Eat Your Veggies: Southwestern Baked Potatoes

"Tomorrow, I'm going to eat more vegetables."

"Eat Your Veggies" is a pseudo-weekly series featuring easy, seasonal veggie recipes.  

This recipe was invented as the result of my attempts to create a seasonally appropriate Taco Salad recipe, one that did not rely on fresh lettuce and tomatoes as its backbone.  I ended up morphing it into a vaguely southwestern type of baked potato.  

Instead of lettuce, I used crunchy cabbage mixed with beans, seasoned with a paprika olive oil dressing.  I’ll admit that back in the day, I dismissed cabbage.  Before I started cooking with it I thought of it as bland and uninteresting.  Yet when cooked properly (as in not boiled into stringy oblivion) its actually really sweet and plays well with many genres of food. I thought it was a good choice for the somewhat mexican flavors in this dish.




Southwestern Baked Potatoes
Serves 4

4 medium russet potatoes
½ head green or napa cabbage, diced
2 cans black beans
½ cup cheddar cheese, grated
1 ripe avocado, sliced
olive oil

Dressing:
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
½ teaspoon dried rosemary
½ teaspoon dried thyme
½ teaspoon dried oregano
2 teaspoons paprika
2 medium garlic cloves, finely chopped
pinch of red pepper flakes
¼ teaspoon sea salt flakes
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Prick potatoes all over with a fork.  Bake in a 400F degree oven until easily pierced with a fork (about 45min- 1 ½ hours, depending on the size of your potatoes)

Make dressing: gently heat olive oil over medium low heat until warm.  Add all other ingredients and let the flavors blend while you prepare the rest of the dish.

Saute cabbage in a few tablespoons olive oil over medium heat until just tender.  Add dressing and black beans.  Cook until heated through.  

Cut open baked potato and top with cabbage/bean mixture.  Garnish with cheese and avocado.

Source: Dressing adapted from 101cookbooks.com