Globally-Inspired Office Lunches to Celebrate National Potato Day – No French Fries Allowed

Forget the French fries, and put away the potato chips: it’s time to celebrate America’s favorite vegetable, but in an international fashion! Today is National Potato Day, and don’t roll your eyes at yet another made-up food holiday. Rather, think of today as an opportunity to break out of the humdrum routine of office lunches: burgers and fries, sandwiches and chips- all perfectly respectable ways to enjoy potatoes, but also utterly predictable. Instead, celebrate National Potato Day with one of the following delicious, potato-based dishes from around the globe. Get inspired to give the humble spud a fresh look, and liven up your lunch break while you’re at it. After all, couldn’t your work day use a little celebration?

Aloo gobi – A relatively healthy Indian dish of cauliflower and potatoes, this vegetarian meal is bright yellow thanks to the use of tumeric.

Boxty – These Irish potato pancakes are like combination of mashed potatoes and fried potatoes – and all delicious. They’ve even inspired a popular folk rhyme: “Boxty on the griddle, boxty on the pan; if you can’t make boxty, you’ll never get a man.” 

Gnocchi – These potato dumplings are native to Northern Italy, and beautifully paired with zesty tomato sauces or rich cream sauces alike.

Knish – These heavenly Jewish snacks are sort of like small, savory handpies stuffed with mashed potatoes and some combination of meat, cheese, onions, or sauerkraut.

Nikujaga – The Japanese equivalent of meat-and-potatoes, this dish is mostly potatoes, with a little beef for flavor, stewed with soy sauce and a broth (usually dashi or bonito).

Papa a la Huancaína – The homeland of potatoes, Peruvian cuisine includes a lot of wonderful dishes starring the spud,  but the classic is this cold salad of boiled potatoes dressed in a spicy cheese sauce.

Patatas bravas – This quintessential Spanish tapas dish is simple and straightforward: chunks of potatoes fried and served with aioli or a spicy tomato sauce.

Pommes Anna – French food is famous for its richness, and this dish is no exception: the only two ingredients are sliced potatoes and butter, layered and baked into a cake-like dish. Yes, a potato and butter cake. And you thought French fries were a guilty pleasure!

Poutine – Perhaps Canada’s greatest contribution to the culinary world (sorry, ketchup chips), poutine is essentially French fries smothered in a gravy-like sauce and cheese curds. Poutine might be more appropriate for post-bar-hopping midnight snacks than for office lunches, but really, fries, gravy, and cheese are going to taste good at any time of day!

Rösti – This Swiss breakfast staple consists of circular patties of coarsely grated potatoes, fried with butter or another fat, and seasoned with salt and pepper. Think hash browns, but fresher and rounder.

Samosa – Fried pockets of dough stuffed with spicy potatoes and veggies (like peas or onions) and occasionally ground meat (like lamb or beef)? This Indian snack food is popular worldwide for a good reason – it’s delicious.

Tombet – Similar to ratatouille, this dish hails from the beautiful Spanish island of Majorca – and it’s a delicious layered concoction of potatoes, red bell peppers, and eggplants fried in olive oil, and topped with a “crust” of tomatoes, garlic, and parsley.

Fried, baked, stuffed into dumplings, or made into dumplings themselves, you can see that potatoes are a lot more diverse than we usually give them credit for. Celebrate their big day with a round of globally-inspired, spud-centric office lunches – you’ll be able to find dozens of menus to peruse for the perfect potato dish at Waiter.com, with easy online ordering and fast delivery to boot!