15 Ways To Eat Potatoes For Breakfast

Filling, savory, and full of nutrients, potatoes are an ideal breakfast food. Potatoes boast high concentrations of antioxidants and vitamins such as vitamins C and B6, especially if the nutrient-rich skins are left on. Potatoes are also a significant source of good gut bacteria that can aid in the digestion process. And as if that weren't enough, studies have found that potatoes might help us regulate our blood sugar content, which means that eating potatoes in the morning can help us manage any hunger pangs that might occur later in the day.

Hunger pangs can take place in response to a sudden drop in insulin, which regulates blood sugar, and this is especially true for people living with diabetes. In short, if you want to start your day on the right foot, without getting too hungry, too soon, eat potatoes. Luckily, potatoes come in so many tasty varieties at breakfast, from latkes to hash. Let's take a look at some of the best ways to eat potatoes for breakfast.

Ireland is well-known for its love of potatoes. In fact, they love them so much that they'll eat different types of potatoes in a single dish. This is the nature of boxty, a combination of shredded raw potatoes and pre-cooked mashed potatoes invented in Ireland somewhere around the 18th century. The curious name is believed to have come from the Irish word "acstaí," which derives from either "bácús," meaning "bakery," or "arán bocht tí," meaning "bread of the poorhouse."

To prepare it, arm yourself with especially starchy potatoes, like the russet variety, shred them up, and combine them with mashed potatoes, flour, baking soda, and buttermilk. Once your mixture is firm and thick, pour it into a buttered or oiled frying pan just like good ol' American pancakes, and fry on both sides until lightly browned. Serve with sausage, bacon, or fried eggs, or all of those together in true Irish breakfast fashion. If you're looking to be adventurous, know that boxty is incredibly versatile. It's perfectly delicious when made with dried fruit and sprinkled with powdered sugar, or turned into a quesadilla-style shell and filled with curry.

Unless you're content with just eating boxed cereal every day of your sad life, you probably already know all about the wonders of hash browns. This all-around favorite breakfast food is made of shredded potatoes that have been fried until browned and crispy, sometimes with onions and various spices. But if you've ever bit into a forkful of hash browns and found part of it to be a little cold and slimy, you'll know that evenly cooked hash browns are not all that easy to pull off. To avoid this sorry fate, we recommend following a few key steps.

First, and counterintuitively, try not to stir the potatoes around once they're in the pan, as this risks leaving them limp. Instead, wait until they harden enough to flip, even if it has to happen in sections. Second, be sure to use the right pan. A nonstick or cast-iron pan will allow your potatoes the alone time they need to get nice and crispy without letting them stick to the bottom and become impossible to scrape off.

The best thing you can do with a breakfast potato is to keep it simple and then adorn it with your centerpieces of choice, like a sunny-side-up fried egg or a hearty sausage. To accomplish this, a seasoned skillet is the way to go.

For chef Maxine Siu's version, heat some olive oil in a skillet, sauté your chopped yellow onions until caramelized, then parboil your potatoes, smash them up, and roast them in the oven for up to 20 minutes. Then simply combine the potatoes with thyme, rosemary, and your caramelized onions. Another great option for skillet potatoes is to thinly slice your potatoes, with or without the skins, fry them in an oiled skillet with salt, pepper, and mixed herbs, and once they're golden brown, add garlic powder and butter. And you don't even have to parboil the potatoes first! Easy peasy. 

We've already established that hash browns are amazing, but they're even better with cheese. Enter this delicious hash brown and cheese breakfast casserole. The beauty of this recipe is that you can make it ahead of time and heat it up in the microwave after storing it in the fridge or freezer in individualized portions. This, of course, means you get to sleep in on hash brown casserole mornings.

To make it, simply combine 32 ounces of thawed shredded frozen hash browns, a can of cream of chicken soup, 1 cup of chopped onions, 2 cups of cheddar cheese, half a stick of melted butter, and black pepper, and pour everything into a prepared baking dish. Top with even more cheese, because it's best to err on the side of including as much cheese as possible, and bake for 50 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. You may have noticed that this recipe doesn't call for salt. This is a good thing — between the cheese and the pre-seasoned cream of chicken soup, there will be plenty of sodium in this casserole to go around.

While the hash brown casserole is an illustration of utilitarian American comfort food, potato rösti, Swiss breakfast staples, are an embodiment of European finesse. Take our recipe from chef Thomas Odermatt for example. The first thing it calls for is for the cook to place fresh oregano in cheesecloth, then pound on it to release the oils. The recipe is practically the opposite of using cream of chicken soup as an ingredient. But if you're up for the challenge, it's worth the effort.

After working the oregano magic, shred the potatoes and soak one-third of them in oregano-infused water, then bring everything back together before draining and laying all the shredded potatoes out in the pan. Cook for about 20 minutes before carefully flipping the patty over. The secret to this recipe is using schmaltz instead of oil. This is essentially fatty trimmings from chicken, melted down and spread over your frying pan. Served with a fried egg on top, or with gooey, melted cheese.

This typical Spanish treat may look like a simple omelet or quiche, but the leading ingredients are potatoes, olive oil, and onions, with eggs taking a back seat to the operation. Prepare a Spanish omelet or tortilla española by frying the potatoes, onions, and some garlic in a pan with plenty of olive oil. Once the items are cooked through, but not yet browned, mix them thoroughly with beaten eggs. Pour the entire mixture into a pan and let it cook until the bottom is set but the top is still wet. Using a heatproof plate, flip the tortilla in its entirety, then cook the other side until browned. The result should be a potato tortilla that is golden on the outside and creamy on the inside.

The secret to a good Spanish omelet is the olive oil. Select good quality oil and use it between each step in the preparation process. Yukon gold potatoes are ideal for this recipe, but if you want to get creative, you can try using purple potatoes for a dash of color. If time is not on your side, a quicker version of this dish can skip the potato prep and use leftover thick-cut fries or frozen steak fries in lieu of fresh potatoes.

Curry is so good in Pakistan and India that people even eat it for breakfast. The culture offers sweet options for a morning meal, including sweet semolina pudding and flatbread, known in Pakistan and northern India as "halwa puri." But another breakfast offering in the region is the aloo ki bhujia, a potato-based curry that is not to be missed if you want to start your day with a kick — spice has a way of really getting you going in the morning.

To prepare this dish, you'll have to gather oil, red chili powder, cumin powder, turmeric powder, fresh cilantro, garlic paste, and if you're feeling generous, nigella seeds. And potatoes, of course. Be sure to dice the potatoes into small cubes so they don't take too long to cook, then fry them in a pan with the oil and garlic paste before adding the spices. Add water and then continue to cook until the potatoes are fully done and imbued with the flavor of the spices and the water has reduced. Add the cilantro and nigella seeds and serve for breakfast alongside rice or flatbread.

Pancakes are a delicious American breakfast staple, but there are next to no nutrients in a typical batch of pancake batter. Not so with our sweet potato pancake recipe. In fact, sweet potatoes are jam-packed with vitamin A, vitamin C, and manganese, as well as antioxidants that studies suggest might help fight cancer cell growth. So why not take advantage of all that healthfulness in your morning routine?

All you have to do is swap flour, milk, butter, sugar, and a rising agent for nothing more than a handful of sweet potatoes and just as many eggs. The process is simple: Cook your sweet potato in whichever way you choose — microwaving, boiling, baking — then mash up the insides and combine them with one egg per potato. Then plop patties of your mixture onto a frying pan as you would with regular pancakes. After that, these pancakes are at your mercy. Add cinnamon, maple syrup, fresh fruit, or whichever toppings you prefer for the perfect pancake morning.

Many people believe that a meal cannot be considered breakfast if it doesn't include bacon. This is sound judgment. Bacon goes with everything — eggs, toast, baked beans, English muffins, and even syrupy pancakes. Bacon has a way of complementing practically any food it accompanies. This is especially true of sweet potatoes, which is why this sweet potato and bacon casserole recipe works so well. But don't be fooled; if you're used to sugary sweet potato casseroles with buckets of marshmallows on top, this is a very different casserole.

First, cook your bacon strips in the oven or a frying pan while you peel and chop your sweet potatoes into evenly sized cubes. Boil them for about 20 minutes, then drain and mash them along with butter, cream, salt, pepper, and just a dash of brown sugar for depth. Spread the mash over a baking pan, top it with shredded Gruyere cheese and the crumbled cooked bacon, and bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit. This may take a little more time than your classic eggs and bacon breakfast, but it'll be a refreshing addition to your bacon regime.

Potatoes can be mashed, roasted, fried, and grated in all sorts of ways, each time transforming into something that looks, feels, and sometimes tastes completely different from its other iterations. One such variation is the potato roll, made with mashed potatoes, which come out of the oven looking like bona fide dinner rolls.

To prepare this feat of culinary magic, boil and mash your potatoes, preserving a bit of your cooking water. Then mix these two ingredients with yeast, sugar, flour, softened butter, salt, lemon juice, and eggs. From then on, treat your concoction like regular bread dough and knead it, let it rise a couple of times, and bake it in rolls at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 30 minutes. After brushing them with butter and topping them with sea salt flakes, you can serve your potato rolls with any of the main breakfast staples. They're especially good for scraping up the gooey yolk of a sunny-side-up egg.

If you're running late in the morning, you may only have the time to prepare a quick toast with butter. But what if instead of toast, you'd made a delicious, nutritious loaf of spiced sweet potato bread the night before? This will turn your toast tribulation into an enjoyable morning experience without compromising your commute. Just set some time aside on the weekend to prepare this gorgeous loaf, and if you don't plan on eating it within a few days, you can slice it up and put it in the fridge or freezer, then slip those slices into the toaster whenever the time comes.

For this recipe, you'll need to combine all-purpose and whole wheat flour and spices — cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and nutmeg — before mixing them with the wet ingredients and sugar mixture, which includes grated sweet potatoes. Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 1 hour. Come morning, you'll have something much better than toast but just as quick to munch on as you run out the door.

Smoothies, as standalone meals, can sometimes feel a bit feeble, leaving you hungry and unfulfilled, aching for a snack. Adding sweet potatoes to a smoothie, though, changes everything.

Start by gathering your ingredients around your blender. You're going to need frozen sweet potato cubes, dates, bananas, a milk of your choice, Greek yogurt, almond butter, vanilla extract, and spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, and ground cloves. Blend everything for about two minutes, or until completely smooth. And believe it or not, that's all it takes to create a healthy, well-balanced breakfast. The vitamins in the fruit and root will give you a good boost, while the starchiness from the sweet potato will keep your tummy feeling full all morning. Not to mention that this particular smoothie is also travel-friendly. Pack it up and bring it to the gym for a pre-workout pick-me-up, or sip it in the car as you drive to work.

Many people confuse home fries and hash browns, so don't feel bad if you just had a double take and thought you were having déjà vu. But there are actually quite a few differences between the two dishes, mainly in terms of how the potatoes are cut, cooked, and paired with other ingredients. Since we already covered hash browns, it will become clear just how pronounced these differences are once we get into our home fries recipe.

This is one of the simplest breakfast foods you can make. Just parboil the cubed potatoes for a few minutes, without removing the skins, then fry them on the stovetop in some seasoned salt and olive oil for up to 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until crispy on the outside. Serve them up right away with sides of your choice, but remember that if you're setting them aside for another day, the best thing is to heat them in the oven or air fryer. A microwave might yield soggy results.

If you ever get tired of bacon or sausage — not that you ever would — you can always sub in chorizo as your go-to breakfast meat. To that end, we have the ideal chorizo hash and eggs recipe.

After cooking up your fresh chorizo in a skillet, use the same implement to sauté the onions and minced cilantro stems. This step is key: If you change pans, you could be forfeiting the delicious rendered fat that comes from heating up semicured or raw chorizo. Using the same pan for everything will help give depth of flavor to your dish while using the chorizo to maximum effect. Next, add the grated potatoes with some butter and cook until the mixture is golden brown, after which it's time to add the peppers. Last, but not least, create a few wells in the potatoes and drop in some eggs, then cook them to gooey perfection.

One of the beauties of casseroles is that you can prepare them in advance and they'll taste just as good, if not better, than the day they were made. Another great perk is that they lend themselves very well to being prepared in a slow cooker, which means that you can do all the prep work in the evening, and wake up to warm and fragrant kitchen smells as if your mom has just broken into your house to make you a surprise breakfast.

To prepare our slow cooker breakfast casserole, beat the eggs with the onion powder, garlic powder, dill, salt, and pepper. Grease the slow cooker and dump in half a bag of frozen hash browns. Add half the onion, sausage, cheese, and egg mixture and repeat the process in a second layer. All of this should take no longer than 15 minutes. Then simply set your crock to cook on low for eight hours and you're ready to go.