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Jacket Potato Fillings
Jacket potatoes, or perhaps you know them as baked potatoes, are a very popular lunch or dinner. Properly frugal, very versatile, filling, a good dieting meal if you want it to be and can be prepared in advance for convenience. What do you have for your jacket potato fillings?
Potatoes are a good source of vitamin C, plus, if you eat the skin, you’re getting more potassium than in a banana!
I ran a bit of poll on Facebook and most people’s favourite jacket potato fillings were beans, cheese or tuna in some combination. Cheesy beans beating everything else by a country mile!
Other popular fillings included
- Chilli and cheese
- Prawn mayo
- Cheese & coleslaw
- Chilli mince
- Butter and pepper
- Cottage cheese
- Bolognese
- Coronation chicken
- Sauted mushrooms
- Hummus
I love hummus of all types and all flavours! Have you tried vegetable hummus? I’ve made hummus using sweetcorn or peas or butternut squash, beetroot or parsnip or swede
- Ratatoille
- Vegetable curry
- Roasted vegetables and hummus
- Curry and grated cheese
- Egg mayo
- Dairy free spread and grated Violife cheese
- Chicken and mayo
- Butter and good ham
- Tomato and onion
- Cottage cheese and coleslaw
- Sausage – I put this one on the poll, and not one person voted for it! I thought it was a great option!
All of which are lovely and can be enjoyed time after time. If you fancy something different for a change however, here are 10 more ideas, plus a Pinterest board with even more.
More Ideas For Jacket Potato Fillings
I asked my colleagues on UK Money Bloggers for their favourite jacket potato fillings and this is what they came up with.
Fiona Elizabeth Hawkes at Savvy in Somerset recommends bbq pulled pork, topped with mozzarella and then grilled until bubbly
While Emma Jackson at Bee Money Savvy says that chilli has to be a winner!
Alison Etienne who blogs at ThriftyMum prefers chicken in white sauce on a jacket potato
Katie Schulten at Student Skint likes salsa or mince beef (or vegetarian mince) on hers. She promises it’s good!
Charlotte Millington of CharlotteMusha says that she likes weird food combos and recommends chicken in a BBQ sauce with sweet corn. Sounds good to me!
Emma Maslin, blogging at The Money Whisperer likes a spud with Coronation chicken – mmmmm!
Hollie Gregersen likes a garlic mushroom or two on hers. She says that they are very cheap to make too! We like cheap! You can find Hollie at ThriftyMum
Jackie Allum at Fiscal Freelance serves up jackets with cheese and branston pickle
While Chermaine Susan Samphire at Chammy IRL likes this vegan stuffing of a mixed bean chilli with dairy-free cheese and guacamole
Sara Williams of the fantastic Debt Camel hollows out the pots, combines with smoked mackerel and grated cheese and reloads them. Good enough to be worth it!
And here are some of my favourite baked potato toppings and jacket potato fillings
Cheesy mashed
Roasted grape, goat cheese and honey
For each potato, take a small handful of grapes and toast them gently in a warm frying pan with a little butter until they start to release their juices. Using a silicone spatula to get every last bit, scrape into the top of your potato and push them down. Add a slice or two of goats cheese and drizzle the whole with a little honey
Caramelised onions and chutney
For each potato, peel and slice two onions. Fry, covered, very gently in a little butter and oil for about 45 minutes, stirring often, adding a splash of water if the onions look like they might dry out. Pile into your potato and top wth your favourite chutney or piccalilli, home made for cheapness.
Sour cream, chives
A classic filling, simply fill your spud with a good dollop of sour cream and top with chopped chives. If you want to have no fat, I’ve found that Skyr yogurt works well as a substitute for sour cream
Chopped sausage and tomato jam
Gently fry or oven cook a coup, of bangers per person, slice into small rounders and pile into your jacket potato.
While your spuds are cooking, make some tomato jam.
Top your jacket and bagels with the tomato jam. I recently made this version from Nadiya Hussain which I liked.
Pizza
While your jackets are cooking, make a basic tomato sauce. Saute a chopped onion, add a clove of garlic and cook until soft. Add a tin of tomatoes, season and simmer gently with the lid off for 15 minutes to reduce it down.
When your spuds are ready, split them and push a few pieces of mozzarella in, top with the tomato sauce and top with a handful of olives and a few fresh basil leaves if you have them
There are loads more jacket potato topping options other than these, and so I’ve set up a Pinterest board gathering together even more ideas. I’ll be adding to these as I find other things I like the sound of
Brie and Ham
This works best with a bit of good ham, cut into cubes. Don’t butter your potato for this one, just stuff the hot spud with the chopped ham and chunks of Brie
Smoked salmon
Using smoked salmon pieces for economy, make a white sauce, season well and add the salmon. Pile into your potato and top with chives. This smoked salmon pasta sauce would work very well as a jacket potato filling
Bacon
Separate out cooking bacon and grill until really crispy. Chop it up quite small. Split your jacketpotato and squash in some butter. Top with the crispy bacon and a drizzle of tomato sauce or brown sauce
Beetroot and feta
A classic combination and one I really like. I like to cube the beetroot and fry it in a tiny bit of olive oil or butter, toss in some bits of feta and pile on the buttered spud.
This jacket potato filling is super healthy because it uses zero-fat yogurt as a sauce – you could even make double and have the leftovers on some pasta another time. Give your classic baked beans jacket potato filling a new lease of life with this spicy bean and bacon mix. Streaky bacon adds a slight saltines to the potato and the dusting of smoked paprika and drizzle of Worcestershire sauce gives it a kick of spice and flavour. Each potato works out at only 338 calories per serving.