Loaded Potato Wedges with Sour Cream

Ingredients

• 1 kg potatoes, cut into wedges
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 100 g cheddar, grated
• 4 rashers bacon, cooked, chopped
• 3 spring onions, sliced
• 150 ml sour cream
• Crusty sourdough bread, to serve
• Dressed green salad, to serve
• Fresh parsley, to serve

Method

1. Heat the oven to 210°C/190°C fan. Tip the potato wedges onto a large baking tray, drizzle with the olive oil and scatter over the garlic powder, smoked paprika and a generous pinch of salt and pepper — be bold here, potatoes drink salt. Toss with your hands until every wedge is slick and rust-red; the oil carries the spices and lets them bloom in the oven heat rather than sitting raw and dusty on the surface.
2. Spread the wedges out in a single layer with a cut side down, giving each one room to breathe — don't crowd the tray, or steam pools between them and you'll get pale, floppy wedges instead of crisp ones. Roast for 30 minutes, turning once halfway, until deeply golden at the edges, blistered in patches, and tender when pierced with the tip of a knife.
3. A note on the garlic powder: because it's already in the oil and going straight into a hot oven, watch the wedges in the last few minutes — if the edges start moving past deep gold towards dark brown, pull them. Burnt garlic, even powdered, turns bitter and there's no rescuing it.
4. Pull the tray out and scatter the grated cheddar evenly over the hot wedges, followed by the chopped bacon. Slide back into the oven for 5 minutes, until the cheese has melted into glossy pools and the bacon is sizzling at the edges. Taste a wedge now — if it needs another pinch of salt, add it while everything is still hot enough to take it. Adjust now, not at the table.
5. Shower the tray with the sliced spring onions and chopped parsley, then finish with a squeeze of lemon over the top — the acid cuts through the cheese and bacon fat and lifts the whole tray from heavy to moreish. Serve straight from the tray with the bowl of cool soured cream alongside for dunking.