A former restaurant worker has tried and tested the best methods for preparing and cooking potatoes and has shared one dicing hack she deems to be the “fastest and easiest”.
Potatoes are among the most popular and versatile vegetables in the world, added to countless recipes and dishes.
From the hearty jacket potato, the endlessly comforting mashed potato and the indulgent French dauphinoise potatoes, to a variety of chips, casseroles, soups, stews and plenty more; there’s no shortage of options and favourites. Nicole McLaughlin, culinary editor at AllRecipes, recently detailed a series of hacks for the best methods for perfect potatoes.
The food whizz often shares many of the tips and tricks she picked up while working in a restaurant alongside chefs in detailed video demonstrations on YouTube.
In this video, she began: “Starting with the cooling rack hack. This is the fastest and easiest way to dice potatoes, whether you’re making potato salad or mashed potatoes.”
In the video, she can be seen taking a tray of baked potatoes out of the oven and leaving them on the counter.
She then takes a cooling rack and places it on top of a large, empty bowl. Providing commentary on her actions, she continued: “Take your potato, cut it in half, set it down, and press it through.”
Nicole can be seen slicing one of the potatoes in half then placing it on top of the cooling rack, with the centre facing the empty bowl. She presses the palm of her hand on top of the potato to push the inside through the rack and into the bowl.
Small cubes of potato can be seen. She doesn’t peel the potatoes, and has no need to cube them “ahead of time”.
Nicole then said: “I think you can do the same thing with avocados if you’re making guacamole. I think what I’m loving, besides how easy this is, is the fact that it’s a two for one special and then you get potato skins.”
The culinary pro is a fan of using this method to make mashed potatoes but also uses it whenever she makes a potato salad, as she prefers them to be “cubed, but mostly mushy”.
After demonstrating the hack, she used the diced potatoes to make a potato salad.
Nicole said: “Can’t let these potatoes go to waste.”
And added: “Very nice. Definitely the easiest potato salad I’ve ever made.”
In the comments section, fellow YouTube users were keen to share their thoughts. One said: “I absolutely love Nicole’s honesty and her vibe!”
Another shared: “I used to work in a restaurant where we used a LOT of potatoes. We were cooking and peeling them every day!
“The owner was so smart (this was back in the early 80s) we saved the peels and we deep fried them and sold them as a dish called ‘potato skins’. A big seller!”
Someone else added: “The cooling rack hack works well for ‘chopping’ hard cooked eggs as well.”
