Julia’s twice-baked potatoes with chilli con carne

Instructions

1. Rub the potatoes with olive oil and generous amounts of salt and pepper before baking in the oven for around an hour and a half at 200°C.
2. Meanwhile, fry the onions, garlic and chillies over a low-medium heat for about 5-10 minutes, or until the onion starts to become soft and translucent. If using minced beef or lamb, fry in a separate pan until browned.
3. Add the tomato, red wine and beans/sweet corn (and Quorn mince if you are using this) to the onion, garlic and chillies, season well, cover and allow to reduce for around 15 minutes. Remove from heat and reserve. (Add the cooked meat to the mixture at this point if you are using minced beef or lamb).
4. Once the potatoes are cooked through and crispy on the outside, remove from the oven and slice each potato in half. Scoop out the insides into a separate pan, then return the empty potato skins to the baking tray. It doesn't matter if the skins fall apart a little bit at this stage - it will all work out ok in the end!
5. Add a couple of knobs of butter, the cumin and fresh herbs to the scooped-out potato and mash until well blended, then mix in the reserved chilli con carne mixture with a wooden spoon.
6. Spoon the resulting mixture back into the potato skins, distributing evenly. You'll have more mixture than you need so you can reserve some of it for later.*
7. Top the lot with grated cheddar, then return to the oven for a further 15 minutes or so (or grill for around 5 minutes), until golden-brown and crispy on top.
8. Serve two potato halves per guest, with a side salad and a large dollop of sour cream. Sprinkle any remaining fresh herbs on top to garnish. Enjoy!

*My tip for a really tasty meal to use up the leftovers: spoon out even dollops of the chilli and potato mixture onto a baking tray and flatten them out into roughly the size and shape of burgers. Bake on both sides until crispy, then top with cheese and grill until golden brown. Almost as good as the original meal!