How Long To Boil Potatoes? Many ways to Cook Potatoes

by Abbas Jahangir · June 21, 2021

How long to boil potatoes? The potatoes can be prepared in many ways. From cooking to baking and from slices to mashed potatoes. Due to the versatility of the potatoes, it is also often used in dishes. However, genuine boiled potatoes are also tasty. Cooked with or without the skin.

How long to boil potatoes?

Boil waxy potatoes for 20 minutes, floury potatoes for 15 minutes, and new potatoes for 18 minutes. Cook before baking 8 minutes and in the microwave 7 minutes and airfryer 30 minutes. You can cook with or without skin.

It is rare that you immediately finish a whole bag of potatoes. So you always have potatoes left, peeled or unpeeled. You can keep these very well. You can read all about this in our blog ‘ How to store potatoes? ‘.

How Long To Cook Potatoes?

Potatoes come in many varieties, many flavors and many shapes. These all have a different cooking time. It also makes a difference whether you cook traditionally, in water or in the microwave and airfryer. To keep it clear, a table is easy. The table below gives an overview of how long you should cook potatoes in many situations.

#	What kind of potato and how to cook it?	Cooking time
1	Solid boiling potatoes	20 min.
2	Floury potatoes	15-20 min.
3	New potatoes	15-20 min.
4	Cooking and baking potatoes	6-8 mins.
5	Cooking whole potatoes in the microwave	7 min.
6	Pieces of potatoes in the microwave	7 min.
7	Cooking on Induction	15-20 min.
8	Cooking in air fryer, whole potatoes	30 min.
9	How to cook roseval potatoes	15-20 min.
10	Cooking potato slices	9-10 min.
11	Boiling potatoes for mash	15-20 min.

How long to cook potatoes

How To Cook Potatoes?

Cooking potatoes isn’t really that hard to do. The main thing is to know which potatoes you have. This does matter. There are floury, new crop and waxy potatoes. The cooking method remains the same, but the cooking time makes the difference here.

Below we will discuss the three types separately, but first we have to decide whether to peel the potatoes before or after cooking?

Peeling potatoes

We peel potatoes with a potato knife or with a vegetable peeler. A peeler is often easier to use and you peel away a thin piece. Many of the vitamins and nutrients are under the skin, so the thinner you peel the better.

That is why potatoes are also peeled after cooking. All nutrients are thus preserved. These potatoes must first be washed well under the tap. The skin of the potato is so loose that you can easily remove it after cooking.

Make sure that there are no runners on the potato. These are poisonous and must be removed before cooking.

Cooking Potatoes

After you have peeled and pitted the potatoes or washed the unpeeled potatoes, we can start cooking them. For this, the following steps must be followed:

Once you’ve peeled the potatoes, cut the potatoes into even sized chunks. This prevents one potato from being cooked and the other not yet.
For unpeeled potatoes, make sure they are all about the same size. Otherwise, cut the large potatoes in half.
Now put a large pan with water on the heat source and add the potatoes to the water. Also add enough salt to give the potatoes a salty taste (not necessary!). The potatoes should be just submerged in water.
Bring the water to a boil. When the water boils, you can lower the setting, but make sure that it continues to boil.
The cooking time depends on the type of potato and the size of the pieces. Please allow 15-20 minutes.
Pierce the potatoes with a fork to check for doneness. The fork should go in easily.
Then drain the potatoes. I use a colander. Always pour away from you, because you have boiling water in your hands.
Now you can serve or season the peeled potatoes. You can now peel the unpeeled potatoes (see video above).

This is the basic method of cooking potatoes. The specific preparation method for different types of potatoes is discussed below.

You can now also flavor the potatoes with herbs. Read our blog ‘ How to Season Potatoes? Many ways ‘ and you put nicely cooked and seasoned potatoes on the table.

Cooking waxy potatoes

Waxy potatoes are easy potatoes to cook. Types of waxy potatoes are Opperdoezer, Bildstar and Nicola. They have a fairly firm structure and they also retain it during cooking.

Just submerge the potatoes in water and follow the steps in the above chapter ‘ Cooking potatoes ‘. The cooking time for waxy potatoes is approximately 20 minutes. However, after 18 minutes, pierce a potato to determine if they are cooked.

Cooking Flour Potatoes

The floury potato has a looser structure than the solid boiling potato. Types of floury potatoes are Eigenheimer, Irene, Bintje and Gloria. When we cook these potatoes, we don’t completely submerge them in water. They should be half submerged. For the rest, follow the steps as described in the chapter ‘ Cooking potatoes ‘ above.

The cooking time for these potatoes is 15 -20 minutes. Check after 15 minutes if they are cooked by pricking them with a fork, it should go in easily. Stick with it for now, because cooking too long will make these potatoes porridge and that’s a shame.

When they are almost done, you can also drain them and put them back in the pan with the lid on. They will continue to yarn and will not fall apart.

Cooking New Potatoes

New potatoes are potatoes that are young when harvested. They are therefore small potatoes with a very thin skin. After cooking, these are very creamy potatoes. Since the skin is thin, these potatoes are usually cooked in the skin. You can peel them after cooking or eat them peel and all.

The cooking of the potatoes is described in the above chapter ‘ Cooking potatoes ‘ above. The potatoes should be just under water in the pan. The cooking time depends on the potatoes and is between 15 and 20 minutes.

You can eat the skin of the potatoes and this also looks nice when serving. Serve them with a knob of butter and fresh dill, very tasty. Enjoy your meal.

Cooking And Baking Potatoes

You get real grandma’s fried potatoes by cooking potatoes yourself and then baking them. Then sprinkle with paprika and other herbs and you have a delicious potato dish.

You can use floury potatoes or firm boiling potatoes. The floury potatoes will fall apart a bit and the solid boiling ones will keep their shape during baking.

Cut the potatoes into pieces; wedges, slices or cubes. Place a pan of water on the stove and bring it to a boil. Add the potatoes to cold water with salt and bring the water to a boil. Now cook the potatoes for 6-8 minutes.

Now drain the potatoes in the colander and let them evaporate. Shake the potatoes occasionally. This releases the starch and becomes the crispy crust during baking.

Now fry the potatoes in a frying pan and fry them in the oil. After baking you can season them nicely. Check out our blog ‘ How to Season Potatoes? Many ways ‘.

Baking Potatoes Without Cooking

By pre-cooking potatoes, the starch is released. Later, during baking, this starch forms a crispy layer. If you don’t want this, you can also bake them without cooking. It just takes more baking time and you have to be careful. Due to the longer baking time, the potatoes can also burn quickly.

It just depends on what you prefer. I cook them first and then they are baked.

Potatoes Cooking Microwave

We can also cook potatoes in the microwave. We can boil/pop the whole potato or cut into pieces of potato.

We start with whole potatoes. First wash it well under the tap. Don’t peel the potatoes! Poke a few holes in the potatoes with a fork to prevent them from popping open. Place the potatoes in the microwave and set it on a setting of 1000 Watt and a time of 7 minutes.

When they are cooked depends on the potatoes and this is always different. Check after 7 minutes if they are cooked. Not yet, add another 3 minutes. Then check again. When they are cooked, you can serve them immediately on a board with a knob of butter and a little Provencal herbs.

You can also peel and cut them into pieces. Then put them in a microwaveable bowl and 3 tablespoons of water. Cover the dish with a microwave lid or microwave foil. Set the power to 1000 watts and time to 7 minutes. Then check if they are cooked. Be careful because a lot of steam will come off.

Remove the potatoes from the pan and let them evaporate for a while. Now you can provide the potato with tasty herbs and serve.

Potatoes Cooking on Induction

Many kitchens that are renovated are equipped with an induction hob. This seems to cook differently than gas, but it doesn’t. Cooking on induction is the same as cooking on gas. It reacts as quickly as gas.

If you are used to cooking on electric plates, cooking on induction is easier, because it is comparable to cooking on gas. It does not need to heat up like electric plates.

For cooking on induction you can therefore stick to the cooking times described in this blog. No problem!

Potatoes Cooking Airfryer

Cooking potatoes in the air fryer is cooking without water. Clean the potatoes under the tap and do not peel the potatoes. Place the potatoes in the basket of the airfryer and preheat the airfryer to about 150 degrees.

Now bake the potatoes for about 30 minutes. You can serve the potatoes immediately on a plate with a knob of butter and, for example, Provencal herbs. Enjoy your meal.

Cooking Potatoes With Peel

As mentioned throughout the blog, all potatoes can be cooked with their skins on. This does not change the cooking time!

By not peeling the potatoes, a lot of vitamins are preserved, because these are located right under the skin. If you have boiled the potatoes with their skins on, you can peel them and serve them.

You can also serve them with the skin and all. The thin skin is edible. We usually do not eat a thicker skin, such as with baked potatoes.

Roseval Potatoes Cooking

The Roseval potato is a potato with red skin and the potato itself is creamy and soft in taste. This is also a member of the potato family and we can therefore just cook.

Look in the above chapter ‘ Cooking Potatoes ‘ for the preparation method. The cooking time of these potatoes is between 15 and 20 minutes, depending on the size of the potatoes.

Cooking Potato Slices

You can also cut the potatoes into slices to shorten the cooking time. Doing this significantly reduces the cooking time. The cooking continues as described in the ‘Cooking Potatoes’ chapter above.

The cooking time of the potato slices is around 8-10 minutes. Then drain the potatoes and put them back in the pan for a while and let them evaporate.

How Much Salt to Boil Potatoes?

Salt may be added in large quantities to the cooking water. Not if you eat salt-free of course.

It can sometimes be guessed at the amount of salt. A ‘pinch’ of salt is often indicated. Well, potatoes can have a bit of salt. Use half a tablespoon of salt for 1 liter of water. This salt must be added immediately to the cold water and then the potatoes can be added.

Cooking Potatoes For Puree

Cooking potatoes for mash is equivalent to cooking potatoes normally. They just have to be cooked. There is no change to the preparation method or cooking time. The chapter ‘ Cooking Potatoes ‘ tells you exactly how to do this.