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Loaded Baked Potato

ChrisB , , , , , ,

Originally from the Americas the humble potato was kept primarily as a European house plat until the Irish began to find is value in the kitchen. Today there are hundreds of recipes for your bag of spuds, the only real question is how would you like them tonight? Mashed, baked, boiled or fried. Served au gratin or they could even be baked into a pie.

Be it baked, boiled or mashed these styles not only offer some of the most nutritious options for preparing the potato, but also some of the easiest. Little to no chopping, simply cook through with a little bit of heat and two of the three methods are ready for the table. For those of you who choose to mash your potatoes leaving the skin on will not only relieve you of the pain staking process of removing it, but also the majority of the nutritional value in the potato is found within the skin.

The versatility of the potato, just as many starches or grains, makes it nearly perfect as a staple crop. The mild flavour and nutrient-packed tubor can be filled with or surrounded by a wide variety of spices and seasonings and take those flavours on rather well. Sure cheese, gravy, ketchup and vinegar are the big four when it comes to condiments but there are so many other additions that can spruce up the potato. Primarily a side dish to a protein, potatoes can find a home next to steak just as well as chicken or pork.

The Loaded Baked Potato:

Ingredients:

1 potato per person.

1 Tbsp. salted butter per potato

black pepper

25g. per potato of grated marble cheese

1 Tbsp. sour cream per potato

1 spring onion chopped

Directions:

  1. Cook potato in oven at 350 degrees for one to one and a half hours, or until finger tender.
  2. Once cooked remove from oven and half or quarter the potato.
  3. Top with spices and seasonings, spring onion on last.
  4. Serve.

A baked potato, loaded with some of your favourite fixings, is great this time of year. The neutral flavour, nutritional density combined with the culinary flexibility makes the potato suitable for any day of the week. This was just one way to load your potato, how do you load yours?