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Mini Hasselback Potatoes with Green Tahini Sauce

These crispy accordion pleated potatoes are a great side dish for any roast or grilled meat. Or just serve them as a side dish with herby bright and fresh green tahini sauce.
Course Side Dish
Cuisine Levantine, Swedish
Keyword green tahini sauce, hasselback potatoes, mint, parsley, tahini
Prep Time 25 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Servings 4

Ingredients

Hasselback Potatoes

  • 2 lb mini yellow potatoes, scrubbed clean, or 1 kg (about 4-5 potatoes per person)
  • 2 tbsp Butter, melted
  • 1 tsp Onion Powder
  • 1/2 tsp Harissa powder
  • 1/4 tsp garlic powder
  • 3/4 tsp Salt or to taste
  • 1/4 tsp Black Pepper
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • Maldon or other finishing salt to garnish the potatoes

Basic Tahini Sauce, makes 2 cups

  • 6 tbsp fresh lemon juice
  • 5 medium cloves garlic, smashed, skins removed
  • 1 tsp kosher salt, divided
  • 1 cup jarred tahini
  • 1/4-1/2 tsp cumin, or to taste

Green Tahini Sauce

  • 1 cup tahini sauce, from above
  • 2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
  • 1 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
  • 1 tbsp chopped fresh dill
  • 1 tbsp chopped fresh mint
  • 2 tsp chopped fresh chives
  • kosher salt
  • lemon wedge, optional

Instructions

Harissa Hasselback Potatoes

  1. Heat the oven to 425F, and place one large or two medium baking sheets in to warm through.
  2. Make very thin slices (1/16" - 1/8") along your baby potatoes, ensuring you don't go all the way down. A sharp knife and a steady hand are all you need. Place them into a large bowl.
  3. In a small pot melt the butter. Once melted, add the onion powder, harissa powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper and mix well to combine. Pour this over the potatoes and toss well to combine and coat well.
  4. Remove the baking sheets from the oven and working quickly, spread the potatoes out. Add a 1- 1 1/2 tbsp of oil to the bowl and use a brush to capture any leftover seasonings. Brush onto the tops of your potatoes with this oil.

  5. Bake for 40-45 minutes, depending on the size of the potatoes. They should be golden and cooked through, with crispy skins.

  6. If you would like some extra crispness or browning, move the sheet(s) to the upper third rack and broil till a slight char begins.
  7. Serve as is, with a sprinkling of Maldon finishing salt. Can be served with Green Tahini Sauce.

Basic Tahini Sauce

  1. Have a bowl of ice water ready for blending the tahini sauce.
  2. Place the smashed garlic cloves into a blender, along with the lemon juice and 1/4 tsp of salt. Blend on high till you have a coarse purée. Let it sit together for 10 minutes to let the garlic mellow.
  3. Strain the lemon garlic mixture through strainer into a medium large bowl. Use a spoon to push down on the purée to ensure that you have as much of the lemon garlic mixture in the bowl. Discard the solids in the strainer.
  4. To the lemon garlic juice add the tahini, cumin and remaining salt. Use a whisk to blend well. You will find that the tahini will start to stiffen up. Using 1 tbsp at a time, add ice water to the mixture and stir, till it is loosened up to the desired consistency. You may use up to 2/3 cup of water. Whisk energetically till the mixture is smooth and creamy, almost fluffy.
  5. Taste and re-season as desired.
  6. If you are not using all the tahini sauce at once, whisk in a couple more tablespoons of ice water, this will help it from becoming too thick in the fridge.
  7. This tahini will keep in the fridge for 1 week, or in the freezer for 1 month.

Green Tahini Sauce

  1. Place 1 cup of tahini sauce into a food processor. Add the chopped herbs and blend till well combined. Season with salt as desired. A squeeze of lemon is great to bring out the herby flavours as well. Serve with crudités or Hasselback Potatoes, or even spoon it over grilled meats or fish.

    To turn this into a fantastic salad dressing just thin it out with more ice water and lemon juice till you like the consistency.

  2. See blog post for more details.

Recipe Notes

Feel free to make cut the Basic Tahini Sauce recipe in half. Then you will have just enough for the Green Tahini Sauce. I like having extra in the freezer, as it can be used to make Hummus.

Feel free to play with the herbs.  If you only want to use two of them, that's fine.  If you want to skew them so that mint is the star, just adjust the amounts.  This sauce is pretty forgiving, so feel free to even add more than stated.

Tahini Sauce inspired by the recipe in the cookbook Sahav, by Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook