Jacket potatoes are our go-to meal if we are short on ideas. Pair with your favourite dairy-free jacket potato fillings and that’s lunch or dinner sorted. Even better if you can use up any leftovers for a budget-friendly meal.
Cook your jacket potatoes in a slow cooker?
Who knew? I didn’t know that you could cook jacket potatoes in a slow cooker. This revelation and the resulting dinner were an absolute delight. The girls described the potatoes as being like campfire potatoes.
I came across this while researching what more I could use our slow cooker for, in an attempt to reduce our fuel bills in light of the ever-increasing gas and electric costs. Now I am not an expert on fuel costs by any means but everything I have read indicates that slow cookers are more economical so I thought I would try it. The end results were some of the best jacket potatoes I have ever cooked. So what do you serve with your spuds?
Dairy-Free Jacket Potato Fillings
We all have our favourite fillings but below is a list of fillings you might like to try if you are stuck on dairy-free ideas.
- Ham & sweetcorn
- Ham, pineapple and dairy-free cheese
- Tuna & sweetcorn with dairy-free mayonnaise
- Tuna & spring onions
- Leftover chilli
- Leftover spaghetti bolognese sauce
- Baked beans (add chopped up sausages, bacon or lardons, dairy-free cheese)
- Coleslaw – there are more and more options for dairy-free coleslaw available, including vegan coleslaw which you can find in most supermarkets these days
- Dairy-Free cream cheese, e.g. Philadelphia Plant-Based Cream Cheese. Great on its own or try adding things like chopped chives, ham or bacon
- Check out sandwich fillers such as coronation chicken from the supermarkets
- Just add dairy-free butter and serve with a crunchy side salad
- Prawn Cocktail (try checking the Co-Op)
- Sauteed mushrooms
- Roasted vegetables – we like roasted aubergine, courgette and onions
- Roasted red peppers, tomatoes and hummus
- Chicken, bacon and dairy-free mayonnaise (Great for using up leftover roast chicken)
Cooking your jacket potatoes
I’m not going to discuss cooking methods for the oven or microwave, other than to say I usually use the oven. We are not a fan of jacket potatoes done in the microwave. However, I am going to talk about cooking them in a slow cooker. This was new to me but I am so glad I tried it. Great to be able to pop them in the slow cooker and go out, but also a lot more energy efficient than using our oven.
We have a large, Morphy Richards slow cooker with three heat settings, high, medium and low. This comfortably held four medium jacket potatoes with space to pop a heatproof jug filled with baked beans in towards the end.
Equipment
- Slow cooker
- Sharp knife or fork
- Tin foil
- Tea towel
Ingredients
- Sunflower oil, olive oil or other
- Table salt
- Suitable sized potatoes
Method
Put the slow cooker on to heat up. Wash and dry the potatoes. Pierce the potatoes all over with a sharp knife or fork. Rub the skins with a little oil and sprinkle with a small amount of table salt. Rub the oil and salt into the skins to ensure properly coated. Tear off a strip of tin foil, wide enough to wrap around the potatoes. You should be able to tear each strip in half. Wrap the potatoes in foil, ensuring they are properly covered and place them in the bottom of the slow cooker. Place a tea towel over the top of the slow cooker and put the lid on. The tea towel will absorb the steam and prevent it from dripping onto the potatoes. Cook for four hours on high or eight hours on low.
If you are at home, you may wish to turn them over about halfway through cooking. Be careful when lifting the lid off as there might be a cloud of hot steam. Once cooked allow to stand for a few minutes before unwrapping. Serve with your favourite dairy-free jacket potato filling.
This method made jacket potatoes that were full of flavour, with a soft, creamy potato on the inside and crispy skin on the bottom of the potato. I added a heatproof jug of baked beans to the centre of the slow cooker, about 30 minutes before the end of the cooking time (I was cooking on high) and the beans came out piping hot.
My girls loved these so much as they reminded them of jacket potatoes cooked in the fire at school camp. Enjoy x
If you are looking for dairy-free meal ideas then check out this section which we are expanding each week.
