The Saturday Cook: This potato taco recipe is the perfect hangover cure

Some weekend mornings, all I want is savory carbs. The craving’s usually for a breakfast burrito or home fries. But the former is usually too big and the latter too boring on its own. So I came up with these home fry tacos using fresh spring potatoes and onions.

Standard tacos de papa (potato tacos) are deep-fried tortillas folded around mashed potatoes so you get crunchy shells encasing a soft center. Here, you get the opposite, a soft wrapper around crisp filling. Chile-coated potatoes are skillet-seared like home fries with quick-caramelized spring onions, then smashed onto warm tortillas.

You can make these any time of year, of course, but they’re especially tasty now. Spring potatoes are being harvested throughout this month, having grown from their initial planting in February. Freshly harvested spring potatoes — ideally, new potatoes — taste sweeter and are nearly juicy. They taste like spring’s grassy scent of wet soil after a rain. Stove-top browning highlights all those qualities.

While the potatoes taste great on their own and would be awesome on a plate with fried bacon and eggs, they’re the epitome of comfort when folded into soft tortillas. Fresh jalapeño slices, salsa and lime add brightness, while salty cheese enriches the mix. Yes, they are the perfect hangover breakfast (or, well, lunch) and they’re just as delicious on the dinner table too.

Spring Onion Home Fry Tacos

View this recipe and more in our California Cookbook »

25 minutes. Serves 4.

These tacos taste good with either corn or flour tortillas; the choice is up to you. So is the salsa. Verde brightens the mellow mix with its tomatillo tang, and red — whether chile- or tomato-based — adds warmth.

3 spring onions or 5 scallions

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Kosher salt

1 pound red potatoes, scrubbed and cut into ½-inch chunks

2 teaspoons ground ancho chile

8 small corn or flour tortillas

5 ounces cotija cheese, crumbled (1/2 cup)

Salsa, sliced jalapeño and lime wedges, for serving

1 Trim the onions and cut the white parts off the green stalks. Dice the whites and thinly slice the greens.

2 Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the diced spring onions and sliced onion whites. Season with salt and cook, stirring often, until softened and lightly browned, 2 to 3 minutes.

3 Add the potatoes and stir to coat with the oil, then sprinkle with the ground chile and a generous pinch of salt. Stir again and spread in an even layer. Add ½ cup water and cover. Cook, stirring once or twice, until the potatoes are tender and browned and the water evaporates, about 10 minutes.

4 Meanwhile, heat the tortillas on a comal, skillet, or over the open flame of a gas burner on medium-low heat until browned in spots and pliable, about 45 seconds. Stack in a clean kitchen towel or foil and wrap.

5 Taste the potatoes and season with more salt if needed. Divide among the warmed tortillas and smash gently. Sprinkle with the cheese and sliced spring onion greens, then top with the salsa and jalapeño slices and squeeze lime juice on top.