into the salted butter and herbs with or without a bit of lemon and some grated white pepper. Or some thinly sliced onions with a splash of Worcestershire sauce. Or olive oil, garlic and Parmesan cheese. Really, there are a whole lot of ways these would taste delicious.

In addition to a beautiful purple potato from our CSA, I used some of the Yukon Golds that we grew this summer. I bought 4-5 organic Yukon Golds from the healthfood store and let them sprout. When the eyes were literally on stalks, I cut the taters up into pieces - each with at least one eye in it - and planted them in a few inches of good dirt in these black plastic tubs we bought a few years ago to use for container gardening on our deck. When the plants had sprouted far enough, we buried the stems in dirt again, then repeated the process a third time when they'd grown tall enough.

If we'd had a taller container, we could've kept on going. It was so easy and the harvesting was so incredibly fun. Now we have two paper grocery bags full of potatoes in a dark, cool spot in our pantry. This makes me very happy. Next spring we plan to build a true potato tower out of wood so that we can significantly increase our haul.

I rinsed the potatoes and took a moment to admire them. I love potatoes...  Then I sliced them almost all the way to the bottom and all the way through in some cases where I was not super careful - it doesn't really matter if you slice all the way through, it just makes it a little harder to hold them together.

I'd picked some herbs from our garden - oregano, basil and parsley and chopped those up to add to the butter. Then I added the chopped herbs to the butter along with a generous dash of salt and freshly ground black pepper and mixed it all together.

Next I spread the herb butter on the potatoes, making sure that each slice got a generous helping.

Then I wrapped the potatoes up in their little jackets and put them on the grill to cook.

Then I got the rest of the grillables ready to put on the grill since they did not take nearly as long to cook as the spuds.

About 20 minutes later, I took them off and we dug in. Each bite contained fresh, aromatic herbs and soft, buttery, slightly sweet potato. Heaven...

You might also like:

• Roasted Fingerling Potatoes with Garden Herbs & Garlic
• Perfect Oven Fries
• Green Bean & Potato Salad with Lemon Dill Aioli

For more delicious recipes, gardening ideas, foraging tips, and food-related inspiration "like" the Garden of Eating on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter and Pinterest.

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