Greek Lemon Potatoes: Patates Lemonates
Greek lemon potatoes — patates lemonates — are thick potato wedges roasted in a tin with olive oil, lemon juice and dried rigani, in enough liquid that they cook twice. First they simmer in it. Then, once it has boiled away, they brown in the oil left behind. That second stage is the dish, and it is the one most often cut short. This makes enough for six as a side.
Plate I · IllustrationRecord
Why is there liquid in the tin?
Because these are not roast potatoes, and the liquid is doing two jobs at different times.
The tin holds three liquids, and they leave at different rates. Water — or stock — and lemon juice both boil off. Olive oil does not: at oven temperatures it stays exactly where it is. So the tin runs as a shallow pan first, holding at boiling point while the potatoes cook through and take up the lemon, the garlic and the oregano all the way in rather than only on the surface. Nothing browns during this stage, and nothing should: a wet surface cannot get hot enough to colour.
Then the water goes, and the same tin becomes a roasting tin with a film of hot oil in the bottom. Now the surfaces dry, the edges colour, and the wedges catch where they touch the metal. One tin, two cooking methods, in sequence — which is why the timing is written here as two stages rather than one number.
Fig. I · The liquid, drawn to scaleDiagram
Water and lemon juice boil off. Olive oil does not. Each bar below is one tin, divided by volume.
430mlInto this tin, at the start
Olive oil 100ml · lemon juice about 80ml · water or stock 250ml. Enough to come a third of the way up the wedges.
100mlLeft at the turn, from the same 430ml
The oil band has not moved. The lemon juice and the water have gone off as steam, and what is left is a film of hot oil — the second cook begins here.
405mlThe Visit Greece version, for comparison
Olive oil 3 tbsp (about 45ml) · lemon juice ½ cup (about 120ml) · dry white wine 1 cup (about 240ml). Its potatoes are simmered in a pot for eight minutes first, so its tin stage is shorter — 35 to 40 minutes in all.
The Greek National Tourism Organisation’s own published version takes the same idea by a different road: it simmers the potatoes in a pot for eight minutes first, drains them, then bakes them in a dressing of wine, olive oil, lemon, honey, mustard and herbs — very hot for ten minutes, then 190°C for another twenty-five to thirty. Parboiling separately gets you there faster; doing it in the tin means everything the potatoes give up stays in the dish.
Plate II · PaintingRecord
Plate III · Generated imageRecord
Which potatoes, and how big?
Floury ones, cut large. Maris Piper, King Edward, Rooster and Golden Wonder are all sold in Britain as roasting potatoes, and they behave here exactly as they do in a roasting tin: they hold their shape through the simmer, then break to a soft, open interior that takes up the lemon. A waxy salad potato stays dense and glassy however long you cook it.
Cut each potato into six or eight wedges, about 3cm across the thickest edge — Visit Greece’s own cut is quartered, then halved again. Smaller pieces have too much surface for the time this dish takes and dry to leather in the second stage. And keep them to one layer. A tin packed two deep steams instead of roasting, and no amount of extra time recovers it.
How much olive oil, and which one?
More than feels right, if you have come to this from British roast potatoes.
Greek cooking has a whole category named after the oil: ladera — “oiled” — the vegetable and bean dishes where olive oil is the cooking medium rather than something added at the end. As Diane Kochilas puts it, the oil is used to cook in, and then more raw oil goes over the finished dish as flavouring. It is not a garnish that happens to be fat; it is the fat the dish is cooked in, and it stays on the plate. The UNESCO committee that inscribed the Mediterranean diet described its nutritional model as “consisting mainly of olive oil, cereals, fresh or dried fruit and vegetables, a moderate amount of fish, dairy and meat” — olive oil first in the list.
Which oil, though, is worth separating. The tin runs at 200°C for over an hour, and heat is hard on the aromatic compounds that make a green, peppery oil taste the way it does — our guide to cooking with extra virgin olive oil sets out what survives the pan and what does not. So: a sound everyday extra virgin for the 100ml that goes in at the start, and the good bottle — the early-harvest one, bitter and green — kept back for the thread of raw oil at the end, where you will actually taste it.
How do you make them?
Heat the oven to 200°C fan (220°C conventional, gas 7). Peel the potatoes and cut them into thick wedges. Put them in a wide roasting tin in a single layer, pour over the olive oil, the lemon juice and the hot water or stock, tuck in the crushed garlic, and scatter over the oregano, salt and pepper. Turn them with your hands until every wedge is coated. The liquid should come about a third of the way up.
Roast for 40 minutes, turning once at around 25 minutes. The tin will be simmering and the potatoes will look pale and wet — that is correct.
Fig. II · Two cooks in one tinDiagram
The same tin simmers, then roasts. What divides them is not a time but an event: the moment the liquid runs out.
0 – 40 minThe simmer
The tin holds at boiling point while the water and lemon juice are still in it. The wedges cook through and take up the lemon, the garlic and the rigani all the way in. Nothing browns, and nothing should: a wet surface cannot get hot enough to colour. Turn the potatoes once, at about 25 minutes.
at 40 minThe liquid runs out — turn again
This is the boundary, and it is an event rather than a clock reading. A tin packed two deep, or too small for its potatoes, reaches it late or not at all — which is the usual reason the dish comes out pale.
+15 – 25 minThe roast
Only oil is left in the tin. The surfaces dry, the edges colour, and the wedges catch where they touch the metal. The page fixes no length for this stage: judge it by the tin — dry, coloured, catching — not by the clock.
+5 minStanding
Off the heat, in the tin, before the rigani, the last of the lemon and the thread of raw oil go over.
By 40 minutes most of the liquid should have gone. Turn the wedges again and roast for a further 15 to 25 minutes, until nothing is left in the tin but oil, and the edges have browned and caught. Ovens differ more than recipes admit, so judge this stage by the tin and not the clock: dry, coloured, catching.
Let it stand for five minutes. Scatter over a little more rigani, squeeze on a last of the lemon, add a thread of raw olive oil, and take it to the table in the tin, spooning the oil and juices back over as you serve.
What do you serve them with?
Roast chicken or lamb, most often — and in Greek kitchens frequently in the same tin, the wedges packed around the meat so they take up what comes off it. Add 10 minutes to the second stage if the tin is crowded that way.
On their own they want very little: something sharp and something to mop with. A Greek salad dressed the village way covers both, and our Greek salad dressing gives the ratio and the ladolemono variant that also suits the potatoes. Boiled greens with lemon and oil, or a bowl of yoghurt, work the same way.
Where THYMELIA stands
THYMELIA is a UK house of Greek foods working two harvests: raw thyme honey from Chania in western Crete, and early-harvest extra virgin olive oil from the hill country above Kalamata in the southern Peloponnese. There is no shop yet, and we name no date for one. How we choose a harvest is at sourcing, what we will publish per batch is at testing, and the olive-oil world from the top — grades, labels, varieties and what a number on a bottle means — starts at olive oil.
Recipe · Greek Lemon Potatoes: Patates LemonatesCard
- Prep
- 15 min
- Cook
- 1 hr 5 min
- Total
- 1 hr 20 min
- Makes
- Serves 6 as a side
Ingredients
- 1.2kg floury potatoes (Maris Piper, King Edward or Rooster)
- 100ml extra virgin olive oil
- Juice of 2 lemons (about 80ml), plus a little to finish
- 250ml hot water or chicken stock
- 3 garlic cloves, peeled and lightly crushed
- 1½ tbsp dried Greek oregano (rigani), plus more to finish
- 1½ tsp fine sea salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
Method
- Heat the oven
Heat the oven to 200°C fan (220°C conventional, gas 7) and find a roasting tin wide enough to hold the potatoes in a single layer. Crowding them into two layers is the one mistake that cannot be corrected later.
- Cut the potatoes big
Peel the potatoes and cut each one into six or eight thick wedges — about 3cm across the thickest edge. Small pieces dry out in the time this dish needs.
- Fill the tin
Put the wedges in the tin in one layer. Pour over the olive oil, the lemon juice and the hot water or stock, tuck in the garlic, and scatter over the oregano, salt and pepper. Turn everything with your hands until every wedge is coated. The liquid should come about a third of the way up the potatoes.
- The first cook — the simmer
Roast for 40 minutes, turning the potatoes once at about 25 minutes. The liquid simmers around them and they cook through, taking on the lemon and the oregano. They will not brown yet, and should not.
- The second cook — the roast
By 40 minutes most of the liquid should have gone. Turn the wedges again and roast for a further 15 to 25 minutes, until the tin is dry apart from the oil and the edges have coloured and caught. This is the stage that makes the dish; do not cut it short.
- Finish and serve
Let the tin stand for 5 minutes. Scatter over a little more rigani, add a final squeeze of lemon and a thread of raw olive oil, and serve straight from the tin with the oil and juices spooned over.
Asked, answered.
Why are my Greek lemon potatoes not crisp?
Almost always because the liquid was still in the tin when the time ran out. Potatoes cannot brown while they are sitting in water: the tin holds at boiling point until the water has gone, and only then does the surface get hot enough to colour. Give the dish its second stage — once the liquid has reduced to oil alone, the potatoes need another 15 to 25 minutes to catch. If the tin is still wet at that point, the layer was too deep, the tin too small, or the oven too cool.
Which potatoes are best for Greek lemon potatoes?
A floury variety — Maris Piper, King Edward, Rooster, Golden Wonder. Cut thick, they hold together through the simmer and still break to a soft, absorbent interior that takes up the lemon. A waxy salad potato stays dense and glassy and never gets there. Floury potatoes are the ones sold for roasting and chipping in Britain for the same reason.
Can you make them without stock?
Yes. Water and a good olive oil make the dish as it is cooked in most Greek homes; stock is a savoury shortcut, not the tradition. If you use stock, cut the salt back, because most stock is already salted.
How much olive oil is too much?
Less than you would think. The oil here is the cooking medium, not a dressing — water and lemon juice boil away, and the oil stays behind to roast the potatoes in the last stretch. 100ml for 1.2kg is a working quantity. Cut it much below that and the second stage has nothing to brown in.
What do you serve Greek lemon potatoes with?
Roast chicken or lamb, classically, and often in the same tin — the potatoes go in around the meat and take up what comes off it. On their own they need only a salad with a sharp dressing and bread for the juices.
Can they be made ahead?
They are best straight from the tin, while the edges are still brittle. They do reheat well, though: spread them in a single layer and give them 10 minutes in a hot oven, which drives off the moisture they picked up standing. Do not microwave them — the crust goes at once.