Golden, crispy No Oil Healthy Roast Potatoes. Made without a single drop of oil, these easy, healthy roast potatoes are low calorie and virtually fat-free!
It's all about the simple things in life today. Like potatoes ❤️ I adore them. Nothing beats crispy roast potatoes as a side dish to serve alongside your vegan beef, vegan turkey style roast, vegan chicken, and maybe some roasted red cabbage too. But, with all that lovely yummy crispiness comes oil and fat and grease.
Until now.....
I've previously used aquafaba instead of oil in my Loaded Taco Fries and now we are using it as a substitute for oil in this healthy low fat roast potatoes recipe.
These healthy oil-free roasted potatoes with aquafaba are a pretty close runner up to the more traditional roast potatoes made with oil , and what you lose (just) a little bit in taste, you make up for in low calories, virtually non existent fat content and feel good healthiness. And they are still perfectly crispy and delicious!
Ingredients
No Oil Healthy Roast Potatoes are super simple to make. All you need is a rimmed baking tray or roasting pan and just 3 ingredients:
- Potatoes
- Semolina (or cornmeal for gluten-free)
- Aquafaba a.k.a magic bean juice
Plus plenty of salt and pepper.
What is aquafaba?
Aquafaba is the liquid that is in a can of chickpeas. When you use chickpeas save it to use in all kinds of recipes such as these oil-free roasted potatoes and vegan baking. It freezes well so if you open a can and have no need for the aquafaba right away, save it for a later date.
Canned chickpeas also freeze well in a pot without the aquafaba, so if you need some for this recipe and don't need the chickpeas you can save them for another time.
How To Make Healthy Roasted Potatoes
Healthy oil-free roasted potatoes are made in much the same way as roast potatoes with oil. Here's how:
- Cover the potatoes in boiling water and parboil, then drain and let them steam dry in the pan.
- Toss in aquafaba, semolina, salt and pepper, giving them a good shake to rough them up.
- Spread out in a single layer on a lined baking sheet and roast.
- Flip then roast some more until perfectly crisp.
Success Tip - Boiling potatoes before roasting, then roughing them up, is an essential part of the oven-roasted potatoes process. It creates a rough outside, and a thick slurry of aquafaba, soft potato and semolina which coats and clings and crisps up beautifully for that perfect crunchy exterior and fluffy inside texture. It also makes them turn gloriously golden as all perfect roast potatoes should be!
Recipe FAQs
Using the right kind of potato is really important when it comes to great roast potatoes. I love to use Yukon Gold potatoes. Russet potatoes and red potatoes are also great, or Maris Piper in the UK.
Prefer a more traditional recipe with olive oil, garlic, fresh herbs and lemon? Check out my Lemon Garlic Air Fryer Roasted Potatoes.
More Oil-Free Recipes
If you try this recipe, let me know how you like it by leaving a comment and rating below! And be sure to join my mailing list for more deliciousness!
Recipe video
Recipe
No Oil Healthy Roast Potatoes
Author:Ingredients
- 2 lbs (900 grams) potatoes
- ⅓ cup (80 ml) aquafaba , the liquid from a can of chickpeas (or use 4 tablespoons of oil instead)
- 3 tablespoons semolina or fine/medium cornmeal , (cornmeal for gluten-free)
- salt
- black pepper
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat oven to 450°F and line a baking tray or roaster with parchment paper or a silcone baking mat.
- Peel the potatoes and cut into chunks. Timings here are based on a medium potato being cut into about 5 pieces. Make sure all pieces are pretty even.
- Place the potatoes in a pan, cover with water and bring to a boil. Boil for about 5 to 6 minutes or until you can just manage to stick a fork in one. They should still feel a bit hard though. Once at this point, drain through a colander then leave for a few minutes to steam dry before returning to the saucepan.
- Add the aquafaba and semolina to the potatoes, put the lid on the saucepan and shake vigorously a good few times to rough up the potatoes, then dig in with a spoon and stir them around a bit to get the slurry that has settled on the bottom to coat them thoroughly.
- Tip the potatoes onto the lined tray and spread them out in a single layer, then season with a generous amount of salt and freshly ground pepper.
- Place in the hot oven and cook for 25 minutes. Remove, flip them all over then return to the oven and cook for around another 20 minutes or until a lovely golden brown. The time will vary a little depending on your oven and the type of pan you are cooking them in.
serena says
Absolutely delicious! :D I added some garlic powder, onion powder and dominican oregano to help decrease the amount of salt I needed, and big yum.
Blitzo says
Wow! So excited to do this recipe of no oil crispy roasted potatoes its good for older people like my grandma.
marge201 says
I love roasted potatoes so much and am really curious about the aquafaba. Cornmeal I presume is fine, correct? Someone said that tapioca starch worked great. I have tapioca flour. Same difference?
Melanie McDonald says
I personally wouldn't use tapioca starch for this recipe. Fine or medium cornmeal is ok.
Bev says
Fantastic! My family loved these! Switching to an oil free diet. Didn’t miss the oil one bit. Followed the recipe exactly. Thank you so much!
Elon says
I'm eating these right now and they are very crispy and tasty! Thanks for the recipe!
A Virtual Vegan says
So pleased you're enjoying them!
Lee says
Will this recipe work with masa (ground corn flour) instead of corn meal?
A Virtual Vegan says
I think that would be fine.
Penny says
I didn't have corn meal, corn flour or semolina, so I used gluten-free Tapioca starch, and they turned out great anyway.!
Karen says
OMG tried these tonight they are amazeballs. Thanks for sharing
Elizabeth says
Sorry, I do see where you state to return potatoes to pan. Is it a saucepan with lid? Thanks
A Virtual Vegan says
Once drained and steamed dry, you return them to the pan you boiled them in so you can toss them with the other ingredients before spreading out on a baking tray. Hope that helps!
Elizabeth says
I need some further guidance to the step after draining in colander. Although you don’t state to return the potatoes to the parboil pan, I assume that’s what you did. But when you say to shake the pan vigorously to coat the potatoes, I’m wondering what kind of pan/pot you’re using in the first place. Was it just a saucepan with a lid? Thanks. Sorry to be so unclear about this. I’m truly intrigued by the idea of no oil, so I want to try it.
A Virtual Vegan says
See my previous reply. There is also a video in the post that you can watch if it helps!
Sita says
Hi there,
Can regular ww flour be used in place of the semolina?
Thanks so much for your awesome recipes.
Sita
A Virtual Vegan says
Cornmeal is a good alternative to semolina. I haven't tried them with flour. It might be ok but I don't know for sure.
Glenn E Arnold says
Just made these tonight and they were DELICIOUS! I added some additional spice seasoning with the salt and pepper to give it a little heat! ? Yum! My wife loves them. We killed a whole bowl full (about two pounds of potatoes) with ketchup – in addition to the plant burgers I also made. Ha ha! A FEAST! Thanks for another AWESOME recipe, and OIL-FREE TOO! BONUS!! ????????
Wendy says
Of all the potatoes I’ve ever made, including oil, never have mine been this crispy and perfect. Excellent recipe. Served with the pot roast...sooo yummy!!
Bernie says
Wonderful!!
elisabetta says
Didn't think oil free roasted potatoes could taste nice and had given up on the idea of having them and then tried this recipe and everything changed. The potatoes are crispy on the outside and really fluffy inside and don't miss the oil at all! This recipe is a lifesaver! Will make it again and again
A Virtual Vegan says
I'm really pleased you enjoyed them so much. Thank you!
Nomnom says
Does this also work with yams/sweet potatoes?
A Virtual Vegan says
It would need changes to work with yams/sweet potatoes. They don't really need to be parboiled before roasting. But you could still coat them in aquafaba (you will need less as they will be hard and raw) then roast, or coat them in aquafaba, then toss through the cornmeal/semolina and roast until tender and crispy.
Julia Rossen says
Any idea how you would need to modify this recipe to make in an air fryer?
A Virtual Vegan says
I have just got an air fryer myself, but haven't had a chance to try this recipe in it, or to try using aquafaba instead of oil. I think that maybe the semolina/cornmeal might blow off while they were cooking? I'd have to try it to know for sure though.
I just published this new recipe for roasted potatoes in an air fryer today: https://avirtualvegan.com/air-fryer-roasted-potatoes/ . It might be easier to follow that one. I think you could safely replace the oil with aquafaba as long as your basket is definitely non stick. You might need a tablespoon or 2 more to coat them though. You don't have to add the lemon, garlic and rosemary if you prefer them plain but at least you'll have the timings and temperature etc down. Hope that helps!
JudyToronto says
I'm loving the raves for this recipe. Would it work with sweet potatoes?
Melanie McDonald says
I haven't tried it with sweet potatoes. I find they cook much more quickly than regular potatoes and I don't generally parboil them like I do with regular potatoes either. I'm sure it would work but it would probably need some tweaking.
Annie says
Mmm. I want to take a go at these. We are corn-free. What would be the next best thing to semolina?
A Virtual Vegan says
Semolina is made from wheat not corn so will be fine!