POTATO RÖSTI RECIPE with onions and Gruyère! Skip to content
Potato Rösti Recipe

Potato Rösti Recipe

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Parboil potatoes: The day before serving, place potatoes in a pot half filled with water. Add a tablespoon of kosher salt, then bring to a boil. Reduce temperature to low and cook on a soft boil for 15 minutes. Remove from heat, drain water, then add cold water back into the pot leaving potatoes to cool completely. Place drained potatoes in a bowl, cover and refrigerate overnight.
  2. Prepare rösti: Grate potatoes into a large mixing bowl. Add the white parts of the green onion, the Gruyère and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Toss or stir gently with a spatula to combine.
  3. Place large skillet on stovetop over moderate heat. When the pan comes to temperature add 1 teaspoon each of butter and shortening (or lard or bacon fat) and melt. Add potato mixture, spreading it out over the surface of the skillet and gently tap it down. Coax the edges in to create a circular shape. Move the pan gently to make sure the rösti does not stick to the pan.
  4. After 8 minutes, place a plate over the skillet and carefully invert the rösti onto it. Return skillet to heat and add the remaining butter and shortening. When melted, slide the rösti back into the pan and cook the other side for an additional 8 minutes. 
  5. To serve, transfer to plate or cutting board and cut into 4. Garnish rösti with a dollop of sour cream and the greens of the chopped green onion.
  6. Additionally, serve with scrambled or fried eggs plus smoked salmon or crispy bacon. Garnish with capers, red onions, dill, and horseradish..
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Potato Rösti Recipe

4.2 / 5. 6

Finely shredded potatoes cooked crispy and golden with onion and Gruyère…

  • clock icon
    45 MIN
  • 4 SERVINGS
Potato Rosti Recipe

This POTATO RÖSTI RECIPE is perfect for breakfast, brunch, lunch or anytime!

This traditional Swiss dish is a perfect way of preparing potatoes. It’s most often served with breakfast, but after making it, we all agree that you can enjoy it anytime. The added bonus to our RÖSTI POTATO RECIPE is the way we elevate it by creating an amazing complete menu idea we know you’re going to love.

Here’s why this simple recipe for potatoes works:

  • You only need seven readily available ingredients to make them.
  • The main ingredient – potatoes – makes this a great side dish option.
  • The flavour of our rösti potatoes is boosted by the addition of fragrant green onions and Gruyère, the classic Swiss cheese.
  • The recipe serves four and it’s perfect for meals with family or friends.

Now if potatoes are what brought you here, don’t forget to also check out our CRISPY HOME FRIES, our famous CHEESY POTATO CASSEROLE, or a perennial crowd-pleaser, GARLIC SMASHED POTATOES. We never met a potato dish we didn’t like!

One last thing before I share some tips on this recipe, please remember to PIN it on a favourite PINTEREST side dish board and SHARE it with friends. When you make it, post pics to your favourite socials like FACEBOOK and INSTAGRAM, tagging #weekendatthecottage. We love seeing all the delicious food you’re making. Thanks!

Now, here’s the deal on this delicious, crispy, cheesy POTATO RÖSTI RECIPE:

The seven ingredients needed to make rosti potatoes.
Only seven ingredients. Love it!

INGREDIENTS

As already mentioned above, you only need the seven ingredients for rösti potatoes, all shown in the above photo. We’re big fans of recipes that call for the exact ingredients needed to make a dish delicious, and this is surely one of them. Something to note is the shortening; we used both butter and shortening to cook the potatoes. The butter helps both browning and flavour while the shortening lowers the smoke point. You can swap out the shortening for bacon drippings if you’re looking for added flavour.

The par-boiled Yukon gold potatoes grated sing a box grater.
Make sure to parboil your potatoes the day before you intend to make this dish.

POTATOES

We suggest using a waxy potato when making this. During testing, we realized that floury potatoes made the inside more fluffy, kind of like the texture of mashed taters. Waxy potatoes held those important strand shapes of the grated potato better. Look for WHITE POTATOES or YUKON GOLD when shopping; we liked them best.

Shredded par-boiled potatoes tossed in a bowl with green onion and Gruyere.
Although you can use a food processor, we found grating the potatoes with a box grater was easier.

SHREDDED POTATOES

I just mentioned the strand shapes coming from the grated potatoes getting cooked in the skillet – wait, let me back up a step. First, we followed the suggestions of Swiss experts who pretty much all said true rösti (sometimes spelled roesti) potatoes should only be made using parboiled potatoes. The thought is that the parboil draws most of the starch out of the potatoes. No need to peel, just shred them with a box grater to easily create the strands which then crisp up when cooked in the skillet cooked. Worked like a charm.

A bowl of grated Gruyere cheese sitting next to three green onions.
Adding cheese and onion to the shredded potatoes is a game changer.

CHEESE AND GREEN ONIONS

We discovered a number of options while researching this story. You can make this dish using only potatoes, but we got inspired reading this WIKI story about the famed dish. They explain how “a number of additional ingredients are sometimes added, such as bacon, onion, cheese, apple or fresh herbs”. When crafting our homemade recipe, we added green onions and Gruyère, a cheese famous in Switzerland and the world over for its gloriously grassy, nutty flavouring and oozy stringiness when warm. A winning combination!

The potato mixture cooking in a large skilet.
Set the temperature to moderate then lift the potatoes at the edge to check doneness.

SKILLET COOKED

This POTATO RÖSTI RECIPE cooks perfectly in a skillet. Any thick-bottomed pan is ideal for a recipe such as this, where the heat distributes evenly across the entire surface. We like cast iron skillets best and have listed a few options down below just in case you need an upgrade to pull this off properly. 

The round of rösti potatoes served on a large dinner plate.
Gorgeously golden and crispy.

GETTING THEM CRISPY

The all-important crispiness of these potatoes comes from three important factors: use butter and shortening (or bacon fat); have that solid, thick-bottomed pan for even heat distribution; and cook your rösti over moderate or medium heat. If they’re cooked at too low a temperature and they’ll be waxy and pasty, too hot and they’ll burn. Heat the pan on moderate heat, then check on the edge of the potatoes as they cook, adjusting the temperature ever so slightly until you’re chuffed by the golden colour.

The prepared rösti potatoes turned out on a large cutting board.
Serve as is with chopped green onions and sour cream.

SERVE AS IS

Make sure to watch the VIDEO attached to this story before making the recipe. Pay close attention to my suggestion of practicing a few skillet-to-plate flips before starting. Trust me, this will greatly assist in a smooth flip when the time comes. After that, do that second flip onto a plate or directly onto a board or platter for presentation, then just portion to serve and enjoy.

A plate of smoked salmon plus bowls off, red onion, capers, dill, green onion and horseradish.
Have these ingredients on hand and serve rösti in grand style.

WEEKEND BRUNCH IDEA

Here’s another option if you’re in need of a great brunch or weekend breakfast complete meal: grab a couple of eggs, some smoked salmon, fresh dill, green onions, capers, red onions, horseradish and sour cream. Having these few additional ingredients on hand will take this meal from simple to amazing, you’ll see.

Rösti potatoes served on a plate with smoked salmon and fried eggs.
Did someone say they’re joining us for brunch?

SERVED

Trust us on this, pop a bottle of prosecco and add it to some freshly squeezed orange juice. Then as everyone stands around sipping mimosas and coffee, flip the rösti then fry up the eggs. Casually assemble the salmon and garnish with all the trimmings before portioning out the potatoes and sliding the fried eggs onto each plate. Sheesh, you could open a restaurant!

The rösti potatoes garnished with sour cream and chopped green onions.
Perfect!

Seriously, that’s how to take this fabulous POTATO RÖSTI RECIPE from simple to amazing. Enjoy!

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Potato Rösti Recipe

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Potato Rösti Recipe

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Ingredients

  • For rösti:
  • 2 white potatoes
  • 3 green onions, (white portions), finely chopped
  • ½ cup grated Gruyère
  • 2 teaspoons butter
  • 2 teaspoons shortening, lard or bacon fat
  • kosher salt to taste
  • black pepper to taste
  • To serve:
  • sour cream
  • 3 green onions, (green portions), finely chopped
  • Additional suggestions for serving:
  • fried or scrambled eggs
  • smoked salmon or crispy bacon
  • capers
  • thinly sliced red onion
  • chopped dill
  • horseradish

Directions

  1. Parboil potatoes: The day before serving, place potatoes in a pot half filled with water. Add a tablespoon of kosher salt, then bring to a boil. Reduce temperature to low and cook on a soft boil for 15 minutes. Remove from heat, drain water, then add cold water back into the pot leaving potatoes to cool completely. Place drained potatoes in a bowl, cover and refrigerate overnight.
  2. Prepare rösti: Grate potatoes into a large mixing bowl. Add the white parts of the green onion, the Gruyère and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Toss or stir gently with a spatula to combine.
  3. Place large skillet on stovetop over moderate heat. When the pan comes to temperature add 1 teaspoon each of butter and shortening (or lard or bacon fat) and melt. Add potato mixture, spreading it out over the surface of the skillet and gently tap it down. Coax the edges in to create a circular shape. Move the pan gently to make sure the rösti does not stick to the pan.
  4. After 8 minutes, place a plate over the skillet and carefully invert the rösti onto it. Return skillet to heat and add the remaining butter and shortening. When melted, slide the rösti back into the pan and cook the other side for an additional 8 minutes. 
  5. To serve, transfer to plate or cutting board and cut into 4. Garnish rösti with a dollop of sour cream and the greens of the chopped green onion.
  6. Additionally, serve with scrambled or fried eggs plus smoked salmon or crispy bacon. Garnish with capers, red onions, dill, and horseradish..

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