New NDSU potato guide offers cooking tips and nutritional information – InForum

FARGO, N.D. — Two North Dakota State University scientists have teamed up to illustrate that potatoes are both nutritious and delicious.

Julie Garden-Robinson and Susie Thompson collaborated to produce a “A Pocket Guide to Preparing Potatoes,” which features information that includes the nutrients in potatoes, types of potatoes and ways to prepare them.

Garden-Robinson is an NDSU Extension food and nutrition specialist with a doctorate in cereal science and food technology and a variety of other degrees related to food, nutrition and biochemistry. Thompson, meanwhile, has a doctorate in plant, soil and entomological sciences and is NDSU’s leading potato breeder.

The pocket guide, released during the summer of 2024, has been distributed in a variety of places including food pantries and potato field days and is available to order from NDSU Extension.

“We send them all across the state to whoever orders them through Extension,” Garden-Robinson said.

Thompson conceived the idea for the potato pocket guide after a conversion with Garden-Robinson. Thompson explained that students who get potatoes at the NDSU food pantry didn’t know how to cook the tubers that she and her colleagues donate to it. Garden-Robinson, who had produced other vegetable pocket guides for similar reasons, wasn’t surprised, mentioning to Thompson about the previous publications. Thompson suggested that they collaborate on one focusing on potatoes.

The research team digs and bags up the potatoes, mostly red and yellows that have not been chemically treated from the research plots and the rows surrounding them that separate the tubers from other crops, and donate them to food pantries across North Dakota, including the NDSU Goods for the Herd food pantry.

“My research specialists take potatoes to that on a pretty regular basis,” Thompson said.

When she learned that some students had never even prepared a baked potato, she expressed her surprise to Garden-Robinson, who told her that, in the past, she had developed pocket guides for other vegetables, including zucchini, garlic and squash.

The pocket guides gained popularity during the COVID pandemic when they were included in food boxes that were distributed to the public, Garden-Robinson said.

Garden-Robinson and Thompson, with the help of Jenna Sufka, a dietetic intern, put together the potato pocket guide, a fold-out that gives a wealth of information in a small space. The pocket guide and posters which include similar information are funded with a North Dakota Department of Agriculture specialty crop block grant.

The thorough guide describes how to wash, trim and prepare potatoes, the ways they are used, including chipping, frying and baking/roasting, and how to can or freeze them. It even gives information on how to avoid “greening” of potatoes when planting them and how to avoid having the potatoes sprout.

“A Pocket Guide to Preparing Potatoes” features eight recipes, which include garlic smashed potatoes, broccoli and cheddar potato tots and potato brownies. Thompson contributed the potato brownie recipe and a recipe for vegetable chowder, one of her favorite soups.

Garden-Robinson and Sufka prepared, taste-tested and analyzed Thompson’s recipes and the six others in the pocket guide in an NDSU food laboratory, modifying some so they met nutritional guidelines. For example, whole milk was substituted for cream and whole wheat flour for white flour.

“They’re hardy, they’re nutritious and they look pretty,” Thompson said. Highlighting how nutritious potatoes are was important to her because they often get a bad rap in that department, she said.

It was fun for Thompson to work with Garden-Robinson on a potato research project different from the plant breeding trials she typically conducts, Thompson said.

Garden-Robinson, meanwhile, enjoyed working with Thompson to produce “A Pocket Guide to Preparing Potatoes” because she got to promote the potato, the end-product of Thompson’s research

“I really enjoy working with the research faculty and promoting all of our wonderful crops in North Dakota. It’s fun for me,” Garden-Robinson said.

Ann is a journalism veteran with nearly 40 years of reporting and editing experiences on a variety of topics including agriculture and business. Story ideas or questions can be sent to Ann by email at: [email protected] or phone at: 218-779-8093.