Categories
Main Dish Side Dish

Onion soup-inspired baked potatoes will have you crying with joy

French onion baked potatoes combines the rich flavors of French onion soup with the heartiness of a twice-baked potato to create a magnificent meal or side.

There’s that famous quote from Ecclesiastes that “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.”

That phrase is especially applicable when it comes to recipes, it seems. Any time I wonder if anyone has actually accomplished some weird idea, a simple Google search tends to find me a recipe to try.

With that said, I’m still regularly surprised with the recipes I find and the ideas people have when it comes to combining ingredients.

The recipe I found this week for French-onion-soup-inspired baked potatoes was one of those. They sounded delicious, and I knew I just had to try it.

This recipe actually ended up being an amalgamation of three different ones as I searched for the flavor profile I was after. First from the blog “12 Tomatoes” by Kristy Norrell at https://12tomatoes.com/french-onion-stuffed-potatoes. Second, from the blog “Simply Recipes” by Elise Bauer at https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/french_onion_soup/. And finally, from the blog “The Cookie Rookie” by Becky Hardin at https://www.thecookierookie.com/cook-perfect-baked-potatoes/.

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French Onion Baked Potatoes

French onion baked potatoes combines the rich flavors of French onion soup with the heartiness of a twice-baked potato to create a magnificent meal or side.
Course Main Course, Side Dish
Keyword baked potatoes, bay leaves, beef stock, French onion soup, garlic, gruyere, pinot grigio, Russet potato, thyme, white wine, yellow onion

Ingredients

  • 4 large Russet potatoes
  • Olive oil to coat potatoes
  • 4 tablespoons butter
  • 4 medium yellow onions thinly sliced
  • 8 cloves garlic minced
  • pinch of sugar
  • 1/2 cup dry white wine I used pinot grigio
  • 1 cup beef stock
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 teaspoon thyme
  • 10 to 12 ounces gruyere shredded
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
  • While it preheats, wash your potatoes and prick them all over with a fork. Fill a large bowl with warm water and dump in a healthy amount of salt. Place your potatoes in the bowl to soak.
  • Prepare a rimmed baking sheet by lining it with foil and placing a baking rack on top.
  • Once the oven is preheated, remove the potatoes from the water and place them with space between them on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 45 minutes.
  • Remove the sheet from the oven and carefully brush the potatoes with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
  • Place them back in the oven for another 10 minutes.
  • When your potatoes are about 20 minutes from being done, melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the sliced onions and let them saute, stirring regularly, until they are a deep, golden brown. (This will likely take at least 20 minutes. Be patient.) When the onions are nearly done, add in the garlic, sprinkle in the pinch of sugar and add salt and pepper to taste. Saute for a couple more minutes and then add in the white wine, making sure to scrape the bottom of the pan to get up any stuck-on bits.
  • Add in the beef stock, bay leaves and thyme, and let the mixture come to a very low boil, stirring regularly.
  • Once the liquid is completely reduced, remove the skillet from the heat and discard the bay leaves.
  • Cut about one-half inch off the tops of your baked potatoes and scoop out the insides into a mixing bowl, being careful to leave just a bit of the potato attached to the skin so it will hold up to being stuffed.
  • Smash the potato you scooped into the bowl a bit and then add in a handful of the shredded cheese and all but about 1/2 cup of the onion mixture. Stir it well.
  • Scoop the mixture back into the potato shells, and place the filled potatoes on the prepared baking rack from before. Evenly distribute the rest of the onions on the top of the filled potatoes and top with as much cheese as you can balance on top of that. (I highly recommend putting some cheese on the potato tops you cut off earlier and putting those on the sheet, too.)
  • Turn the broiler on low and place the potatoes back in the oven, keeping an eye on them. When the cheese is melted, turn the broiler up to high, and once the cheese is browned to your liking, remove the potatoes from the oven and serve.

These were fabulous and filling. You could eat these as a side dish, but I found large enough potatoes that we made a meal out of them. The caramelized onion flavor along with the cheese and potato was a fantastic combination. And even though these take a bit of a time commitment to create, I would say it’s worth it.

I have to admit that combining French onion soup with a twice-baked potato is a new one for me, so maybe there are a few exceptions to that phrase from Ecclesiastes. Of course, I doubt that the biblical author was considering spuds when creating that line.

This piece first appeared in print on Jan. 5, 2023.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Side Dish

There will be no ‘crisp’appointment at dinner with these potatoes

Parmesan encrusted potatoes take baked potatoes to a new level with crispy parmesan, garlic and some salt and pepper. This simple side dish packs a big wow factor.

When it comes to the holidays and cooking, it’s so often about all of the traditional recipes.

We have Thanksgiving down to a science at our house, making sure we have everyone’s favorite dishes on the table.

And at Christmas, it’s all about the snack table for me. Dinner was always kind of a rotating menu, but the snack table was the old favorite.

That being said, I think trying out a new recipe at the holidays is fun. It’s a way to share a new experience with family and friends and change things up a bit. After some looking around, I think I found my holiday experiment for the year: parmesan encrusted potatoes.

This recipe takes baked potatoes to a whole new level, and they are perfect for the holidays, when most of us aren’t too worried about counting calories.

This comes from the blog “Audrey’s Apron.” You can find the original post at https://audreysapron.wordpress.com/2013/03/19/parmesan-upside-down-baked-potatoes/. I added extra cheese and seasonings to my version.

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Parmesan Encrusted Potatoes

Parmesan encrusted potatoes take baked potatoes to a new level with crispy parmesan, garlic and some salt and pepper. This simple side dish packs a big wow factor.
Course Side Dish
Keyword baked potatoes, easy side, garlic powder, parmesan, potatoes, red potatoes, yellow potatoes

Ingredients

  • about 6 medium-sized yellow or red potatoes
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1 cup shredded parmesan cheese
  • garlic powder to taste
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

  • Place the butter in a nine-by-13-inch baking dish and place it in the oven while it preheats. Preheat to 400 degrees.
  • While the oven preheats, halve the potatoes, lengthwise.
  • When the oven is hot, carefully remove the baking dish and tilt it to coat the entire bottom as evenly as possible with the melted butter.
  • Evenly sprinkle the parmesan, garlic powder, salt and pepper over top of the melted butter. (Use just a touch more of each of the seasonings than you think you might want.)
  • Place the potatoes, cut-side down, onto the parmesan mixture, pressing them down just slightly.
  • Bake, uncovered, for 40 to 45 minutes or until the potatoes are fork tender.
  • Serve the potatoes immediately, using a spatula to cut the crispy parmesan between each potato before scooping them out of the dish.

These potatoes were almost magical. They were delicious. The combination of the fluffiness of the potatoes with the crispiness of the cheese, the flavor pop of seasoning and the saltiness—it was so, so good.

We tried this recipe out with some delicious smoked chicken Joey made, and it felt like we were having a mini feast at our dining room table. We both agreed that this was a recipe to make for Christmas this year.

The other nice thing is it’s easy to expand or contract, depending on how many folks you’re serving. Really, if you can fit more potatoes in your baking dish, you don’t even need a whole lot more of the other ingredients. Just squeeze ’em in.

I will say that while these do reheat OK, they’re not the greatest leftovers. The cheese gets a little soggy, and trust me, the crispy cheese is the best part. They’re still good as leftovers but not nearly as awesome as the first serving.

As Christmas approaches, I’ll be mixing up my annual double batch of peppernuts and probably coating something in almond bark, but I’m also looking forward to sharing a new dish with my family. For me, that’s what the holidays are all about.

This piece first appeared in print on Dec. 15, 2022.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Soup

Leftover potato soup a f‘root’ful experiment

Sausage and potato soup is a hearty meal and a good use for leftover baked and mashed potatoes.

I know that we’re quickly moving out of what most people would consider “soup weather,” but I tend to like it no matter what time of year it is.

I especially like to have containers full of it in my deep freeze at all times for evenings when Joey and I are far too busy (or tired) to make a home-cooked meal.

Recently, Joey was at an event where both baked and mashed potatoes were served. At the end of the evening, someone bagged up both and asked if anyone wanted the leftovers or they were going in the trash.

Joey snapped them up, figuring we could do something with it at home.

We brainstormed together and came up with what ended up being a delicious soup. We were pretty proud of ourselves, and I couldn’t help but think we weren’t the only ones who sometimes come across lots of leftover potatoes after a get-together, so I thought I’d share it with you. It also wouldn’t be hard to get a big bag of taters and just do this on its own.

I don’t have a source for this week’s recipe, since it came from Joey and I experimenting in our own kitchen, but I will say that you may need to adjust the amounts based on how many potatoes you have or how thick you like your soup. It’s a very flexible recipe, so I’d recommend adding liquid a little at a time until you get it to the right consistency.

We had so many potatoes that I doubled this and made two big pots full.

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Sausage and Potato Soup

Sausage and potato soup is a hearty meal and a good use for leftover baked and mashed potatoes.
Course Main Course
Keyword baked potatoes, fennel, mashed potatoes, potatoes, sausage, soup

Ingredients

  • 1 pound sage sausage
  • 1 medium yellow onion diced
  • 3 to 4 cloves garlic minced
  • 4 to 6 tablespoons flour
  • 2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
  • About six medium-sized baked potatoes
  • About one pound mashed potatoes
  • 1/4 teaspoon fennel
  • garlic salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 1/2 to 2 cups milk I used skim
  • 4 ounces sharp cheddar shredded
  • 4 ounces pepper jack shredded

Instructions

  • In a large Dutch oven, combine the sausage and onion, breaking apart and browning the sausage until it’s cooked through and the onions are soft.
  • Once the sausage is done cooking, stir in the minced garlic and cook for two to three minutes or until it browns slightly and starts to smell nice.
  • Start sprinkling in the flour, mixing it into the sausage to that it soaks up any grease. Keep adding it, a little at a time, until the grease is completely incorporated into the flour. Let it cook, continuing to stir, for about two minutes to cook the flour taste out.
  • Stir in the chicken broth and let that cook for a couple minutes as well.
  • Cut the baked potatoes into bite-sized pieces (we included the skin in ours) and add them to the pot along with the mashed potatoes (Both can be cold at this point. No need to heat them up beforehand.). Also toss in the fennel, garlic salt and pepper.
  • Stir the mixture well. Start by mixing in about one cup of milk and let the soup cook, stirring regularly so it doesn’t scorch on the bottom, for five to 10 minutes or until it begins to thicken. If it’s too thick, add more milk until you reach your desired consistency.
  • Once the soup is heated all the way through (probably another 10 minutes or so), dump in the sharp cheddar and pepper jack cheeses and stir until it’s melted.
  • Serve hot with a bit more cheese on top if desired.

We were head over heels in love with this recipe. It definitely fills you up quickly and has tons of great flavor.

It was also pretty satisfying to not see so much food tossed in the trash and instead be transformed into a wonderful meal (actually, several meals).

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, Americans toss about 30 to 40 percent of our food supply every year, which is a staggering amount. If we can come up with more ways to keep good food out of the garbage and back in our fridges, we could begin to solve a lot of issues in this country.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt when there’s sausage and garlic involved, too.

This piece first appeared in print on April 19, 2018.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Breakfast Side Dish

Here’s an easy potato recipe you’ll really dig

Home fries use leftover baked potatoes and are a good side dish for any meal of the day.

While spending summer days alone at home, between bouts of trying to kill each other, my sister and I would often spend time creating stupid videos that our parents tactfully refused to watch when they came home (good move), playing with the farm cats outdoors and pretending to be world famous chefs as we prepared the few lunches we knew how to make.

Generally, lunch consisted of a sandwich, a bowl of canned soup, boxed macaroni and cheese or baked potatoes from the microwave, but that didn’t stop us from boldly describing our flavor choices as we mixed orange powder into our freshly boiled noodles.

I’ve always loved a good baked potato, and especially on cold days like we’ve been having, cutting into a hot potato and watching the steam escape makes for a comforting meal.

This past week, I had several leftover baked potatoes in our fridge, and I decided to do something more interesting with them than just warming them back up in the oven.

Apparently, a lot of diners use their leftover baked potatoes to make home fries, which explains why diner home fries are so delicious.

To get those same awesome flavors at home, I tried a recipe from “The Creekside Cook.” You can find it at http://thecreeksidecook.com/twice-baked-oven-home-fries/#_a5y_p=1845571. I didn’t change much, but I did decide to take out the amounts for the spices. I’d recommend just giving a good sprinkling of each. If you’re nervous and want to measure, I’d say you should start with about 1/4 teaspoon of each and then bump it up from there if you want more flavor.

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Home Fries

Home fries use leftover baked potatoes and are a good side dish for any meal of the day.
Course Side Dish
Keyword baked potatoes, fries, potatoes

Ingredients

  • Two to four leftover baked potatoes
  • 1 tablespoon butter or oil
  • salt to taste
  • pepper to taste
  • onion powder to taste
  • garlic powder to taste
  • paprika to taste

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 400 degrees with an oven-safe skillet already in the oven (I used my 12-inch cast iron pan).
  • Cut your baked potatoes into about one-inch cubes. Remove the skins if you like (I left them on, because I love a crispy potato skin).
  • Once the oven is done preheating, carefully remove your pan and melt/heat up your butter or oil and swirl it to coat the pan.
  • Add the potatoes, stir them around a bit to distribute the butter/oil, and get them in as much of a single layer as possible.
  • Pop them in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove and turn the potatoes so that they evenly brown and pop them back in the oven for another 10 minutes. (Keep an eye on them so they don’t over-brown.)
  • After the second time in the oven, if they still need some browning time, give them another stir and let them go another five minutes or so at a time until you’re happy with the color on them.
  • Once they’re browned to your liking, pull them from the oven and stir in the spices to your taste (throw in some cayenne, too, if you like things spicy). Let the potatoes hang out in the pan for just a moment to let the heat release some of the spices’ aroma and then serve.

We ate these for brunch over the weekend with over-easy eggs and hot coffee. It was a good way to warm up.

So if you decide to bake up some potatoes one of these cold evenings for dinner, I’d recommend tossing in a couple extra for home fries later in the week.

Just be sure to really sell your chef skills while you’re making them. I’d recommend a poorly done French accent. It seems to help.

This piece first appeared in print on Jan. 18, 2018.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

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