Megan Curtin
Vegan twice-baked potatoes are excellent comfort food that can be made in your air fryer or the oven.
Anytime I can make stuff using my air fryer, I am all for it because it is as easy as pressing two buttons. I also love that you don’t need to use any added butter or oil to get a crisp product.
If you use large potatoes (which I suggest) they for sure can be a meal and is surprisingly filling.
Smaller potatoes would be ideal to use if you want to serve them as an appetizer and can be a great option to serve to all your non-vegan family and friends. With all the flavor in these, they won’t even miss the standard dairy that is typically used to make them.
If you are vegan odds are you have most of the ingredients in your fridge already!
Contents
Ingredients
- 1 Pack Bacon Seitan
- Vegan Cheddar Cheese
- Vegan Mayo – I like Veganse
- Vegan Cream Cheese – I like Tofutti
- Green Onion
- 3 Large Potatoes (I prefer russet)
- Vegan Butter (I like Earth Balance)
- Pepper
- Garlic Salt
- Paprika
You can skip the vegan mayo and cream cheese and use vegan sour cream instead, it’s totally a personl prefrence.
Green onions are pretty much a standard with twice baked potaotes but if you don’t like them you can skip those too.
I like the large potatoes because they are more filling and it saves time on making the filling. The smaller the potoes the more work you will have to do.
If you want you could make large ones and then cut them up into bit size pieces.
This is the air fryer I use.
It comes in black, red or white.
It has easy to use presets and options to manyually set your own time / temperature.
Directions
- Scrub your potatoes under water and then pat them dry.
2.Season the skins with spices of your choice. I keep it simple so that the skin doesn’t overpower the insides. I just use pepper, garlic salt, and paprika. Season salt would also be a great choice.
3. You will need to make a baked potato as your base for the twice-baked potatoes.
Throw the potatoes in the air fryer at 400 degrees for 30 min. Try to have them not overlap each other and instead have them fit nicely next to each other. This will allow for a crisp skin and even cooking.
Some people choose to coat the outside with a small drop of grapeseed oil but the whole point of the airfyer is so you don’t need to do that. Up to you, this will obviously make them crispier.
4. While the potatoes are in the fryer bake up the bacon.
I like to season both sides of the bacon during this step.
I suggest cooking the seitan bacon on low heat so that you don’t burn them and they won’t shrink up as much.
This is what will give the inside its crunch so I suggest cooking them a little bit longer than you normally wood.
I suggest laying down a drop of butter or oil, I like to use the earh balance.
5. Once the bacon is cooked remove it from the pan and place it on paper towel. Pat it dry and let it sit for about 5 minutes or until it is cool to the touch.
6. When the potatoes are done open the basket and let them cool a bit in the air fryer basket until they can be handled with your hands.
Don’t let them get to cold or it will be a nightmare trying to scoop out the middle.
To test if the potatoe is done you can squeeze it and it should be soft to the touch.
7. Cut pototoes in half.
8. Scoop out potato insides and place them in a bowl.
If you want to you can use an oven mitt to hold the potato and scoop them out when its a bit hotter.
Keep a thin layer of potato on top of the skins or the skin itself will fall apart. I would say about half an inch or so.
I choose to make these one potato at a time becuase all the halves won’t fit into the air fryer at once so it’s easier to just scoop, mix, fill and plop back in the air fryer. You obviously could mix all the potato insides at once in a large bowl.
9. Add in your cheese, cream cheese, mayo, green onion, earth balance, bacon and spices to the potatoes in the bowl.
I did about a tablespoon of each ingreident for one potato.
*Make sure the bacon is crumbled into little pieces that mimic bacon bites.
10. Use a fork or potato mixer to mix all ingredients together.
I personally like mine with more texture so I try not to over mix but you can choose to make them as creamy as you want. Mixing longer will make them creamier.
11. Once fully mixed scoop the insides back onto the potato skins.
I like to add extra green oion and bacon to the top.
12. Place potato halves back into the air fryer at 400 degrees for 5-8 minutes. You want the top to look crispy.
13. ENJOY!
Food To Pair With Vegan Twice Baked Potatoes
As I said I like to get down with these as a meal but if you came here looking to pair the with the main dish, I got you boo.
- Beyond or impossible burgers
- Fish or shrimp
- Noodles
- With a side of veggies like broccoli
- Salad
- Soup
Basically anything you would pair a baked potato with or even french fries, a twice-baked potato would go great with.
Low-Calorie Twice Baked Potato
A low-calorie version of this would be a baked potato skin type of deal. Follow the same instructions but leave most of the filling out and just do a very thin layer over the skin before you put it back into the air fryer for the second time.
Just remember since it is vegan and you are using all plant-based products it is going to be a heck of a lot better for you off the bat than a regular twice baked potato.
Megan Curtin
