Tuna and Sweetcorn Jacket Melt
Jacket potatoes with a twist! Great to use up any left-over jacket potatoes that you may have already cooked. Otherwise, speed up the process by cooking them in the microwave & finish them in the oven. Easy to make & to adapt to different tastes. Make them vegetarian by leaving the tuna out! Alternatively, you can use some cooked bacon, sausages, or chicken instead of tuna.
Prep time: 5 minutes / Cooking time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Serves 4
INGREDIENTS:
4 large baking potatoes
185g tuna, drained & flaked
200g grated cheese
25g butter
100g red onion, finely chopped
100g sweetcorn, drained
METHOD:
1. Wash potatoes thoroughly, pat dry and prick all over with a fork.
2. TO COOK POTATOES IN THE OVEN: Preheat your oven to 180°C. When hot, place potatoes straight into the oven rack and cook for 1 to 1 ¼ hours. Cooking time will depend on the size of the potatoes. You want them nice and soft in the middle but crispy on the outside.
TO COOK POTATOES IN THE MICROWAVE: Place potatoes on a microwave-safe plate and microwave for 12 minutes, turning halfway through cooking. If your potatoes are still not tender, continue cooking in 1-2 minutes increments until they are. If you are only cooking one potato at a time, start with 7 min and then follow the above instructions.
BE CAREFUL WHEN HANDLING THE COOKED POTATOES AS THEY WILL BE VERY HOT, MAKE SURE TO USE OVEN GLOVES OR A DRY TEATOWEL.
3. When cooked, cut the potatoes in half lengthways. Using a spoon scoop out the soft potato into large a bowl. Keep the potato skins aside.
4. Using a fork, mash the soft potato with the butter and two-thirds of the grated cheese until smooth.
5. Add the flaked drained tuna, finely diced red onion and sweetcorn to the bowl with the potato & cheese. Mix until well combined with the fork.
6. Spoon the mixture back into the potato skins, place on an oven tray, and sprinkle the rest of the grated cheese on top of the potatoes.
7. Bake in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes until golden.
8. Serve with a side salad.
TIPS:
✔ Choose your favourite cheese for this recipe. You could even use soft cheese to mix with the soft potato. A great recipe to use up bits of cheese that you have in the fridge.
✔ You could add some chopped fresh or dried herbs into the potato mixture for extra flavour, or a little pinch of chilli if you like a bit of heat.
✔ For something different instead of the tuna, use leftover cooked chicken, ham or bacon it will be delicious too.
✔ Alternatively, keep them vegetarian with just the cheese and add some extra vegetables like finely diced peppers. You could also mix in some leftover cooked vegetables like peas or broccoli.
✔ A great dish to prepare ahead and keep in the fridge, stop at step 6. Let it cool down and put it in the fridge. When ready to eat it just continue at step 7 but add an extra 5 minutes to the cooking time. Make sure that they are piping hot before serving.
