It seems so simple, doesn’t it? Just cook a potato. Despite being an incredibly versatile vegetable, and rightly loved by all, it is not a meal in its own right. However, this tasty root vegetable is the foundation for so many low-priced and simple dinner recipes. One of which we included in our free Week of Easy Vegan Food Guide, which you can get if you join our mailing list today.
This cooking method though will make sure that you have a crisp jacketed, fluffy centred and flavour-packed baked potato, that will be ready for you to throw on your favourite toppings and get to the eating. Just get yourself some good-sized baking potatoes, a bottle of olive oil (not extra virgin to avoid that bitterness), rock salt and peppercorns for grinding to season.
There are so many great toppings that you can enjoy your perfect potato with: a warm bean chilli, some melted vegan cheese, or how about some delicious coleslaw, a personal favourite of ours. In fact we found the best vegan coleslaw recipe, it’s creamy, crunchy, sweet and tangy, everything a tasty coleslaw should be.
Best Vegan Jacket Potato Recipe
You need to get your oven hot, we mean hotter than you have ever had it…probably. Set it to 250°C / 230°C Fan / 480°F / Gas Mark 9 and pick out your potatoes, give them a quick rinse and then pierce them a few times randomly with a fork, knife or whatever pointy utensil you come across first. Set your potatoes onto a rack with a baking tray beneath them, keeping them off of the baking tray like this will make sure they cook nice and evenly.
Let them cook for 25 minutes to start with, then take them back out and prepare a bowl with a few tablespoons of olive oil and rock salt. Grab a brush and coat all of your potatoes liberally, or if you don’t have a brush to hand you can play a game of hot potato and roll them around in the bowl.
Round two. Place your steadily crisping potatoes back into the oven for a further 25 minutes, still at 250°C / 230°C Fan / 480°F / Gas Mark 9. They are done when you decide if it takes longer to get that crispy finish that you want, so be it. Just for reference though, we don’t recall cooking them for longer than 55 minutes in total.
Once they’re ready, use a sharp knife to cut open each potato length-ways, but not in half, just enough to squeeze them and open them up like a boat. This is where we would recommend you grab a fork and a knob of butter and fluff up all that soft, piping hot centre, and if it suits your chosen topping, mix in some grated vegan cheese too.
