Lekker Brekker Monday: Baked potato boats stuffed with cheese and onion

Here’s a way of plucking a bit of luxury out of Thrifty January. The key to this recipe is that I bought some bacon at just R32 a packet (and back bacon to boot), had some leftover Cheddar cheese in the fridge, used just one smallish onion, and of course there are always potatoes in the house, even at this time of the year.

You’ll need to start early for this, unless you bake the potatoes the night before and refrigerate them overnight. But they’ll be best made fresh, so rather get them going over your morning coffee and finish them at breakfast time.

You can bake the potatoes in the oven or in an air fryer, as long as they’re super-soft inside once done. Then, you leave them to cool until you can handle them, slice them in half, scoop out the fluffy potato flesh and mash that with plenty of butter. Stir in some cheese, season with salt and black pepper, and your breakfast treat is almost ready to finish — again, either in a conventional oven or an air fryer.

Meanwhile, fry some back rashers and grate more cheese to pile on top of the stuffed potatoes.

If you like, you can take it a step further and top it with a fried or poached egg. But it’s hardly necessary as these are pretty substantial.

Tony’s cheese-and-onion baked potatoes 

(For 4 large potatoes)

Ingredients

4 large potatoes, unpeeled

1 medium to small onion

1 bacon rasher for each half potato

1 cup grated Cheddar cheese

Salt and black pepper

Butter

Chives, chopped, to garnish

Method

Preheat the oven or air fryer to 200°C. Prick the unpeeled potatoes on both sides using a skewer. Place them in an ungreased oven pan and bake until soft inside with the shells golden and crunchy. This took about 45 minutes in my air fryer, on the bake setting (200°C or 205°C), but will take longer in a conventional oven.

Meanwhile, fry sliced onion in a little butter until golden, then fry bacon rashers in the same pan. Reserve.

Remove the potatoes when they’re tender and leave to cool until you can handle them, then slice each potato in half into two “boats”. Scoop out the potato into a bowl, leaving the half shells intact.

Mash the potato and stir in butter and seasoning. Grate the Cheddar cheese and stir half of it into the mashed potato.

Spoon the mashed potato into the shells, top with some onion, and scatter more cheese on top. Put it under a grill, or in an air fryer on the grill setting, until the cheese has melted and turned golden.

Serve with a bacon rasher on top of each half potato. Garnish with chopped chives.

If you like, fry or poach an egg to go on top of each one. DM

Tony Jackman is twice winner of the Galliova Food Writer of the year award, in 2021 and 2023

Order Tony’s book, foodSTUFF, here.

Follow Tony Jackman on Instagram @tony_jackman_cooks.

This dish is photographed on a plate by Mervyn Gers Ceramics.