Garden Twice Baked Potaoes
This is a great way to preserve your garden grown potatoes and vegetables…not to mention a nice party food for your harvest celebrations.
Ingredients:
Potatoes – washed but left whole
Garden vegetables such as chard, kale, broccoli, squash, or carrots. Washed and chopped
Olive oil for cooking vegetables and coating potatoes.
Fresh Herbs such as chives, parsley, thyme, or basil – washed and chopped
1 Tablespoon of yogurt or sour cream per potato (vegans can substitute hummus)
1 Tablespoon of milk or half-and-half per potato (vegans can substitute vegetable stock)
1 Tablespoon parmesan cheese per potato (vegans can leave this out)
Salt, Pepper, or spices such as Cumin to taste. Smoked paprika for garnish if desired.
Optional: shredded cheese to top potatoes with before final baking.
Lightly coat the skins of the potatoes with olive oil and bake in a 350 degree oven until soft, about 35 minutes depending on the size of the potatoes.
While potatoes are cooking sauté the chopped vegetables of your choice in a pan until almost cooked. Greens such as chard or kale will take only a few minutes to wilt, but harder veggies such as carrots might take up to ten minutes, stirring frequently.
Once potatoes are soft, remove from the oven, slice them in half lengthwise, and let cool for about twenty minutes. Once they are cool enough to handle scoop out the insides with a spoon and put into a bowl.
Place shells onto a cookie sheet and mix the insides with the sautéd vegetables, and the rest of the ingredients. (Yogurt or sour cream, milk or half-and-half, parmesan cheese and spices.) Gently mix either with a potato masher or fork…do not beat hard or use a food processor as that will make the potatoes gummy. Mix only until the filling is well blended.
Spoon the filling into each potato skin. Top with smoked paprika if desired.
Here are the skins and the mixed filling.
At this point the potatoes can be frozen for the future, refrigerated for baking later in the day, or immediately baked and served.
This tray of Twice Baked Garden Potatoes is ready to put in the freezer. Once they are frozen they are placed in plastic bags until you’re ready to bake them for dinner or a party.