Twice-Baked Potato Skillet
Mashed potatoes, dried mushrooms, and cheddar, rebuilt for one pot and no oven.
- calories
- 720
- weight
- 5.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 131
- protein
- 21 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 10 min
- total time
- 15 min
- water
- 600 ml boiled
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Alcohol / Esbit
- Car camping
- Backpacking
- Basecamp
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Instant mashed potato flakes | 1 1/2 cups | |
|---|---|---|
| Dried sliced mushrooms | 1/2 cup | shiitake or porcini rehydrate faster than button |
| Dried red bell pepper | 1/4 cup | freeze-dried or dehydrated dice |
| Olive oil | 1 1/2 tbsp | |
| Garlic powder | 1 tsp | |
| Smoked paprika | 1/2 tsp | |
| Ground cumin | 1/4 tsp | |
| Salt | 1/2 tsp | |
| Black pepper | 1/4 tsp | |
| Dried chives or green onion | 2 tbsp | |
| Whole milk powder | 3 tbsp | stands in for the yogurt |
| Shredded cheddar | 2 oz | a waxed block grated at camp works too |
| Sour cream powder | 2 tbsp | optional, for the tang |
Method
- Bring 600 ml of water to a boil. Drop in the mushrooms and bell pepper, cover, and pull it off the heat for five minutes. They need the soak more than they need the boil.
- Return to low heat, stir in the oil, paprika, cumin, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Thirty seconds is enough to wake the spices up.
- Kill the flame. Add the milk powder and sour cream powder, then the potato flakes in three additions, stirring between each.
- Fold in the cheddar and chives. Put the lid on for two minutes so the cheese melts into it rather than sitting on top.
The original is a casserole: two pounds of potatoes baked for an hour, chopped, layered with sautéed vegetables and yogurt, then baked again. None of that survives contact with a stove that does one thing. So the potatoes become flakes, the yogurt becomes milk powder plus a little sour cream powder, and the layering collapses into one pot.
What carries over is the seasoning logic. Smoked paprika and cumin were doing the bacon’s job in the source recipe, and they still do it here. The dried mushrooms matter more than they look: they rehydrate into something with chew, which is the only texture standing between this and plain mashed potatoes. Soak them in the boiling water before anything else goes in, or they stay leathery.
Packing
Everything dry except the cheese goes in one bag: flakes, milk powder, spices, dried vegetables, chives. Cheese and the oil bottle ride separately. In warm weather, use a hard aged cheddar; the shredded stuff sweats.
Variations
- Swap the cheddar for a smoked gouda and drop the paprika.
- A packet of bacon bits puts back what the original recipe had before it went meatless.
- Cold nights: use 500 ml instead of 600 and eat it thick, closer to a mash than a skillet.
https://ohmyveggies.com/twice-baked-potato-casserole