I have never been a great fan of the baked potato. I always found them heavy and uninspired.
Enter Great Britain, where baked potatoes are as ubiquitous as sandwiches and have the same wild variety of fillings. Salmon salad? Sure. Vegan chili or curry chicken? Whatever.
Still, my favorite remains the staunchly British classic of baked beans and cheese.
Take-Away from the simply named vegetarian Baked Potato Shop
These are really too easy to warrant a recipe, but I’m giving mine anyway. Try one when you are feeling cold, sick, or generally down in the dumps.
1 potato, large or small according to your hunger
1 small (220 g) tin baked beans
handful of grated cheese, preferably some kind of cheddar
salt, pepper, and butter, to taste
Preheat oven to approximately 400 F or 200 C. Wrap your potato in tin foil, then stab it multiple times with a fork or knife to let steam escape. Place wrapped potato on middle rack of oven. Bake for about 1 hour.
After an hour, head to kitchen. Test potato for done-ness by stabbing with a fork. If fork goes in easily, potato is cooked. If not, return to oven for another 20 minutes. When cooked, unwrap potato and return to oven (to keep warm and get a little crispy) while you prepare filling.
Put beans in a microwave safe dish. Add dash of onion powder. Nuke for 1-2 minutes, stir, nuke another minute or until hot.
Remove potato from oven and place in a small bowl. Cut an X in your potato and split it open. Add butter, salt, and pepper and smash lightly. Sprinkle on half of the cheese, pour on the beans, top with remaining cheese.
Devour.
