Roasted Potatoes w/ Fried Sage, Brown Butter – A Healing Memory
These roasted potatoes with sage are aromatic, crispy and flavorful. Perfect to cook up a batch of these when you can get your hands on some fresh sage.
Roasted Potatoes with Sage
I’ve often wondered what value my Ethno-botany days at the University have on my current career now. Back in my college days, I dreamed of finding the cure to cancer via medicinal plants, to live in the rainforest with native cultures and learn their traditional methods of healing through local plants. I romanced the idea of healing the world, to be the Medicine Woman, to climb big tall trees and scale the mountain tops, just like Sean Connery.
Now, I photograph pictures of food & the lifestyle that surrounds it. Go figure. When I walked the garden the other morning and found our sage plants in booming glory, with their fuzzy leaves stretching out to the warm SoCal sunlight, old memories of college days were calling out to me.
I was first introduced to sage and many varieties in the Salvia Genus during a research project I conducted in college. My thesis was focused on medicinal plants used by local Native American tribes and what I expected to be an ordinary school project was actually, life changing. Through my many hours of interviews and personal time with local members of these tribes, I embarked on a remarkable personal journey of healing through the gentle hands of Native American healers and their sacred traditions of respecting nature and the Earth.
Sage is powerful beyond the medicinal confines of its medicinal chemicals. Sage is earthy, warm, healing, therapeutic and a wonderful companion in the kitchen. Their fragrant, velvety leaves remind of the desert that I love so much and when I use them in my cooking, I’m instantly transported to those early morning sunrises.
Sage feeds the belly, mind, soul and it’s equally significant and wonderful to the garden. All the different varieties of sage can brighten your garden and their low water tolerance makes it even easier to grow. They just need some warmth, occasional attention and you’ll be basking in a medicinal garden.
So today I picked some sage sprigs, smelled their warm hints of earthy pine and was reminded of the nutty flavors of brown butter. Perfect for roasted potatoes with sage. I thought about this amazing pairing and decided to simply roast them with potatoes to soak up the duo of flavors. This whole dish is simply comforting to me, reminding me of those lessons from my Native American healers and what I’m currently doing today on my food blog.
This fried sage dish makes all my hours of studying significant because now I value the powers of sage beyond the culinary table. Sage is healing to both my appetite and spirit.
I can tell my Professors that I’m finally making good use of my old research days. I think they’ll be pleased. Hope you enjoy this roasted potatoes with sage recipe.
thank you,
diane
This recipe was originally published in 2009, and was updated in 2021.
Roasted Potatoes w/ Fried Sage and Brown Butter
Ingredients
- 2 lbs. (907 g) potatoes (approximately), washed, cubed
- 2-3 Tablespoons (30-45 ml) olive oil
- 3-4 cloves garlic , crushed or minced (or 1 teaspoon garlic powder)
- salt , to taste
- 7-8 fresh sage leaves , divided (mince 3 leaves worth)
- 2-3 Tablespoons (30 ml) butter
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400ºF/205°C.
- In large bowl, toss potatoes, about 3 sage leaves (minced), enough olive oil to coat potatoes, garlic or garlic powder, and salt to taste.
- Place potatoes on sheet pan and roast in oven for about 30-45 minutes, or until golden brown. Turn potatoes at least once during the roasting period.
- While the potatoes roast; in sauté pan, gently melt butter over medium heat. Don't melt the butter too quick, or it will burn.
- Once butter melts and starts to bubble, add the rest of the sage leaves. Fry sage leaves on both sides, until crispy and until the butter starts to brown. Keep an eye on the butter as you fry the sage & the butter browns, it can change quickly. Take butter off heat when it is golden brown (should be a rich caramel color).
- Toss potatoes with the brown butter and fried sage leaves. Taste for seasoning & add more salt if needed. Serve warm.
Nutrition Information per Serving
Here’s a great savory galette you might enjoy,
I can practically smell the sage & butter thru the screen 😀 Gorgeous pictures. I’m so hungry now!
Hmm. I wrote a thesis about franchise law in 19th century England, which sounds much less relevant or useful than medicinal plants. I really love sage — I think it’s underused because it can be bitter or overwhelming, but in the right combination it’s magical, and something about it is very evocative. Sage makes me think of camping trips in junior high school in the high desert, and family Thanksgiving. This looks really wonderful and comforting — Thank you.
Kate- Agreed! When I smell sage, I definitely imagine the desert. Which reminds me, I’ve gotta get out to the desert again this month!
I wish I could somehow draw a connection between my college education and fried sage in brown butter, but alas I can think of no such connection.
Delicious.
This dish sounds really delicious, but today it was your story that I really enjoyed. You can never tell where you’re going to end up, can you? I’m glad you found your way to photography and food blogging, so you can share these stories with the rest of us!
PS-Sage is wonderful, and I’m interested in its medicinal value, too. Maybe I’ll look into this!
Sage is definitely one of my favorite herbs. I like it as an ornamental plant too, in fact next spring I think I’m going to move the purple sage from my herb bed (make room for something else!) and just grow it among the flowers.
I felt like such an idiot when I finally tried sage a couple years ago – what a flavor I was missing! Now I love it fried, fresh, and everywhere in between. This looks like a definite winner!
Sage is perfect for fall, and even in the midwest it is still usable from the garden after a hard frost. We are doing a brown butter sage sauce with roasted squash tortellini tonight. The scent of sage must be in the air!!
I’ve been reading your wonderful blog for awhile, but this is my first comment.
Love this post. The pictures are gorgeous!
My daughter’s name is Sage and she too is a terrific companion in the kitchen. We loved reading all the nice things you have to say about sage.
Wonderful recipe!
I’ve been using a lot of fresh sage lately too… have some in the fridge right now going to waste so I’ll take my lone potato and have this for dinner.
Your photographs are lovely!
I have a ton of sage in my herb garden, and I’m excited to try these potatoes. I’m thinking the same technique would also be good with sweet potatoes. Love your blog and following you on Twitter. (btw, you have a typo, “scared” instead of “sacred”)
nancy- lol! oh thank you! That makes a HUGE difference. Thanks again.
This looks DIVINE. I just made brown butter sauce to go with butternut squash gnocchi’s this wknd, but left out the sage. Darnit.
Beautiful photos but also beautiful journaling
We eat fried sage like they’re cheetos! So addictive!
Stunning photos.
MyLastBite- Cheetos? did someone say cheetos? Addicting they are. 😀
I love the aroma of sage and butter. It wakes up the senses. I don’t mind having these potatoes in the morning. The photos are just work of art even if they the sage and the butter are already in the pan.
Beautiful pictures!!! I don’t have sage in my garden… I have to buy some young plants, because I love using sage when I cook (excuse my bad english!)
I love me some fried sage leaves… and brown butter sounds like an even better medium.
I also love the first picture with the tied sage bundle… what gave you the idea to tie them together? I know you’ll probably cover this in your photography tips, but are you using a light tent here?
Talley- we always tie our herbs as bouquet garni for our stocks. Usually the bundles are floating in stock, never standing up like this one! It wasn’t easy!
We just shot this in our kitchen, on the dining room table, no light tent. Yes, we’ll eventually cover all this and show everyone how we get shots like these. Stay tuned!