The Most Popular Potato Dishes From Around The World

Did you know that the humble potato was the first vegetable to grow in space? Yes, that's right. In addition to gracing all of us earthlings with its starchy texture and delightful versatility, the potato has also made its way to infinity and beyond.

It's no wonder the vegetable favorite has found itself outside the confines of our planet. Potatoes are necessary to create the dishes of many regions across the globe, from Idaho to Ireland. With rich historical ties, the spud dates all the way back to approximately 8,000 years ago upon its debut harvests in Peru. As the Spanish colonists realized just how revolutionary the potato would be to their cuisine, they brought it back with them where the vegetable gained much notoriety throughout many other corners of the globe.

In our modern day, the potato wears many hats; sometimes it is bagged and flavored with sea salt and vinegar, and other times it can be found puréed into a smooth and silky consistency. Whether you prefer to consume your potato as a snack, side dish, or as the dazzling main event, you'll find that the starchy vegetable partakes in an exciting costume change as you travel from country to country. Here are some of the most popular potato dishes that can be found in various walks of life.

Norwegian for "shredded balls," raspeballer is a beautiful potato dumpling made from shredded potatoes and simmered for hours in broth until it is perfectly tender.

One interesting tidbit about the raspeballer dish is that, according to the general manager of Bergen restaurant Bryggeloftet & Stuene, raspeballer is typically eaten on Thursdays. This is perhaps because Thursday was once Bergen's liveliest day of the week — stores and restaurants remained open until later in the evening, attracting customers with the inexpensive and delicious dish.

Similar to a matzo ball, the potato dumpling serves as an excellent neutral base that is garnished with all sorts of toppings. Many choose to eat it with boiled veggies and meats, while others opt for toppings like brown sugar, lingonberries, and crumbled bacon. In other variations, it can even accompany a sauce made from Norway's beloved Brunost — a delightfully sweet and caramelly brown cheese that debuts in many traditional Norwegian dishes.

All in all, raspeballer is the epitome of comfort food. It's no surprise why the dish is so cherished in Norway — a long day of skiing in the frigid weather seems incomplete without a warmed dish of the revered potato dumplings.

If you woke up feeling like a bright ray of sunshine, you may consider making this Peruvian favorite. Yellow from head to toe, Papa a la Huancaína is a dish featuring flattened yellow potatoes and topped with a spicy sauce made from the aji amarillo — the Peruvian yellow chile pepper — and served with a halved boiled egg and some olives. Papa a la huancaína is known for its all-around yellowness as well as its creamy texture and bold flavors.

And while the potato acts as the dish's steadfast base, the star of this meal is perhaps the spicy yellow sauce that helps to bring out all the good qualities of the spud. By blending the aji amarillo, some evaporated milk, vegetable oil, crackers (for a fun little crunch), salt, pepper, and a hint of queso fresco, you'll create a whole helping of sauce that makes papa a la huancaína so special to Peruvian cuisine.

Add all this to a plate of softened potato rounds and garnish with a boiled egg, parsley, and some olives.

If there's one thing you should know about the Swiss, it's that they love their potatoes — so much that it comprises their national dish. Rösti is a Swiss-German snack that serves as the trusty sidekick to a warm schnitzel or roast chicken.

Made by crisping a round of shaved potatoes, rösti is the close friend of the American hash brown. While they are quite similar, the major difference between the two dishes is that hash browns are shredded, soaked in a bath of cold water, dried and fried to perfection. Rösti, on the other hand, features grated raw potatoes cut into thin strips, fried, and often served into larger rounds. Another major difference is that rösti tends to have a fluffier middle underneath its crispy, crunchy exterior.

Mostly, though, the two dishes are quite similar — perhaps even siblings — as they both contain the same crunchy potato essence.

If you want to make your own, it's important to note that the size of your rösti will influence its crisp. If you want a fluffier dish, pack your shredded potatoes into a larger pan. If you're feeling crunchy, make smaller and skinnier rösti rounds that will resemble the taste and texture of potato chips.

Despite its warm, less-than-ideal climate for growing spuds, Nigeria utilizes the potato in one of its meatless dishes: sweet potato porridge. While much of Nigeria's cuisine features meaty soups and stews, sweet potato porridge is a uniquely sweet vegetarian dish with a fresh aromatic veggie base.

A warm and comforting dish that brings joy to all who try it, sweet potato porridge is like a delightful hug inside of your stomach. The sweetness of the yams pairs nicely with the pungence of its veggies, making for a delightfully well-rounded dish.

Similar to plenty of other dishes of the region, sweet potato porridge is made by adding a tomato and pepper blend to a pot of sautéing veggies. After adding a few globs of ginger and garlic pastes, as well as a blend of spices and seasonings, it's time to incorporate the star of the show: the delicious sweet potato. Once the potatoes begin to crumble apart, they are mashed and served either alone or with a hearty protein such as chicken or fish.

A common theme we've noticed in the potato world is that many cultures like to eat them flattened and fried in patty or cake form. The same goes for this Pakistani Indian dish, which translates to "potato patty." It's a street food that Indian and Pakistan natives can't seem to have enough of.

Served with chutneys and yogurts of all sorts, aloo tikki is pan-fried until crispy and flaky perfection is achieved. This potato patty is quite versatile, as many regions have modified and upgraded the dish throughout the years. Some versions of the snack are thin, while others are stuffed to the brim with a green pea filling. In Northern India, you can find your aloo tikki served with warm chickpea gravy and topped with a helping of tamarind chutney and onions.

The process of making aloo tikki is quite simple. Like plenty of other potato-making journeys, it mostly consists of pan-frying a starchy dough. After adding coriander and chili powder diluted in ghee, flour, and bread crumbs are added to the mixture, where it is separated into balls, stuffed or flattened, then fried in oil.

With a flaky golden exterior, the favorite potato rendition of India and Pakistan makes for a great snack and chutney dip.

While the Italian "gnocchi" means "knot" or "lump" in English, its decadent flavor is quite a bit more elegant than its translated name. Similar to many potato dumplings of Italy's counter-cuisines, gnocchi is made from a boiled and peeled potato-based flour. Formed into a long snakelike tube, the dough is cut into bite-sized pieces and rolled on a board into its signature shape — featuring rows of lines and ridges that serve as a sauce adhesive.

Similar to pasta, gnocchi makes for an excellent culinary canvas that inspires sauce creativity. Try your gnocchi topped with a tomato and herbs, fresh basil pesto, a creamy alfredo, a meaty ground beef sauce, or even a concoction of brown butter and sage.

The little Italian dumpling is the potato cousin of traditional pasta — it sports all the same sauces and has a similar size and shape. The gnocchi's potato-inspired density, though, is what sets it apart.