Speed up your baked potatoes: Quick tips for a timeless classic

Baked potatoes are a fantastic side dish and a simple and tasty snack. However, many people are discouraged by the prospect of a long cooking time. There is, however, a way to radically shorten it.

People have been enjoying baked potatoes for a long time – as shown by archaeological studies conducted in the Border Cave in South Africa; our ancestors prepared potatoes in the embers of fire as far back as 170,000 years ago!

In the countryside, potatoes were mainly baked in embers or oven ashes. In the city, ovens were used to prepare potatoes, which remains the most popular device for processing potatoes. The problem is that this usually takes quite a long time, often over an hour. What can be done to reduce the baking time even several times?

Type B potatoes are best for baking. They are starchy and contain exceptionally high amounts of starch, which gives them optimal consistency and crunchiness after processing.

Potato starch quickly induces a feeling of fullness, digests slowly, and very little is converted into fat tissue because this is an inefficient process for the organism. This is not the only benefit of eating potatoes, which are also a rich source of easily digestible protein and vitamins, especially C (strengthening immunity and protecting against the harmful activity of free radicals) and B vitamins, necessary for the proper functioning of, among others, the nervous system.

Potatoes also contain a lot of potassium (which plays an essential role in the body's ion and water balance - lowers blood pressure and maintains proper muscle contractility) and magnesium, the building blocks of teeth and bones, positively influencing metabolism and alleviating fatigue and stress.

Instead of an oven, we can use a microwave oven. Just set the device to full power, place the washed, cleaned, but unpeeled potatoes on a suitable dish, which we pierce with a fork (which will help the steam escape and prevent the possible "bursting" of the tuber), and then place in the microwave for about 10-12 minutes.

This treatment will make the potatoes acquire not only a "baked" taste but also a pleasant consistency. Under the crispy skin, there will be moist, not dried-out flesh, which is worth seasoning with salt and herbs (thyme, rosemary) and enriched with a bit of butter before serving.

If we like very crispy skin, after taking the potatoes out of the microwave, we can place them in a preheated oven for a quarter of an hour, previously smearing them with olive oil.