Having a fair bit of Irish in my blood, I (Jen) have always been a huge fan of potatoes.  I love baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, scalloped potatoes, fried potatoes, potato soup… Okay, perhaps I am starting to sound like Bubba going on about shrimp from the classic movie Forest Gump.

Truthfully, I never believed the hype, a few years back, that told us that potatoes were bad for us because they are high in carbs.  They come from God’s green earth, pure and whole and they’re delicious.   They are also nutritious, a great source of Vitamin C and vitamin C, help with blood pressure, reduce cancer risk and more.  Read more here.

This vegan recipe uses cashew cream.   Many vegans make their own cashew cream by soaking the cashews, or boiling them, then pureeing them til smooth.  I could never get mine very smooth.  It could be my relic 1970’s food processor.   In any case, I find it a lot easier and simpler to just buy the cashew cream (or cashew butter) at my local bulk food store.  If you don’t have it on hand, you can simply substitute equal amounts of vegan milk to the mixture.

Recipe  (2 baked potatoes – serves 2)

Preheat oven to 375

2 Large Baking Potatoes

10 cremini mushrooms (sliced)

2 tbsp cashew cream (see note above)

1/4 cup vegan milk

1 1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 tbsp nutritional yeast

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

Place baking potatoes in foil and bake in preheated oven about an hour.

While they are baking, put some oil in a frying pan and saute mushrooms til soft.

Remove the potatoes from oven and remove from the foil.  When cool enough to handle, scoop out the insides and place in a medium sized bowl.   Add the cashew cream, garlic powder, salt, pepper and rice milk to the bowl.   Blend it all up with an immersion blender.   Place the mixture back into the skins and place back in the oven, uncovered, for about 10 minutes until the mixture is nice and hot.  Remove from oven and top with mushrooms.    T

These potatoes make a great side dish or top with more sautéed veggies and guacamole on the side for a full meal.