Cheesy Cruciferous Baked Potatoes #SundayFunday

 

Today the Sunday Funday group is writing about and sharing potatoes recipes. Thanks to Stacy of Food Lust People Love, Sue of Palatable Pastime, Rebekah of Making Miracles, and Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm for coordinating this low-stress group. This week Stacy is hosting and asked us to post stuffed potato recipes. She shared: "When I was growing up, one of my favorite restaurants was a baked potato place with myriad fillings like stroganoff and broccoli and cheese, even chicken curry! Of course, they also served the more traditional potatoes with bacon, chives, sour cream and cheese. For this event, I challenge you to get creative! Make stuffed baked potatoes! They can be stuffed and double baked or just filled after baking. They can be big meal-sized potatoes or appetizer-sized baby ones."

Here's the line-up for the week...

• Bacon-wrapped Loaded Baked Potatoes from Food Lust People Love
• Baked Potatoes With Butter & Goat Cheese Filling from Sneha’s Recipe
• Cheesy Cruciferous Baked Potatoes from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Cheesy Shrimp-Stuffed Twice-Baked Potatoes from Making Miracles
• Crock Pot Loaded Baked Potatoes from Karen’s Kitchen Stories
• Leftover Turkey and Gravy Stuffed Potato from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Thanksgiving Dinner Twice Baked Potatoes from Amy’s Cooking Adventures

Cheesy Cruciferous Baked Potatoes 

When I was in college, there was a food truck near our main plaza - bear in mind that this was before food trucks were hip - and one served stuffed baked potatoes. I loved it because a stuffed broccoli and cheddar potato was only five dollars. And they were as big as my head...okay, maybe not quite that big. But I would buy one and eat half for lunch and half for dinner. So, they were pretty economical. And they were delicious.

I have talked about them for years, but never made them for my family. Stacy's event gave me the push to do just that. Oh, and about the title - 'cheesy cruciferous' - I had purple cauliflower and wasn't sure what cheese I was going to use. Then I needed to go to the store for potatoes anyway, and ended up with broccoli and cheddar.

I am really only going to share the recipe for the cheese sauce. I think everyone knows how to bake potatoes and blanch broccoli, right?

Ingredients serves 4

• baked potatoes
• butter
• salt 
• pepper
• broccoli, blanched

Cheese Sauce

• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 cups shredded cheese (I used cheddar)
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan plus more for serving
• Also needed: saucepan, balloon whisk

Procedure

Cheese Sauce

Place buttermilk in a saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Once the buttermilk starts to steam around the rim, add in the shredded cheese. Remove from heat and let stand for three minutes. Whisk till smooth and fold in the grated parmesan.

Assemble

Slice the baked potatoes lengthwise about halfway through. Press the ends to open up the potatoes. Add a pat of butter and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Spoon in some cheese sauce. Top with blanched broccoli. Sprinkled with more parmesan. Serve immediately.

Well, that's a wrap for the #SundayFunday stuffed potato event. We'll be back next week with holiday cookies from around the world. Stay tuned. I've picked out my cookie and can't wait to share it with you.