Moosewood Restaurant's Baked Stuffed Potatoes
Culinate recipe editor's note: I love Indian food, and have a ton of books to show for it. Though I am usually a purist when it comes to ethnic cooking, this recipe illustrates the beauty of merging two distinct culinary traditions. Make lots of these; you'll love having leftovers for lunch and snacks. They're good, too, even without the yogurt sauce. Introduction I grew up on a small dairy farm in central New York where we also raised potatoes. We ate potatoes almost every day, and my oldest sister was once our county's Potato Queen, but this one dish my mother never made. (To the best of my knowledge, no mother in India has ever made it either.) Baked Stuffed Potatoes served with dal and your favorite chutney make a complete meal. —Linda Dickinson
Culinate recipe editor's note: I love Indian food, and have a ton of books to show for it. Though I am usually a purist when it comes to ethnic cooking, this recipe illustrates the beauty of merging two distinct culinary traditions. Make lots of these; you'll love having leftovers for lunch and snacks. They're good, too, even without the yogurt sauce. Introduction I grew up on a small dairy farm in central New York where we also raised potatoes. We ate potatoes almost every day, and my oldest sister was once our county's Potato Queen, but this one dish my mother never made. (To the best of my knowledge, no mother in India has ever made it either.) Baked Stuffed Potatoes served with dal and your favorite chutney make a complete meal. —Linda Dickinson
- salt to taste
- salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 1 cup onions chopped
- 1 cup plain yogurt
- 4 medium or 2 large baking potatoes
- 3/4 cup carrots diced
- 2 tbsp. vegetable oil or ghee
- 3/4 cup red or green bell pepper
- 1 tsp. ground coriander seeds
- 1/2 tsp. turmeric
- 1/8 tsp. ground cardamom
- pinch ground cloves
- 4 oz. cream cheese at room temperature
- spicy yogurt sauce:
- 1 to 2 chiles minced
- 2 tbsp. vegetable oil
- 1 tsp. ground cumin seeds
- 1 tsp. ground coriander seeds
- 1 cup tomato chopped
- 2 tsp. unbleached white flour
- Carbohydrate 79.3150278700168 g
- Cholesterol 132.090000009365 mg
- Fat 99.3016606823543 g
- Fiber 15.6850705481982 g
- Protein 22.5569896303766 g
- Saturated Fat 27.5789066379372 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Recipe (1077g)
- Sodium 4190.16031072207 mg
- Sugar 63.6299573218186 g
- Trans Fat 7.08632612115294 g
- Calories 1263 calories
Step-by-step
- Scrub the potatoes and bake them in a 400-degree oven for one hour or until done.
- While the potatoes are baking, prepare the filling. Sauté the onions and carrots in the oil or ghee until they are tender, about 10 minutes. Add the bell pepper and spices and continue to sauté for another minute or two, stirring. Add a little water to the pan to prevent sticking, cover it, and cook for another 5 minutes, or until the bell pepper is just tender. Stir in the cream cheese and add salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.
- Once the potatoes are baked through, lower the oven heat to 350 degrees. When cool enough to handle, make a lengthwise cut in the top of each potato and scoop out at least half of the contents. If you are using large potatoes, cut them in half lengthwise and scoop them out, leaving about ½ inch of potato clinging to the skin. Mash the scooped-out potato and then add it to the vegetable-cream cheese mixture. Fill the potato shells with this mixture and place them in an oiled baking dish. Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes.
- While heating the potatoes, make the Spicy Yogurt Sauce: sauté the onions and chiles in the oil until tender, about 10 minutes. Add the cumin and coriander and sauté for a minute, stirring constantly. Stir in the tomato and flour and cook for 2 minutes. Finally, stir in the yogurt. Heat the sauce thoroughly, but do not allow it to boil or the yogurt will curdle. Add salt to taste and serve over hot potatoes.
Piercing the skin with a fork provides the ultimate test for doneness, yielding completely to the center at 400 degrees Fahrenheit after approximately one full hour of baking. While waiting for the tubers to soften, chop carrots to an even three-quarter-inch dice so they maintain parity with the bell peppers during the sauté. Combining warm starches with rich dairy requires attention to detail, preventing wasted groceries and ensuring maximum flavor extraction from every single vegetable in your crisper drawer.
- Bake potatoes directly on the oven rack without foil to promote a dry, fluffy interior.
- Add a splash of water when sautéing peppers and onions to generate steam without burning the pan bottom.
- Keep the yogurt sauce below a simmer; boiling dairy ruins the texture by causing rapid curdling.
- Store assembled stuffed potatoes in the refrigerator for up to two days before reheating.
Scaling these proportions up works efficiently for meal prep, provided large batches are divided evenly across multiple baking dishes. Careful temperature management guarantees a successful meal without requiring specialized kitchen gadgets.
