Healthy Stuffed Potatoes

I've wanted to try making these for months now and finally had an occasion to do so (and finally had potatoes in the house).  They turned out so good that I didn't like the ones that had the sauce on them because it was strong enough to mask the incredible flavors of the food.

They were a hit among our guests as well, most of whom were not vegan or nutritarian.

 

Ingredients:

Potatoes, 12 whole spuds**
Broccoli, about a pound of florets
Sno peas or asparagus, 1 cup or more
Shredded carrots or matchstick carrots, 1/2 cup
Mushrooms, 1/2 pound
Onions, 1 cup diced
Garlic, 5 cloves
Seasonings, garlic powder, pepper, paprika, onion powder, red pepper, etc.

Optional - sauces, see recipe links and notes, below.

* measurements are approximate depending on the size of the potatoes, but leftover "stuffing" is not a bad thing!  Our guests were dipping into the leftover stuffing and eating it with a fork. 

** any kind of potatoes will work for this including sweet potatoes, but we used russets with our first try.


Directions:

Wash potatoes, make a couple of shallow slices in each with a knife or pierce with a fork.

Bake at 350 for about an hour, depending on your oven it may be more or less time, until the potatoes are fully cooked.

Let potatoes cool, then slice each potato in half lengthwise. Next, scoop out most of the flesh from each half, leaving a thin layer inside the potato to keep the skins intact and upright, about 1/4".   You can discard the flesh or save it for another dish (sweet potatoes can be added to many soups, stews, chili, etc. for a great nutrition boost and delicious flavor boost). 

The above steps can be done the night before if you are making them for company, or just make them far enough ahead of dinner time to allow them to cook and cool enough to handle.

Meanwhile, chop onions, garlic, mushrooms and sauté in a pan until onions are translucent (water sauté or use a teaspoon of olive oil).

Steam the raw vegetables, broccoli, sno peas, asparagus, carrots (or microwave if using frozen) until they are just beginning to soften and are still bright green/orange.

Combine all of the cooked vegetables in the sauté pan, season well with your choice of seasonings. 

With a slotted spoon, scoop out the vegetable/mushroom mix and add to the potato skins.   At this point, I added a bit more seasonings, more garlic and black pepper, then put them in the oven on broil for about 2-3 minutes.

The potato skins were slightly crispy even without using any oil on them.  

 

 

Sauces:

There are two recipes for sauces for these potatoes that we made, but neither ended up being necessary due to how delicious these were without any sauce at all.  

One sauce, recipe to follow shortly, was our Asian themed sauce, reminiscent of the Beef and Broccoli sauce at our favorite Chinese food restaurant.  

The second sauce was the "cheese" sauce from the Vegan Mac & Cheese recipe here.