Please subscribe to our YouTube channel for more content!
MEET THE KROCKS: We are a married couple who started on a life-changing whole food, plant-based weight loss journey in June 2018. To date, we have lost over 270 pounds combined and we aren’t done yet! Read Our Story
Follow our Journey:
YOUTUBE | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | PINTEREST | TWITTER
If you watched our One Year Potato-A-Versary video, you know we got pretty emotional after trying plain potatoes for the first time since we kicked off our diet with two weeks of potatoes back in June 2018! Our original plan for that video was to finish it off with some delicious loaded version of our favorite potatoes, but we decided to hold off after the emotions kicked in.
We have been thinking about what kind of loaded potatoes we would make for a week or so now, so we wanted to share what we came up with! As you can probably tell, Brian and I have very different preferences, so we each came up with our own tasty plant-based, vegan, oil-free creation.
Tips For Simple Oven Baked Potatoes
We started out by baking our potatoes. Since we showed you how to use the air fryer in our previous video, we decided to go with the oven this time. Baking a potato in the oven is super simple.
STEP 1 – Preheat your oven to 350°F.
STEP 2 – Wash off your potato, poke it a few times with a fork, and place directly on the top oven rack. I recommend putting a baking tray on the bottom rack of your oven to catch any liquid that might drip out in the baking process.
STEP 3 – A regular size russet potato will generally take 60 to 75 minutes to bake, but a good test is to poke it with sharp knife – if it goes in and comes back out easily, your potato is ready! If you get any resistance, leave it in longer. A raw potato is no fun!
That’s it! Nothing fancy required.
Jessica’s Loaded Baked Potato
For my potato, I decided to load it up with the following:
Homemade Spicy Refried Pinto Beans
Caramelized Red Onions
Good Foods Plant-Based Queso
Trader Joe’s Fire-Roasted Tomato Salsa
It turned out super delicious! The pinto beans are a great compliment to the potato. If you haven’t seen our recipe video for those, check it out.
The star for me was actually the caramelized red onions, which Brian just sliced up and cooked on our Griddler for about 10 minutes on high. No oil or anything needed!
Check out the “Featured Products” section at the bottom of this post for more information about the Griddler we used.
Of course, you know I love my queso! I used my favorite one by Good Foods (check out our vegan queso review for more info), but you can use your favorite plant-based queso, whether it is store bought or homemade.
For a little extra spice, Trader Joe’s Fire-Roasted Tomato Salsa did just the trick. This is one of the only no-salt added salsas I have been able to find, so it is our go-to!
Brian’s Loaded Baked Potato
Brian loaded his potato with:
Homemade Chili
Homemade Super Smoky Hummus
Green Onions
We usually have a batch of chili in our freezer, but of course we didn’t the night we wanted to make these! I searched for a store-bought version that would be relatively “compliant” to a whole food, plant-based diet, but they are far and few between. Brian just decided to whip up a quick batch of our own recipe! We are still perfecting the recipe – but don’t worry, we will be sharing it soon. You can use your favorite chili recipe for this in the meantime.
I would have never thought to pair hummus with chili but trust me – it works – especially with our Super Smoky Hummus! Brian added some of this to his potato, and it lends a nice creamy (almost cheesy) element to the dish.
He threw on some fresh chopped green onions for a nice pop of flavor and crunch. It also makes the photos look prettier LOL!
It was great to have potatoes again. On our “Standard American Diet,” loaded potatoes or fries were a regular dinner for us, but honestly I think our new loaded versions are way tastier!
What is your favorite way to load up a potato?
Let us know in the comments below!
Featured Products:
PLEASE NOTE: If you choose to purchase through these links, we receive a small commission from each sale at NO extra cost to you. All proceeds go back into making more content!
Cuisinart 5-in-1 GriddlerAdjustable Mandoline Slicer
These look really good. i am getting ready to do an extended “spudfit” challenge so won’t be having yummy toppings for awhile. Just found your YouTube channel and subscribed. Thanks for sharing your journey.
Thank you for watching and subscribing! Best of luck with your challenge!
Brian, did I miss the chili recipe? Or have you not posted it yet? Please post, it looks amazing. All your recipes have been a god send. You guys are great. Thanks so much for sharing what you do!
You haven’t missed it… we are still working on it 🙂 but it should be up in a month or so! Thanks for watching ❤️
I’ve seen vegan bacon seasoning, however it has salt
I was wondering if you could play around with the spices to come up with a less salty version
Maybe make bacon flavored chickpeas or tofu to add to a potato?
Oooh great ideas!
Brian if you love the chilli baked potato, next time try it on a sweet potato. The balance of sweet and spicy is fabulous!! Thanks for the videos!
I cube some tofu and sauté it with turmeric, cumin, curry powder, basil, thyme, garlic, aminos and nutri-yeast. Sounds crazy, but it is awesome! (I do use a little oil). Finish it off with some griddled broccoli & onions for some happy tastebuds
Yum! My favorite toppings are cheeze sauce, steamed broccoli, and caramelized onions. Another great topping that I love is chana masala (tomato sauce, spices, and chickpeas).