Bacon-stuffed spuds recipe

These beautiful soft and fluffy bacon stuffed spuds are the perfect comfort food for a midweek dinner. Although they do take a while, most of the time is for the cooking of the potatoes and you can just pop them in the oven and do something else for an hour or so.

Ingredients

• 4 baking potatoes, large
• 1 large onion, very finely sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, very finely sliced
• 4 rashers of smoked streaky bacon
• 1 leek
• 1 red pepper, diced
• 1 head of broccoli
• 100g of mature cheddar
• 2tbsp of olive oil
• 3 pinches of salt
• 1 pinch of black pepper

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/356°F/Gas Mark 4
2. Wash the potatoes and prick holes all over using a fork. Season with salt and rub in olive oil
3. Bake the potatoes on a baking tray for 1 ½ hours (or until cooked through or crispy)
4. Cut the broccoli into small florets and cook for 3 minutes in salted boiling water. Strain and plunge into iced water, and leave in for 5 minutes to cool
5. In a non-stick pan, warm a tablespoon of olive oil over a medium heat. Cut the bacon roughly into 2cm squares then fry until it just begins to crisp
6. To the pan, add the onion, garlic and pepper. Cook for 10 minutes on a low heat until they just start to colour. Switch the heat off and add the broccoli to the pan, and then set aside
7. Take the potatoes out of the oven and allow to cool before cutting in half lengthways. Scoop the potato flesh into a bowl, ensuring you leave the skin intact
8. Mash the potato with a fork, and then add the bacon, onion, garlic and pepper. Season with salt and pepper to taste and then pile the mixture into the potato skins
9. Wash the leeks before splitting lengthways and shredding finely. Place on top of the potatoes and grate cheese over them
10. Bake the filled potato skins for 20 minutes in the oven, until the cheese is golden and the leeks start browning. Serve straight away