There's nothing like a great baked potato with a simple sauce over the top. Toss in some veggies and it's a complete meal.
Today was another late summer 90 degree-plus day so the casserole I had planned went out the window. I had gotten another rare bag of perfect potatoes, and since my husband's favorite food right now is a good baked potato, supper ideas came streaming in. All that needed to be done was to toss a few of those russets in the microwave and get started on this flavorful sauce from the McDougall Program for Maximum Weight Loss book.
Dijon Mushroom Potatoes
Serving Size : 4
Preparation Time :0:20
Cooking time: 1 hour
4 medium baking potato -- scrubbed
3/4 cup water
1 medium onion -- chopped
1/2 pound mushrooms -- sliced
1 medium green bell pepper -- chopped
1 small carrot -- shredded
1 tablespoon soy sauce, low sodium
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon cornstarch
freshly ground pepper
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Prick potatoes in several places with a fork. Bake for 1 hour or until tender, or microwave on high power for 15 minutes, turning once. Let the potatoes rest while preparing the sauce.
In a large saucepan place 1/4 cup of the water with the onion, mushrooms, green pepper, and carrot. Cook, stirring, until the vegetables are tender, adding a little more water if necessary.
Meanwhile, combine the remaining ingredients in a bowl. Stir into the vegetable mixture and cook, stirring, until thickened.
Serve the potatoes hot, passing the sauce separately.
Well, I just skipped that whole first part about roasting the potatoes in that hot oven. Neither of us cares if the skin is crispy or not, so the moister microwave cooking is just fine for us.
I used a bag of frozen onion and peppers from Bird's Eye, and as luck would have it, I also had some frozen mushrooms in the freezer today, too.
Shredding up a carrot using a hand grater was the pits. Usually I just pull out my mini food processor for this job but didn't feel like climbing around the storage area where I keep it for just one carrot. For the first time in ages I scraped my knuckles. That's what I get for taking the "lazy" way out.
And one tablespoon of Dijon mustard is never enough. This meal got close to three tablespoons. My husband likes mustard so much that one year I bought him a book about mustard and a gift box of gourmet mustards for Christmas. Those jars were empty before New Year's Day. This was in the dark ages, when the only mustard varieties grocery stores sold was yellow or brown, and occasionally they carried Dijon, usually around the holidays. Now stores carry dozens of versions, from sweetened honey mustard to spicy horseradish or wasabi-infused ones. For this dish I used plain old Grey Poupon.
Cornstarch - my nemesis! At least this time I added a wee bit more at the beginning and it was just right.
Just added a bit of Brussels sprouts to round out the meal.
Another great meal. I had this plateful, my husband wound up with 3 potatoes total, and we had just enough of this sauce for all of them with no leftovers.
This triggered something in my husband - he asked if I would concentrate on making a lot more baked potato meals like this after VeganMoFo meals are over. Of course I would! I always hesitated to make these super simple meals for fear he wanted "more", but he says he likes these better than some meals that I spend lots of time on. I see a lot of tater toppings and simple gravies in my future. Hopefully by then the stores will have this year's batch of potatoes in and they'll be in better shape than in previous years (green, spotty, full of mold and/or eyes, etc.).
No comments:
Post a Comment