Jacket Potato with Toppings
A jacket potato is such an easy, cheap and kid-friendly dinner, perfect for a weeknight. Whether you buy yours pre-cooked, microwave or oven bake them, there’s no denying the simplicity and ease of this dinner. We have gathered our expert tips and simple, small steps, for you to turn a favourite meal into an opportunity for eating a little better, with a little more veg.
Why are jacket potatoes so great?
A jacket potato is such an easy, cheap and kid-friendly dinner, perfect for a weeknight. Whether you buy yours pre-cooked, chuck them in a microwave or leave them in the oven, there’s no denying the simplicity and ease of this dinner. But since white potatoes don’t count towards your 5-a-day, are there ways to add a little veg to this family favourite? Yes!
Eating the whole potato, including the skin, means you are getting all the best bits of a potato, including the most vitamins and fibre. So a jacket is perfect for getting the best out of the carbs on your plate.
If your kids have sweet palates and are willing to give it a go, swapping a baked potato for a baked sweet potato means your dinner has already turned into 1 of your 5-a-day while even saving you cooking time as sweet potatoes cook a little quicker. With sweet potatoes voted one of the world’s healthiest vegetables by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, there’s no denying this could be a great simple swap!
Kids not convinced by the sweetness of this swap? Time to try some simple topping swaps! A tin of low sugar and salt baked beans counts towards your 5-a-day, tuna mayo with added sweetcorn can up the veg easily, or you can keep the potato simple and serve some cucumber or tomato on the side!
Use the basic recipe and tips below to take your jacket potatoes from good to better!
How are your jacket potato skills?
Getting
started
I’m just starting out.
Next
Level
I’m ready to take it to the next level.
Engaging
Kids
How can I get my kids involved and interested?
Getting Started
A jacket potato is such an easy, cheap and kid-friendly dinner, perfect for a weeknight.
It is infinitely adaptable through toppings and simple swaps, and can even be frozen and reheated to save on oven time (and costs)!
Here is a simple recipe for jackets and beans which you can use as a base and build on over time…
Jacket Potatoes and Beans
Claire Wright
Ingredients:
Potatoes (1 medium one per person), scubbed clean but not peeled
Tin of baked beans (1 tin for 2 people)
Grated cheese
Method:
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Cook your potato(es). In the microwave, simply prod the potato a few times with a sharp knife and pop in a microwave proof bowl or plate, then microwave 8-15 mins, until a knife inserted into the centre shows the potato is soft and cooked all the way through. In the oven, preheat the oven to 220C/gas 7 and prod potato(es) a few times with a knife, then cover in foil, and bake for about 1 hour, or until a knife inserted into the centre shows the potato is soft and cooked all the way through.
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Slice in half lengthways, and serve topped with beans (heated until piping hot) and a little cheese.
There is no need to go any further with this recipe until you are confident with it and feel up for the next step.
Feeling ready? Let’s see how you can get your next small victory without battles…
Engaging Kids
Kids who engage regularly with veg through veg-themed activities, such as arts and crafts, sensory experiences, growing and cooking are shown to be more likely to eat the veg they engage with. Encouraging kids to engage and play with veg is the handy first step to them developing a good relationship with veg and life-long healthy eating.
Kids in the kitchen
The eventual aim, if possible, is to get kids in the kitchen. Don’t worry, this doesn’t have to mean they are with you from start-to-end creating mess and rising stress levels! It can be as simple as giving them one small job (stirring, measuring, pouring, grating, chopping…) ideally involving veg. They can come in to do their little bit, and have fun with you for a few minutes. Getting them involved, making it playful and praising them plenty for their involvement, perhaps even serving it as dinner they “made”, makes it much more likely they will eat the food offered, not to mention teaching them important life skills. Find ideas, safety tips, videos and even a free chart in our Kids in the Kitchen section here.
Activities
While getting kids to interact with veggies for real and using their senses to explore them is best, encouraging hands off activities like arts & crafts, puzzles & games or at-home science experiments can be a great start, particularly for those who are fussier eaters or struggle with anything too sensory. Use these veg-themed activities as a stepping stone to interacting with the veg themselves. We have loads of crafty downloads here, puzzles here, and quirky science with veg here.
Sensory
Once you feel your child is ready to engage a little more, you can show them how to explore the veg you have on hand with their senses, coming up with playful silly descriptions of how a veg smells, feels, looks, sounds and perhaps even tastes. Find ideas, videos and some simple sensory education session ideas to get you started here.
Serving
The moments before food is offered can be a perfect opportunity for engagement that can help make it more likely a child will eat it! Giving children a sense of ownership in the meal can make a big difference to their feelings going into it and the pride they take in it. You know your child best, but if you aren’t sure where to start, we have some fun and simple ideas for easy roles you can give them in the serving process over here.
NEXT LEVEL
I Want To Improve My Jacket Potato
If you are feeling confident with your favourite jacket potato recipe, but you’re wondering if there are some small tweaks you could make for the better, this is for you.
We’ve outlined some simple stages for continually improving on a basic jacket potato to get you from good to great. Find where you feel your current recipe sits and see if the next step is something you could aim for. You don’t have to go any further, but if you choose to, make sure you are feeling confident with this new stage before you try the next one.
And remember, the MOST important thing is that the family enjoys the meal! These changes and swaps can take as long as is needed if your family isn’t ready for big changes all in one go. Small simple improvements over time may not even be noticed.
Add veg
Adding veg means adding bulk, vitamins and fibre, so you can fill up hungry bellies while making a favourite meal cheaper, more filling and healthier! For the best chance of success, start small (with a veg you know the family like if possible), add a little more each time, don’t try to hide it, and build up over time.
Aim for 2 handfuls of veg per person in the long-run, but it’s better to go slowly and get there eventually than to rush to the finish line and find no one is ready to get there with you.
- Start simple with low sugar and salt baked beans and cheese, or some tuna and mayo with a few tablespoons of sweetcorn stirred through, or add some diced tomatoes or grated carrot to a ham and cheese one, or a few spoonfuls of peas with a plain butter jacket.
- To use frozen veg – there is less waste, it’s cheaper and easier to add a little more each time. Try peas, sweetcorn, mixed veg, chargrilled veg, mushrooms, peppers, carrots, broccoli, green beans, cauliflower or similar veg with a bit of cheese and butter on the potato, or on the side.
- If using fresh veg, the easiest way is to swap the white potato jacket for a sweet potato one – kids usually love the sweetness and unlike white potatoes, it counts towards your 5-a-day. For toppings, try a simple slaw made with shredded cabbage, grated carrot and/or apple and a little mayo or yogurt and seasoning or lemon juice, roasting some fresh broccoli/cauliflower florets for the last 30 mins of the potato’s cooking time and serving with a little butter and cheese, or serving the potato plain but alongside some salad or fresh, raw, crunchy veggies for a more snacky colourful option (try crunchy sweeter salad leaves like iceberg, sugar snap peas, peppers, tomatoes, carrots (chopped or grated) or cucumber).
- Most veg work here, either in a sauce or with cheese and butter as a topping, or raw and crunchy to add colour but not prep stress on the side.
In addition to veg toppings, could you serve some raw veg like peppers, tomatoes, sugar snap peas, radishes, avocado, cucumber, etc on the side or add a small salad? Try putting these items in the middle of the table and everyone can help themselves. If you add them to your plate, they will be more likely to do the same and jacket potatoes have got a whole lot healthier.
Don’t forget that the MOST important thing is that the family enjoys the meal! There’s no rush, and no pressure in not getting to 2 portions per serve.
Batch cooking
Once you are happy with your recipe, why not batch cook and freeze extra to save you future time, effort and money? You can freeze cooked jacket potatoes, and just reheat to piping hot to serve!
Not sure if batch cooking is for you? People often think batch cooking means you have to have a big freezer and a slow cooker. But while those things can be helpful, they’re definitely not essential. Find out more about how to start small with batch cooking in our guide.
engaging kids
Play is essential!
Think of children helping in the kitchen as a role play game with plenty of fun for maximum effect. One of the best ways to develop a love of veg in kids is to get them involved in the prep of the veg. Not only is cooking an essential life skill for kids to learn, but it’s a great, fun way to get them engaging with healthy foods!
Cooking with kids
One of the best ways to develop a love of veg in kids is to get them involved in the prep of the veg. Not only is cooking an essential life skill for kids to learn, but it’s a great, fun way to get them engaging with healthy foods! They don’t have to be involved in the whole process especially when they are very young (let’s keep the mess to a minimum!), just give them 1-2 smaller jobs they can own with some supervision.
If you are making jacket potatoes, why not get younger kids choosing and serving veg toppings, spooning over the jackets, or drizzling a little oil and salt over the potatoes before they go in the oven.
Older kids might be ready to learn how to prep the toppings, chopping veg or stirring beans as they heat on a stove!
See if they can tick off our Kitchen Ninja skills over time as you all get used to the recipe.
Arts & crafts
While getting kids to interact with veggies for real and using their senses to explore them is best, encouraging veg-based arts & crafts can be a great start, particularly for those who are fussier eaters or struggle with anything too sensory.
Use these arts & crafts as a stepping stone to interacting with the veg themselves. While you make your jackets, why not set them up with our chef veg crown?
Games & puzzles
Like arts & crafts, games & puzzles are a very safe way to get veggies to become more familiar and takes any pressure off eating or engaging their senses around veg for now.
A great place to start with jackets might be our Veg Selecta game!
Sensory
Sensory engagement with veg is possibly the best way to get children to slowly become more familiar with a veg. Take away the pressure to taste for now (and remember that ‘tasting’ could be expanded to include sniffing, licking and smelling) and instead encourage exploring a veg with a sense of smell, hearing, touch or sight.
Why not start with some sliced red cabbage for a slaw and get them to describe what they see. Perhaps it looks like a zombie brain, or a solar system! See if they are up for the challenge of putting a slice in their mouth and seeing if they can get their tongue to turn purple (it helps if you join in and see who can get their turn most purple here!). See if they want to chuck some into some mayonnaise and grated carrot or apple for a slaw topping after having engaged with it.
Serving
If your kids aren’t ready to be in the kitchen helping with part of the prep or cooking process, why not give them a job around the serving that could help them feel involved in the meal?
A crafty kid may like to design a beautiful menu, one who likes to help can lay the table. One may like to help you plate up the food, another may love to give the meal a theme! If you can (and we know it’s not always possible), try to eat with the kids, as they are much more likely to eat healthier food if they see it being eaten (and enjoyed!) by their families.
Why not let your child be in charge of toppings? Let them choose one from a list of suggested veg toppings. Make sure to praise them for their choices as you pile them on your own jacket potato, it may encourage them to try some on theirs!
DO you have a question you’d like one of our experts to help you with?
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