Day 4: Baked Potato Samosa from Happy Herbivore Light & Lean
Today I was looking for something light and easy for lunch which naturally led me to the book Happy Herbivore Light & Lean. Look, the word light is right in the title! Just to be clear, the reason I wanted something light for lunch is so I could also have room to eat leftover New Year’s Eve pizza. This recipe is labeled as a snack or appetizer and is actually under 100 calories per serving if prepared exactly as written.
This book was on sale on Amazon a while back, and I bought it on a whim, not knowing anything at the time about the author, Lindsay S. Nixon, or her website happyherbivore.com. This is a great collection of lower calorie recipes along with a workout guide at the end for those who are trying to lose weight and/or get fit. All recipes have nutrition info included and lots of useful labels for ingredients, time required, calorie count, etc. This book is put together really well, includes beautiful photographs, and has a lot of content. All of that said, this is the first time I’ve ever tried anything from it.
I was a little skeptical going into making this. Basically this is a twice-baked potato with peas and samosa-inspired spices. I was sure the flavors would be great, but the lack of any fat added to a baked potato with peas sounded a little…dry. The dryness of the potato was combatted by the addition of plant-based milk (I used soy) and lemon juice, but this was not quite enough for me. I ended up adding a little bit of vegan butter to the mashed potato mixture which helped with the dryness. Obviously this adds to the calorie count, but for something that is already so low in calories I feel like it’s worth it for the taste.
The recipe instructed me to bake the potato in the oven at 400 for an hour, then take it out and let it cool, then prepare everything, then bake again for another 5 minutes, which I did. I confess that I am usually a microwave potato-baker. And today I remembered why. This was pretty time consuming for what it was. If I do this again, I’d probably either bake potatoes in the oven in advance and stick them in the fridge or just shortcut it by baking it in the microwave. It honestly didn’t taste that much better having been oven-baked.
All in all, this was a tasty recipe that makes me want to revisit Lindsay S. Nixon’s cookbooks (there’s another in my collection) in the near future. There are a lot of inspiring ideas in here that remind me it is not hard to make something different even if I’m short on time!
P.S. the leftover pizza was delicious.
