Roasted New Potatoes With Thyme and Garlic Recipe

These roasted new potatoes with thyme and garlic are fantastic when made with freshly dug small potatoes. It's a perfect side dish for early summer meals and an easy recipe to prepare. Enjoy these potatoes with a roast, burgers, fried chicken, or just about any main dish of meat, fish, or poultry. It's also a fantastically hardy base for vegetarian and vegan dinners.

New (or early) potatoes are simply young potatoes that are harvested in late spring or early summer. While any potato variety can be used as new potatoes, the cobbler (or Irish cobbler) is particularly flavorful while still young. Cobbler potatoes are round, white-fleshed, about the size of a golf ball​, and the delicate skins rub off easily. The flavor is unforgettable, and the older potatoes make excellent mashed potatoes. Consider yourself lucky if you live near a farm or in an area where they're grown. If you regularly plant potatoes in your garden, try to get some cobbler seed potatoes. If you don't have cobbler potatoes, the recipe will also work with any small white or red-skinned potatoes.

For this recipe, the new potatoes are roasted for about an hour. They're tossed with a mixture of olive oil, garlic, dried leaf thyme, salt, and pepper to create a simple but flavorful seasoning that's perfect for warm-weather meals. Instead of the thyme, use rosemary or chives if you prefer, or toss them with fresh chopped parsley. 

While the recipe is straightforward, avoid using extra-virgin olive oil. Its smoke point is much lower than the high temperature required for roasting and will likely fill your kitchen with smoke while imparting a burnt taste to the potatoes. Pure or light olive oil is a better choice for this application.