Santa Fe Stuffed Twice Baked Potatoes Topped With A Spicy Mango Salsa

Hi Folks!

Last week was #fruitsandveggiesmonday one year anniversary and as the guest judge I wasn’t able to participate in the festivities. Although a fun job and might I add difficult, I am truly glad to back as a contender. Thank you @lenasveganliving for orchestrating this wonderful contest for so long. Your Pad Thai Buddha Bowl looks insanely delicious. Who am I kidding, all of your food looks ridiculously good every week :)

As I’ve said before, I train for food entries every day (cough cough #foodfightfriday cough) so there is no shortage of my chef-ing progress pictures in my phone. About two weeks ago I fooled around with a twice baked potato recipe:

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Santa Fe Stuffed Twice Baked Potatoes Topped With A Spicy Mango Salsa

If you can’t tell we clearly love mango salsas in my house. The trick is to pick the perfectly ripe mango for the job. I’ve made the mistake of grabbing a mango I thought would ripen up by salsa time but failed to do so and became the worlds driest mango ever. Haha… don’t make the same mistake!

To start, I cook up some lentils (about 45 minutes) and subsequently cook up some quinoa (another 15 minutes). These items will comprise the guts of the twice baked potato. I am simultaneously baking two russet potatoes at 450 that I’ve dusted in sea salt, black pepper, cumin, oregano and garlic powder.

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I left a cookie sheet underneath to catch any fallen spice and keep my oven clean :)

While those are baking and lentils are cooking I get started on the mango salsa.

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Mango Salsa Ingredients:

2 Mangos (make sure they are ripe)
1/2 Lrg. Sweet Onion
1-2 Jalapeño
1/3 Cup Chopped Cilantro
1 Lime
Salt and pepper to taste!

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I always start with my onions first because I like to get that lime juice on them right away, giving them time to soak up the flavor.

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After adding the jalapeño (add as much as you want-to taste) carve the mango. If you’ve never carved a mango (don’t worry, I had to google it myself my first time) all you do is cut along the seed of the mango like you would an avocado. Then take your knife and slice vertical lines down one side then cross them with horizontal lines (try to make square sizes that you’d want to see make up your salsa pieces). Here is the fun part, turn the sliced pieces of mango inside out and gently cut off each square. Taaaaddaaaa… kind of fun right?!?

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I love pepper so I’m pretty liberal with it. I used a pinch of sea salt and a healthy shake, shake, shake, shake, of pepper before mixing the ingredients this far. Finally I’ll add my chopped cilantro…

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At this point add as much lime juice, sea salt and black pepper as you desire. Mix everything well and put it in the fridge to allow all of the flavors to meld together.

Soon the lentils and quinoa should be done so you can now get started on making the guts of the potato. I have a very limited pots/pans selection so have to make my lentils first followed by my quinoa, which takes a total of about 60 minutes for both.

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I add in these tid bits about minimalism because there have been far too many recipes I’ve shyed away from thinking I couldn’t do them for lack of equipment. However, upon gutsy trials I’ve realized that just about anything can be manipulated to work with what you have on hand (except cupcakes, you definitely need a cupcake sheet to make cupcakes 🤷🏼‍♀️).

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The guts of the potato will be mixed with all of these goodies.

Sant Fe Twice Baked Potato Stuffing:

1 Cup Lentils
1 Cup Quinoa
1 Sweet Onion
1 Green Bell Pepper
3-4 Garlic Cloves (minced)
1 Tomato
3 Tbsp Tomato Paste
1 Tbsp Chili Powder
1 Tbsp Cumin
1/2 Lime Juice
Pinch Cayenne (optional)
Sea Salt and Pepper to taste!

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Sauté the chopped onions until fragrant and translucent, then add the bell pepper and do the same. The garlic will go in last and cook just long enough to make your husband say “it smells good already”. Add in the cooked quinoa, the goal is to crisp the grains up a little bit.

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Now, mix in the lentils, diced tomato, chili powder, cumin, other spices, tomato paste and a few tablespoons of water.

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Stir everything together really well and put a lid on it to keep the guts warm. About now the potatoes should be perfectly baked.

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Some would advise waiting 15 minutes or so to gut the potatoes but I’m a rebel and I decide to do so while pissing and moaning about burning my hands :)

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Carefully scoop the inside of the potato into a bowl. I added about a tablespoon of ‘Good Earth Butter’ and 1/4-1/2 cup of almond milk to the potatoes.

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Mash them up real well (I used a fork) and add the potato gut mixture. I also grabbed a brownie dish to bake my stuffed potatoes in.

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I had a small amount of lentil/quinoa mixture left because I didn’t want to overwhelm the potato. This was A-okay with me, it makes for a great taco lunch or a good chip dip.

When stuffing the potato shells don’t be afraid to lay it on thick. Once stuffed I pop them back in the oven, at 425, for another 20 minutes.

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By this time I’m starving and my husband was already sniffing around the potato mixture so we’ve both worked up quite an appetite. If you’re in a rush this recipe might not be a good one as it takes quite a bit of time. I love being in the kitchen and enjoy the process of creating food so for me time isn’t an issue. The entire shtick took about 2.5 hrs start to finish (I take my time though, I’m sure some of you can achieve this much sooner than me).

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Yes, the extra cilantro sprinkled about was for the plating purposes of #fruitsandveggiesmonday!

Thank you so much for reading my content and enjoying my recipes. It truly brings warmth to my heart that anyone at all likes what I make. All of your support is appreciated and please let me know if you have a go at it yourself- would love to hear about the results!

Thanks again friends and happy Monday to all :)

Pura Vida! ✌️

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looks wonderful dear

Glad you like it :) Thank you for stopping by my page and checking it out @babyino.

You're welcome my friend

that looks so delicious, I'm getting hungry again!

They turned out pretty good. My only complaint is that I cooked two and not five :)

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Mmm this is looking very delicious i love mango salsa:D

Yes, mango everything ! Thanks for stopping by @drawmeaship.

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I love mango salsas, spicy ones, too, of course! Now I'm super motivated to be able to digest potatoes and lentils so I can try this. :)

If you can digest quinoa you can stuff a zucchini or squash the way I stuffed these potatoes and bake them with quinoa + all the other Santa Fe fixings… that sounds yum to me right now :).

Yes, spicy mango salsa or spicy pineapple salsa… love it. Thank you for stopping by my page friend!

I love stuffing zucchini and any squash. The quinoa is not an option for me sadly...but maybe millet might work.
Spicy pine apple salsa....... that sounds to die for!!

Oh then you have to try the spicy pineapple salsa.… it’s something else. I use salsas for toppings on everything. I’m not sure I’m familiar with millet, looking this up as soon as I post this reply :)

P.s. I’ll share my salsa recipes soon all in one post.

Yes, I will have to try it asap. I can't wait for your salsa post!!! Salsas are one of the best joys of life ❣️

I may share a millet recipe. It's extremely versatile.

I make millet for my cat as well :))

Maybe for a fruits and veggies Monday I’ll put together a salsa post :) you’re so right, salsa is everything great with the world. Haha

I’ll keep a look out for your Millet recipes and lucky cat :)

Oven baked potatoes with spicy filling, and even some mango salsa on top, yum! I'll probably have to stop reading your recipes, since every time you make something, I want to try it too, and I'm starting to have quite a list of recipes to try, haha! Just kidding, I'll just keep reading and drooling over here!

Hahaha… ahhh, thank you so much @jasmink! I have quite a list of recipes here myself. Since getting acquainted with all of the lovely fruits and veggies Monday peeps my ‘todo’ list just continues to grow :) If I could I’d pass you a virtual serving every time…

Haha, passing virtual servings would be perfect, everyone would join Fruits and Veggies Monday! While waiting for the technology to evolve quite a bit, we'll just have to keep on collecting recipes. :)

Haha… I suppose you’re right!

You've got my heart and my palate with those potatoes! Oh boy would I pound one of those down for dinner. ;)

Haha… this made me laugh. I bet they’d be just as good if I used sweet potatoes. Potato anything is my jam! You are invited to dinner any time @plantstoplanks, just let us know when you are in LA. :)

I'm watching some of the presentations on the Plant Fit Summit and right now Chef AJ is talking about how awesome potatoes and starches are for you. I'm sitting here like "Preach"! I couldn't live without taters. I'd love to make it out to the west coast again sometime soon!

Oh good. More health advocates needs to speak kindly of our potato brethren. There’s so much bad press out about starchy vegetables. Potatoes are a staple in our diets, of course things like McDonalds French fries aren’t the tates I’m talking about :).

Seriously, if you make it this way I’ll whip up a special batch.

Mango is never going to be the same again @puravidaville. I think when I "met" you it was over a mango fff post (cough - cough). I enjoy the way you write. And your dishes give me new ideas. Happy days chef!

Wow! Thank you so much @buckaroo that just made my day coming from you :) Yes I’m sort of a mango freak, guilty! Positives vibes right back at cha sista.

Really? I'm nothing special. Certainly not in the cooking - or UNcooking - arena. But we have a lot to offer each other. I'm also a mango freak. Probably my favourite fruit but I can't do fruit with anything other than fruit

You are truly a star, never say you’re nothing special. I have been reading a lot about eating fruit alone for it digests better and you avoid fermentation that way. The past few days I’ve been adopting this habit ( I’m constantly tweaking how I eat in hopes that I can heal some digestive issues) and so far so good. I really enjoy reading your thoughts on holistic benefits of certain things, like lemons… looking forward to more of those posts :)

Wow, you have made an amazing feast here! I'm sure your hubby was sniffing around the kitchen, so many wonderful smells! I love the sweet along with the savory You nailed it here, well done :)

Thank you friend! I enjoy adding sweet to spicy and mixing it up. Mangos are really great at helping me achieve that :). Yes and my husband is always sniffing around the kitchen but I can’t blame him, I might be guilty of sneaking in a few tastes myself. I’ll take a compliment from a pro like you any day of the week @birdsinparadise :)