Christmas

Twice-Baked Potatoes with Kale

January  8, 2013
5
4 Ratings
Photo by James Ransom
  • Serves 6
Author Notes

Surf and turf is a Christmas Eve tradition at our house. A couple years ago it was lobster and filet; this year it was king crab and rib eye. It's a serious feast for a food-loving family. To accompany the spread, we whipped up some twice-baked potatoes. To spice it up, we sautéed some kale and mixed it in with the potatoes. —Brussels Sprouts for Breakfast

Test Kitchen Notes

WHO: Brussels Sprouts for Breakfast has over 100 Food52 recipe contributions under her belt.
WHAT: A twice-baked potato with all the (kale) trimmings.
HOW: Hollow-out a partially-cooked potato, then mash together the potato insides with sour cream, garlic-sautéed kale, and cheese and place back into the potato to bake into a glorious mess (in a good way).
WHY WE LOVE IT: Imagine a single-portion, cheesy kale gratin enveloped not by a dish, but by edible, perfectly crispy potato skins. Need we say more? —The Editors

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Ingredients
  • 3 russet potatoes (1/2 per person)
  • 1 large bunch lacinato kale (rough chop)
  • 2 shallots (diced)
  • 3 cloves garlic (minced)
  • 1 1/2 cups grated cheese (cheddar or Gruyère)
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
  • Olive oil
  • Salt and pepper
Directions
  1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
  2. Wash off potatoes and poke some holes in the skin with a fork. To cut back on cooking time, microwave the potatoes to soften the middle. You will bake it later for the "twice-baked" part. That step will ensure the skin gets nice and crispy. Cook the potatoes in the microwave for 15 minutes total, turning over every 5 minutes.
  3. As the potatoes cook, sauté the kale. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat. Add shallot and crushed red pepper flakes and cook for 5 minutes, until soft. Add garlic and cook for 3 minutes. Add the kale, salt, and pepper and make sure the kale is coated with olive oil. Cover and let cook until soft and wilted, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and chop up until almost paste-like. You want to be able to stir it into the potato mixture without any large pieces.
  4. Once the potatoes are cool enough to handle, cut in half, lengthwise. Scoop out the center of the potatoes (which should be nice and soft), leaving about 1/4 inch of skin and potato. Put the insides in a large mixing bowl. Mash up the potatoes until they become one cohesive mass. Add the sour cream, cheese, kale, salt, and pepper. Combine into one delicious, creamy mixture. Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary.
  5. Put the potato skins on a baking sheet. Stuff the mixture back into the potato skins and smooth the top. Pop into the oven for 25 minutes to finish.

See what other Food52ers are saying.

14 Reviews

Jen October 14, 2021
Wow so good! I had kale and purple Viking potatoes on hand from my CSA so I made a variation of this depending on everything else I found in the fridge. Following the directions with the shallots, red pepper flakes, garlic and kale, I added a little white wine vinegar. Then mixed some goat cheese, sour cream and Greek yogurt with the potato and kale mix and rubbed a little olive oil on the potato skin, put it all back together and in the oven. I’ll definitely make this again, so much more flavor than the traditional twice baked potato. I’m sure making with gruyere would make it even better!
juppidog December 24, 2014
I'm going to try with brussels sprouts instead of kale.
Megan March 24, 2014
I just made this and it was awesome! I used a sweet potato instead of a russet potato for extra flavor. I hate kale but loved this recipe- I just ate it as a main dish. This is a new favorite!
Brussels S. March 25, 2014
I'll have to try the sweet potato version, seems like other people have tried it that was as well!
Cindy A. March 16, 2014
Oops- apologies- somehow this ended up in this thread rather than the tater tots thread!
Cindy A. March 16, 2014
Made these tonight- delicious! The only changes I made were boiling and then mashing the potatoes instead of roasting, and I baked them at 375 rather than 400 because they were with other dishes in the oven. Fluffy, nicely browned, and very tasty! I froze half of the little unbaked tots, and then bagged them for next time.
Emily January 3, 2014
These were wonderful! Couple of things I tried and would do again: I used a mix of goat cheese and cheddar, subbed non-fat greek yogurt for the sour cream, and did 2 russets + 1 sweet potato (but kept the mashed parts separate - so I ended up with 4 white twice-baked halves and 2 sweet potato ones. They kept well in the freezer and I ate them all month long...I miss them.
annawitschi December 10, 2013
very nice! loved it even though I'm not a big fan of kale, but it's perfect, since I try to eat only seasonal fruits and veggies.
BUT instead of "cooking" the potatoes in the microwave, just boil it. after 15min in boiling water and 25min in the oven they're perfect. why destroying all the vitamins (it's actually proofed, that food cooked in the microwave does not get identified by our body) when cooking takes just as much time?
I'm just saying...
Brussels S. December 10, 2013
Anawitschi - The recipe could very easily be modified by baking, boiling or whatever you please to get the potatoes soft enough to scoop out the middle, if concerned about the nutritional value of the potatoes. Glad you enjoyed the recipe.
sheredel December 8, 2013
thinking this a great vegetarian dinner, will change the cream cheese to plain non-fat greek yogurt.
Tom S. December 8, 2013
Happycook: Why are you not a fan of using microwave ovens? I am a novice cook so question is search for knowledge. Thanks, Tom
Gal January 12, 2016
Hi Tom, the problem with microwaved anything is not the radiation people used to worry about, It's how it corrupts the DNA in the food.
According to Ayurveda (one of the world's oldest holistic (whole-body) healing systems) food that is cooked or heated in the microwave oven is “dead food”. That means that if you have a perfectly healthy piece of raw food, loaded with vitamins and natural medicines, you nuke it in the microwave and destroy most of its nutrition.
foxeslovelemons December 5, 2013
Congrats on the CP! This looks like a perfect accompaniment for surf and turf!
Brussels S. December 5, 2013
Thanks for testing thehappycook!! Hope the heat from the chili flakes wasn't too much. And thanks food52 for photographing. Lovely picture.