Monday 31 May 2010

baked potatoes

Danni had this genius idea that we should try baking potatoes. (ETA Danni disclaims genius, this idea was actually Jo's). This is something we hadn't done in an absolute age, so long, in fact, that we weren't really sure what we were doing, and there was some flustering around the kitchen in confusion.

baked potatos waiting for the oven

Things we learnt about baked potatoes:
  • put the avocado on after you bake them, not before
  • careful when you're pre-cooking the potatoes in the microwave - things might get messy
  • drizzle some oil
Other than these learn-on-the-go things, it was actually pretty easy! It went like this:

Precook your potatoes in the microwave - stab them first a few times with a fork. When they are pretty much cooked through, remove from the microwave and cut into the tops to create a well or a wedge. Fill this space with nuttelex, mushrooms, beans, cherry tomatoes, chives, and whatever else brings you delight, chopped in to little pieces. Drizzle with olive oil, cover with grated cheese (we used smoked cheddar sheeze), and wrap in alfoil. Bake at 180C for about 15 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and the potato is cooked through.

Top it with avocado and some sour creamy sorts of things. We didn't top it with anything sour creamy - the only thing available was tofutti sour cream, and it's not very nice. If anyone has any recipe suggestions for sour cream, please share them!

We also baked the wedge cut outs at the same time, to have some delicious potato wedges.

baked potatos waiting to be nommed

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

http://northsideladies.blogspot.com/2009/10/lentil-walnut-pate-with-tofu-sour-cream.html

good sour cream recipe! I really dont like tofutti! yummmm I want a baked potato now!!

Cindy said...

Yum! I definitely need to try this at home. Perfect for winter and I bet it makes an excellent low-hassle meal-for-one.

Danni said...

@cindy: we ended up making 4 potatoes (because 1 or 4 was about the same effort). They store nicely in the fridge, and you can reheat them in the microwave if you take the alfoil off.

steph said...

@carla awesome, thanks for the recipe!

@cindy yeah, plus having the alfoil helped me transport it to work the next day without it falling apart! :o)

Cindy said...

Microwavable work-lunch extras? YESSSS!

Maija Haavisto said...

Stupid question, but uh, why would you precook a potato before baking it? I've never heard of anyone doing this...

As for sour creams, I definitely recommend using a cashew base instead of tofu. Or at least some cashews with tofu. Just puree cashews with water until creamy, add some lemon juice for acidity (you'll need a lot more lemon juice than you'd think - somehow cashews "buffer" acidity very well).

Celeste @Berrytravels said...

Baked potatoes! I've been thinking recently to make those as well... especially with the colder weather making its rounds...

Yours sound yum, tho the comment on avocado after cooking and not before, made me giggle <3

Danni said...

@Maija Haavisto: gets it cooked faster. We do something very similar with frozen pies, put them in the microwave for a bit and then transfer them to the oven.

vegiebug said...

baked potatoes are awesome! when i was little we would bake them whole and then right at the end, cut em in half, scoop out all the potato, mix it with onion and cheese and goodies and then put it back in the skins and bake again until crispy! Just an idea :D Delish.

Unknown said...

Do you like natural-flavoured soy yoghurt? I always put Greek-style yoghurt on baked potatoes, because we never have sour cream around. If it's all about the tangy flavour and creamy-smoth texture, then I find natural yoghurt a pretty good substitute. Not entirely sure how it would work with soyghurt, but the flavour profile can't be that different.

Louise said...

am i the only vegan who actually likes the tofutti sour cream? maybe i don't have enough experience with the dairy-based stuff, but i think it's okay - not all the time, but occasionally in eastern european or mexi dishes...

Christine said...

baked potatoes are the best. microwaving them beforehand definitely saves sooo much time. and good lesson about the avocado. heated avocado is one of the things I detest most in this world... the whole taste changes... but stick some fresh avo on top of heated/cooked stuff and its divine!

Johanna GGG said...

baked potatoes are so simple and so good so why do I always forgot to do it - apart from the fact that I can never find big enough potatoes - these look great - I have a recipe somwhere where you mixed chopped spinach with the potato innards which would go well with the smoky cheeze

lisa said...

Baked potatoes are a specialty of mine - I learned how to do them perfectly while living in the Land of BP. I'm intrigued by the fact that you put your toppings on first though!

For me a perfect bp has a crispy outer shell and soft, fluffy inside. I usually do it in the oven the whole time, not wrapped in foil but at a high temp, like 200 degrees, for 45mins to an hour. Then when I take it out I score the top into a cross and push the edges in and all this amazing fluffy potato opens up and it is awesome. Then toppings. Yum.

steph said...

@celeste - it is not a mistake I will be making again! We put our avo on our pizza before cooking, so it seemed like the right thing to do!

@vegiebug yeah I've tried that once, but it always seems like more work! ;oP

@shelley sadly I am not into the yoghurt.

@louise for me I actually don't like sour cream at all, so I have no opinion myself on the tofutti sour cream. I just go by what everyone else tells me!

@christine I know it's a bit lazy but microwaving them before really does save time!

@johanna you could even use small potatoes, I think! And ooh, chopped spinach with the innards, I bet that's delicious

@lisa where is this mystical Land of BP? I didn't even think of not putting the toppings on first! I am intrigued by your method.

Danni said...

@johanna: I had to buy unwashed potatoes and scrub them myself. I couldn't find any big already-washed potatoes.

lisa said...

Land of BP is the UK! Maybe my toppings go on last because I can use the potato cooking time to make them... never saw anyone in the UK doing toppings first though!

Cindy said...

I went ahead and tried this last night for dinner, topping my spud with leftover salsa and a dollop of onion dip. Terrific low-fuss winter eating!

steph said...

Cindy, I am totally just about to blog about further adventures in baked potatoes!