I tested the best supermarket ready-made roast potatoes against brand leader Aunt Bessie & winner was third of the price
Roasties have topped a survey of our favourite ways to eat spuds – and ready-made options are on offer in the freezer aisles.
Here, Laura Stott tries a selection and rates each for taste and value.
Tesco
800g, 76p, tesco.com
THE cheapest of the frozen potatoes I tried, these are made with sunflower oil which makes them suitable for veggies and vegans as well as producing a slightly lighter flavour.
They are far less greasy and more like an oven chip, while the rice flour coating delivers crunch with lots of crispy bits plus nice soft insides.
An economical and tasty bag of spuds.
RATING: 5/5
Aldi Specially Selected
1kg, £2.49 in store
THESE posh tubers, which are made with beef dripping, come in a whopping 1kg bag – a great size to keep stashed in the freezer for Sunday lunch standbys.
There’s a very meaty aroma when these tats begin to sizzle in the oven.
The crisp on the skin is decent, although the insides could have been softer.
A crowd-pleaser that’s ideal with a joint and gravy.
But a bit pricey and rather greasy.
RATING: 3/5
Lidl
1kg, 95p in store
MADE with sunflower oil, which makes them great for non-meat-eaters, but they containing eco-unfriendly palm oil, which is maybe why I found the taste rather odd.
While they gave off a nice aroma from the oven and crisped up well, the potato inside was hard and unenjoyable.
Probably OK when smothered with gravy and eaten with the trimmings, but not my fave, which is a pity given the good price.
RATING: 2/5
M&S Maris Piper
800g, £3, M&S in store
THE most expensive roasties I tried – but they were delicious, which justifies the higher price.
This was also the only bag to specify which actual spuds were used – British Maris Pipers – and the only one to use rapeseed oil, which added a nice nutty crunch.
Well worth splashing out on for a treat, although they needed ten minutes longer in the oven than suggested.
RATING: 4/5
Aunt Bessie’s
720g, £2.50, tesco.com
THE go-to brand for many roast dinners, this pricey bag is smaller than all the others, which means you get less for your money.
Crispy golden spuds with nice soft potato inside, but it’s a shame they are made with non- eco-friendly palm oil.
All the tats were very large – so a few smaller ones would have been nice too.
RATING: 2/5
Morrisons
800g, £1.09, morrisons.com
COSTING more than a quid for 800g, these were on the pricier side for spuds made with sunflower oil.
There’s rice flour too, which helps to crunch up the exteriors.
A decent mix of small, medium and massive tats but the bright yellow hue was rather off- putting.
The taste was fine, if not exceptional – quite crunchy and with soft insides.
An average bag of tats.
RATING: 2/5
Asda Extra Special
800g, £2.75, asda.com
POSH premium roasties coated with five per cent beef dripping as well as sunflower oil, so you get super-crunchy spuds and lovely melt-in-the-mouth soft potatoes to shove your fork into.
A very intense aroma when in the oven, these come really close to smelling and looking like the home-made real deal.
They’re easy to cook but were a little bit greasy.
RATING: 4/5
Iceland
1kg, £2.75, iceland.co.uk
ANOTHER mega bag of potatoes, these are coated with five per cent beef fat and two per cent sunflower oil.
They had a decent crunch but were a little softer on the outside than I would have liked, although in fairness that didn’t negatively affect the taste.
A good range of sizes and OK colour, they could have been more golden and left the greasiest residue on the roasting trays used.
RATING: 3/5