To get potatoes onto your weeknight dinner plate faster, start by cooking them in the microwave. Food writer Josh Friedland, father of two and author of a recent dinner diary detailing what he cooks for his kids in a week, makes a practice of microwaving diced potatoes before roasting them in the oven underneath a whole fish. This allows the potatoes to get nice and crispy as the fish cooks, in about half the amount of time as usual. (The same technique will work with fillets if whole fish–cooking isn't on your agenda.)
Friedland employs the same microwave trick—this time being sure to cook the potatoes all the way through—when tossing them with a flavorful sauce, like pesto, thereby bypassing the lengthy task of waiting for a pot of water to come to a boil.
And then there's the humble baked potato. (Not that your baked potato has to be humble. Your baked potato can be as egotistical as it wants to be. I'm not here to judge.) A whole potato or sweet potato can take up to 90 minutes to cook all the way through in a conventional oven; but a potato that's been pre-cooked in the microwave—say for 5 to 10 minutes—only needs about 20 minutes in a 450°F oven to finish roasting. Why not just cook it all the way in the microwave? Because the microwave essentially makes a steamed potato, while roasting will crisp the skin and—especially in the case of a sweet potato—caramelize the inherent sugars so the flavor is more concentrated.
Other places where microwaved potatoes might come in handy? Frittatas. Breakfast tacos. Any kind of hash (which is equally good for breakfast or dinner). Even to speed up a simple side dish of ordinarily-boiled-potatoes: just microwave the potatoes instead. Toss with butter and herbs, or olive oil and lemon juice, and serve.
To try it, place diced or whole potatoes in a microwave-safe bowl, add a teaspoon or so of water (this is optional, but can't hurt), cover with plastic wrap, and start nuking. The amount of time it will take to cook the potatoes depends on the size of the potatoes and the wattage of your microwave, but start at about 2 minutes for diced or baby potatoes or 4 minutes for the big guys, and work your way up from there. Test them the same way you would any potato, by piercing with the point of a paring knife—if the knife slides in and out easily, it's fully cooked. If it slides in but you have to work to pull it out, they're ready for a second round of cooking; and if it doesn't slide in at all, nuke it a little longer—they'll still be ready for the oven before the oven is even ready for them.
