nut-free

How To Bake A Russet Potato Without Oil For Baked Jacket Potatoes

March 27, 2012 by Veronica Grace 16 Comments

Oil Free Vegan Baked Potato Hummus Salsa

Oil Free Vegan Baked Potato with Red Pepper Hummus and Salsa

Just a reminder that my Comfort Soups To Keep You Warm recipe eBook is out! I’m already getting lots of great feedback on how delicious the soup recipes are!

Today I’m going to show you how to bake healthy baked potatoes in the oven without all the oil and fat!

I think baked jacket potatoes are something that most people love or have fond memories of eating. It’s a comfort food for them and I know Dr. John McDougall is certainly very fond of them as well! Potatoes can be healthy, or unhealthy depending what you put on them though. If you’re on the McDougall Program you might be interested in baking russet potatoes regularly and without oil of course.

Or maybe you just really like having something warm and filling for dinner, either way baked russet potatoes are a good way to go for a low fat, satisfying meal or side.

The baked potato above is topped with roasted red pepper hummus (that’s oil free and low fat) and salsa and is served with a side of my Low Fat Vegan Tangy Collard Greens With Coconut Milk and Mushrooms . (It’s also delicious to pour some of the coconut cooking liquid on top of your baked potato.)

So the main reason people like to oil and salt their potato skins before baking them is because it makes the skin all crispy and taste, well salty! The other reason is that it cooks it a bit faster but it raises the temperature it cooks at. Baking in oil at such high temperatures can create carcinogens and adding excess oil to a potato skin is not the best for health.

It’s also not beneficial to your health if you load your baked potato or potato skins with bacon, cheese, butter and/or sour cream. These things are far too rich and the negative effects of these toppings outweigh all the health benefits of eating a baked potato for vitamins and fibre. If you’re watching your weight, cholesterol or salt intake, please don’t add those things to your baked potato. There are many healthier alternatives.

While leaving their rich potato toppings out won’t make it taste exactly the same, it will be healthier for you and you can dress up your potato skins with some healthy low fat vegan alternatives like:

Fat free salsa (homemade or jarred)
Tobasco sauce
Hummus (original or roasted red pepper, low fat of course. Look for oil free or make your own.)
Baked beans (homemade or canned)
Salt and Pepper
Fresh chives or green onions (scallions)
Nutritional yeast
Fat free vegan queso or “cheezy” sauce
Steamed veggies like broccoli or kale

What Potato Do I Use For Baked Potatoes?

Use the dark brown rough skinned russet potatoes you find at the grocery store. They make the best baked potatoes and are also good for mashed potatoes. Don’t use the smooth waxy skinned yellow or red potatoes for baked jacket potatoes, these are better suited for potato salad, mini roasted potatoes, steamed or boiled potatoes and used in stews and soups.

Make sure that you select russet potatoes that are about the same size so they cook at the same time. If you bake medium and large ones together the large ones will not be done when the medium ones are ready.

Should I Cover My Russet Potato In Tinfoil For Baking?

No. I have no idea why people think they should do this, much less why some grocery stores sell russet potatoes in tinfoil. Maybe if you want to barbecue them, but when you put tinfoil on it you are STEAMING the potato from the inside out and not BAKING it. So it is not going to turn out like a baked potato and be all dry and fluffy inside. It will be more watery and dense like potatoes steamed in water. Don’t do this. Bake them uncovered for best results.

How To Bake a Russet Potato Without Oil

from Comfort Foods From Around The World

Step #1: Preheat your oven to 400 F/ 205 C (375 F on a convection oven)

Step #2: Wash your russet potatoes well and cut out any “eyes” or bad spots in the potatoes.

Step #3: Use a fork and poke a lot of holes all over your potatoes. This stops them from cooking unevenly and possible exploding in the oven.

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Step #4: When your oven has come up to temperature, place them directly on the rack in the middle of the oven. Leave enough space between them that they are not touching.

Step #5: Bake your potatoes for 50-70 minutes (depending on size) and check on them between 50 and 60 minutes. Using a pot holder or oven mitt, you want to gently squeeze the potatoes and see if they give. If they seem soft all the way through to the middle they are done. If you are not sure you can cut one in half and check. If they need more time, continue to bake, or you can microwave for a few minutes more to finish them off if you’re in a hurry. (Once you know the exact cooking time for your oven and this size of potato, write it down or remember it so you don’t have to check on it and guess next time. Usually they will be done within 60-70 min).

Step #6: To fluff your potato you’re going to make a slit across the top of it, and using pot holders or oven mitts gently squeeze the bottom of the potato together (like how a crab would close it’s claws) and this will push the insides up and open it for filling. (This is something I learned when I worked in a restaurant and had to plate food.)

Step #7: Fill your potato with your (hopefully healthy and vegan) seasonings and serve.

When I bake giant potatoes like this it become a whole meal when served with a side of greens. So this makes it a really easy AND cheap vegan meal!

Time Saving Tip:

You can bake multiple potatoes and keep them for future meals in the fridge and just reheat them for a quick lunch or side dish the next night.

I know a lot of Americans like to “nuke” their raw potatoes, but I really don’t like this. They can get all hard on the bottom and be a different texture. I prefer to bake mine and only reheat if necessary and not to use the microwave to cook anything that was raw.

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Oil Free Vegan Baked Potato With Baked Beans

Here’s another oil free baked potato served with homemade baked beans. The baked beans recipe will be in my upcoming “Comfort Dinner Recipes From Around The World” eBook.

What do you like putting on your oil free baked potatoes?

Sneak Peek Recipe: Mexican Black Bean Corn Soup From Low Fat Vegan Comfort Soups To Keep You Warm

March 22, 2012 by Veronica Grace 36 Comments

And the winner of my first copy of Comfort Soups To Keep You Warm is….

Low Fat Vegan Comfort Soups To Keep Warm

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….Meena Sharma! Congratulations Meena, I will be contacting you shortly to let you know you’ve won.

Thank you to everyone who entered! I really appreciate your support and excitement. My Comfort Soups To Keep You Warm recipe eBook is now ready so check it out!

After all of those tantalizing soup photos I showed you on Monday, I bet you are craving a delicious bowl of soup by now! So I wanted to share one of my soup recipes with you. This oil free vegan Mexican Black Bean Corn Soup is one of my favourites, it’s so hearty and filling and bursting with flavour. You’re going to want to make this soon!

An insider tip I have for you is to make your own vegetable broth (my recipe is here) and fresh black beans (instead of canned) for the absolute best taste. But if you’re in a hurry, you can always use canned black beans. For packaged vegetable broth the best substitute seems to be Pacific Natural Foods Organic Low Sodium Vegetable Broth. Roasted cumin and chipotle chili powder bring great flavour to this recipe. If you can find it over the regular versions it adds a really nice smokey flavour to the soup. I use McCormick roasted cumin, you can get it on Amazon or at places like Walmart or some grocery stores. This is probably my favourite seasoning and I go through more of it than any other spice. You’ll definitely use it a lot if you make my recipes. I also use Frontier organic chipotle powder in all of my Mexican dishes and it’s amazing in vegan chili too.

Now on to the recipe!

Low Fat Vegan Mexican Black Bean Corn Soup

Low Fat Vegan Chef's Mexican Black Bean Corn Soup

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Serves 8

Ingredients:

1 large onion, diced
6 cloves of garlic, minced
3 stalks of celery, diced
2 carrots, diced
5 cups/1.25 qts./1.2 L of vegetable broth (homemade or low sodium)
4 15 oz./425 g cans of black beans, low sodium (or 7 cups cooked) undrained
1 15 oz./425 g can of whole sweet corn, drained (salt free, unsweetened)
1 14.5 oz./411 g can of fire roasted tomatoes, diced (I use Muir Glen Organics)
1 tbsp. + 1 tsp. roasted ground cumin (or regular cumin)
1 to 1 1/2 tsp. chipotle chili powder or smoked paprika
1/2 tsp. Herbamare or salt (to taste)
1/2 tsp. sugar or sweetener (if needed)
Juice of 1 small lime
Fresh ground pepper to taste
1/2 bunch of cilantro, chopped to garnish

Directions:

1. In a large pot, sauté the onion, celery, carrots and garlic in 1 cup of vegetable broth over medium heat for 6-7 minutes. Add chipotle chili powder, roasted cumin, and black pepper and cook for another minute or two. Stir in the remaining vegetable broth, 4 cups (or 2.5 cans) of beans, and sweet corn. Turn to high heat and bring to a boil.

2. Add remaining 3 cups (or 1.5 cans) of beans and crushed tomatoes to a Vitamix or blender and process until smooth. Stir into soup when boiling, reduce heat to medium, and simmer for 15 minutes until beans and vegetables are done to your desired tenderness.

3. Taste test. Add Herbamare or salt to taste and lime juice. If your soup is a little too tangy or bitter, you can add a little sugar to balance the flavor if desired.

4. Serve in bowls and garnish with fresh chopped cilantro

Nutrition Facts: 8 Servings Amount Per Serving: Calories 225.8 Total Fat 0.2 g Saturated Fat 0.0 g Sodium 485.5 mg Carbs 42.6 g Dietary Fiber 16.9 g Sugars 4.1 g Protein 13.6 g

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So now on to the contest for the second copy of my Comfort Soups To Keep You Warm eBook! This second contest entails a little more than the last one. If you complete it, your chances of winning are much much higher!

—–>How You Can Win The Second Copy of My eBook<—–

Contest is Closed

To be entered you need to post a comment on this article and let me know what you think of the Mexican Black Bean Corn Soup, AND you need to pick 4 other recipes on my blog and comment on them as well. If you can number your FIFTH (#5) comment (to show you are done) when you post it on another recipe, it will also help me track them. Comment #1 can be done here.

But, good new for those of you who have been following along and commenting on my recipes, your old comments on my recipes count too. So if you’ve already commented on one or two recipes, those count and you just have to comment on this one and make sure you have 5 comments total. If you number your 5th comment to let me know you’ve completed the challenge, it will be helpful for me to track.

I will take all of the commenters with 5 comments on recipe posts (including this one) and enter them into a random draw to win a second copy of my recipe eBook. The contest closes on Saturday March 24th at midnight EST/9pm PST and then I will announce the winner on Monday March 26th. Make sure you’re signed up to my newsletter to find out if you’ve won! (You can sign up on the top right of this page in the bright pink box.)

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The winner of the second copy of Comfort Soups To Keep You Warm is Vicky Johnston! Congratulations Vicky!

My recipe book is now available!

Preview Photos From My Low Fat Vegan Comfort Soups To Keep You Warm Recipe Ebook

March 18, 2012 by Veronica Grace 141 Comments

I’m REALLY excited about my new Comfort Soups To Keep You Warm recipe eBook. It’s actually going to be part of a series of many recipe eBooks (each containing 30+ recipes, tips and how to’s) later on.

Low Fat Vegan Oil Free Comfort Soups To Keep You Warm

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I’ve spent over 3 months working on these recipes, testing them, making them for family and friends, photographing them and putting together this eBook. It’s a lot of work really. I had no idea just how much until now!

So while you may have thought I was just doing a few recipes here and there (which you’ve seen on my blog), I have actually been secretly hiding all of my BEST recipes on my computer!

You may have noticed there’s not a lot of low fat vegan soup recipes on my blog so far, but we’ve actually been eating oil free vegan soups almost every day for months!

I feel like I have actually perfected the art of designing and seasoning oil free vegan soups. From making my own oil-free homemade vegetable broth and fresh cooked beans to putting them together in soups that are 100% healthy AND delicious.

I’ve even tested them out on my parent’s omnivorous friends and they wouldn’t have realized they were oil-free or vegan, until I told them! All they wanted to know was where can they get more, and like right now!

I know you are going to love these soup recipes, there’s something for everyone and I took inspiration from cultures all over the world, including our world trip we did a year and a half ago.

Most of these vegan soup recipes are naturally gluten free, or gluten-free friendly, nut-free friendly and most of them are soy-free as well.

Let’s take a look at my delicious soup recipes now:

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Mexican Black Bean Corn Soup

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Kale White Bean Soup

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Tuscan Roasted Tomato Chickpea Soup

Low Fat Vegan Clean Out The Refrigerator Vegan Vegetable Soup Nutrient Dense Soup

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FTC Notice: This post contains affiliate links that go towards supporting the blog.

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This recipe is featured in my Comfort Soups To Keep You Warm recipe ebook along with 29 other AMAZING vegan soup recipes, vegetable stock recipes, and all the tips and tricks to making ANY kind of soup. It’s going to teach you basically to be a soup making expert and be able to cook delicious healthy meals at home, very easily from what you have around.

Somedays you just don’t know what to make for dinner, or only have odds and ends leftover from previous recipes. You look in your refrigerator and see a few carrots, an onion, some celery, some greens and maybe some mushrooms that have seen better days.

What do you do with it all?

You make homemade vegetable soup of course! This is what I do when I feel creatively drained or uninspired to make a new recipe from scratch.

This is also a great way to eat a “Nutrient Dense” or “Eat To Live” style vegan meal like Dr. Joel Fuhrman recommends. (Check out his books Super Immunity, or Eat To Live, if you already haven’t) Lots of low calorie, high antioxidant plant foods, gently cooked together are wonderful. In Feb 2012 I was at the McDougall 3-Day Advanced Study Weekend, and Dr. Fuhrman was telling us the benefits of eating just 1/2 an onion a day, about 1 tomato and just 1 mushroom and how nutritious these are to add to your diet regularly. He has an amazing wealth of knowledge, and I am definitely going to be making more nutrient dense, low calorie green vegetable based dishes from now on.

This soup is a great way to get more of these antioxidants and phytochemicals into your diet in a fairly easy no-fuss way. It’s also a great vegan cabbage soup recipe that is low calorie and packed with veggies.

It is also especially handy to keep some vegetable broth on hand (low sodium is always preferable) for just such an occasion, so you don’t have to make your own vegetable stock as well when you’re short on time. (When I do have time I like to make fresh vegetable stock every week and keep it in the fridge for daily sautéing and making soup with)

Making your own nutrient dense vegan homemade soup from scratch is quite easy. The hard work is only peeling and chopping your veggies. Basically use what you have and always start cooking the onions and the hardest vegetables first (so peel and prepare those first) and they can start cooking while you finish peeling/washing and slicing the other veggies.

It also helps to have some fresh herbs on hand. My top picks would be thyme, dill, basil, cilantro or parsley. These can easily be used up in soup recipes if you have any stray or wilting bits left, so don’t throw them away.

And as with making almost any homemade soup, I always throw in a few bay leaves. They really add a lot of flavour and are great for seasoning soup, vegetable stock or dried beans.

Basic Ingredients For Making Your Own Homemade Nutrient Dense Soup

Low sodium vegetable broth (water and salt is not a good enough substitute for this, low salt bouillon and water will do in a pinch)
Any vegetables such as carrots, celery, mushrooms, potatoes, yams/sweet potatoes, golden beets, turnips, broccoli, cabbage, spinach, kale, swiss chard, peas, corn, etc
Beans or grains (if desired) white beans, lentils, chickpeas, pinto beans, black beans, barley, rice, pasta, etc (make sure beans are pre cooked, or canned before adding)
Fresh herbs/dried herbs like thyme, bay leaf, dill, basil, rosemary, cilantro, parsley, Italian herb seasonings, Herbs De Provence etc
Base flavor enhancers like canned tomatoes, tomato paste, coconut milk or almond milk (depending whether you want a tomato-ey or creamy soup) *This is optional
Seasonings like salt, pepper, lemon juice, lime juice, sweetener (to balance acidity from tomatoes or lemon if desired) cumin, chili pepper, cayenne, smoked paprika, etc

If you add some things from each category (especially ones that you personally like…) and can season to taste and balance out blandness by kicking it up with some lemon, salt and a little sweetener if desired you will have a great soup on your hands.

Also a trick I have for bringing out sweetness to tomato based soups is to add golden beets to it. Golden beets can be found at your health food store, and some grocery stores or farmers markets. They are becoming more popular nowadays. They look almost like small yellowish turnips, but they are beets! (For one thing they don’t turn your hand red and make a mess) They contain natural sugars that leak out into the vegetable broth, so it balances out the harsh acidity of tomato based vegetable soups and goes really well with beans or barley as well. Just make sure you cut the pieces into little cubes, and start cooking them right away with the onions in broth. They take the longest to cook, so you don’t want them to be crunchy while the rest of your vegetables are soft.

Additional Pointers For Cooking Homemade Soup

If you want a fast soup, cut all your veggies (especially potatoes and beets) into smaller cubes so they cook faster. Always add these first to the pot along with carrots and celery. Fresh hard herbs like thyme or rosemary need to go in at the beginning of the soup. Dried or tender herbs like basil, cilantro or parsley can go in near the end of cooking to retain their flavour. Quick cooking veggies like greens, broccoli, asparagus or cauliflower should be added 3-5 minutes before your soup is done so they don’t fall apart and go mushy. Canned corn is very forgiving and can go in at the beginning of cooking and will hold it’s firmness. Canned beans should go in the last 10 minutes or so of cooking as they are fairly soft already and you don’t want them to be mushy and overcooked. Always salt and pepper your soup at the end. Don’t just keep adding salt every time you stir it. When some of the water dissipates you can be left with an over salted or over spiced soup. Always reserve taste testing for the end when everything’s cooked and you can doctor up the flavour from there. Start with a little salt, pepper, spice, or sweetener and keep tasting and adding until you get it right to your liking. Always use low sodium, sodium free and sugar free canned foods so you can control the salt and sugar content of the soup. Read labels! *Note about adding pastas to soup. I really prefer cooking most pastas separately and then putting it into serving bowls and pouring the soup over it. This makes your soup nice and clear and pretty and reduces the risk of over cooking it. If you do cook the pasta in the soup, it’s going to use up some of the water and make it murky with the starch. Check the cooking time of your pasta and add it part way through the soup when the vegetables are starting to be almost soft enough.

And now my made up on the spot “throw it all in a pot” and cook it soup. This is a great way to get more greens into your diet or use up any extras that you don’t have a recipe planned for. This soup is packed with green vegetables, but is light and refreshing. We ate this by itself and basically ate the whole pot because it’s very low in calories. This is a great first course or “weight-loss soup” as well. Fill up on healthy vegetables!

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“Clean Out The Refrigerator” Homemade Vegetable Soup

Featured in Comfort Soups To Keep You Warm by Veronica Grace

Serves 6

Ingredients:

2 litres/quarts vegetable broth, (low sodium or homemade)
1 large onion, diced
4-6 cloves of garlic, minced
1-2 bay leaves
1 tbsp fresh thyme, or 1 tsp dried (or favourite herbs, like dill, basil, etc)
2 carrots, sliced
2 stalks of celery, sliced
1 medium golden beet or turnip, diced small (smaller is better)
1-2 cups of sliced mushrooms
6-8 asparagus spears, ends trimmed and cut into thirds (or other green vegetable of choice like zucchini)
2 cups broccoli or broccolini florets
2 cups sliced green cabbage, or other greens like kale or Swiss chard
handful of parsley, chopped
juice of half a lemon
Herbamare or sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Add 1 cup vegetable broth to a large soup pot and turn onto medium heat. Add bay leaves, thyme, onions and beets and sauté for 5-6 minutes. Add more broth if necessary to beets until they are almost covered. (While this is cooking you can continue peeling/slicing your other veggies)

2. Add the mushrooms, garlic, carrots, celery, cabbage and the rest of one carton of vegetable broth. Stir and let it keep cooking over medium-medium high heat for about 10-15 minutes. Add more vegetable broth if needed from the other carton. You want your vegetables to be almost done before adding the broccoli and asparagus. Check on the beets, if they are still too hard keep cooking until they are almost done.

3. Add the remaining vegetable broth and bring it up to a boil. When it’s boiling, turn it back down to medium-medium high and add the asparagus, broccoli and parsley (and any spinach if using). Cook for 2-4 minutes (depending on the size you cut them) and test the broccoli and asparagus for doneness. You don’t want them too wilted or mushy. When done immediately take off heat.

4. Add lemon juice, salt and pepper and season to taste. Adjust seasonings if desired.

5. Serve!

What do you think of this “Eat To Live” style recipe? Have you ever made homemade soup before? What do you do with your leftover vegetables?