Stuffed potato skins with a sunflower "cheese" sauce

Here it's a cold and a gray winter, without snow, but with fog and sometimes rain.

That's why I love to cook recipes that are comforting, and make me feel good. It's the season of comfort food! And this recipe it's not only tasty, but looks good too. That's why I think that should be a part of my "Vegan Holiday" series...

And because usually the best cheese sauce is made out of cashews, which are quite expensive, I made a cheese sauce out of sunflower seeds, because they are less expensive and quite easy to find :)

Let's see the recipes down below!

Buckwheat stuffed potato skins

Ingredients:

8 medium potatoes or 10-12 smaller ones

** 150 g (¾ cup) buckwheat

** 200 g (1 ¼ cup) green peas (I had frozen)

** 100 g (2/3 cup) onion, sliced

** 100 g (½ cup) sweet peppers, cut

** 3 heaping tbsp tomato sauce

** 1 ½ tsp garlic powder

** 1 ½ tsp smoky paprika

** ¾ tsp basil, dried

** ½ tsp thyme, dried

** ¼ tsp salt

** ½ tsp black pepper

** ½ tsp chili flakes (or 1/3 tsp chili powder)

** 1 tsp coriander, ground

** ½ tsp sage

** 1 ½ cups water for boiling the buckwheat and more for sauteing the veggies

Method:

Preheat your oven to medium heat for 10-15 minutes. Wash your potatoes very well and pat dry. Prick your potatoes with a fork and bake them on a medium-low heat until they're soft (it can be anywhere between 40 to 80 minutes, depending on the size of your potatoes and your oven).

When your potatoes are almost done baking you can start preparing the stuffing.

Rinse your buckwheat and put into a pot with 1.5 cups of water on medium-low heat. When it's almost cooked add the green peas and stir them until they're all well combined.

In the meantime, when your buckwheat starts to boil, add 1-2 tbs water to a pan and add your onions. Saute until they start to soften. Add the peppers and cook until they start to soften too. Add your spices and tomato paste. Stir until combined.

Add you buckwheat and green peas mix to the pan and stir until everything is very well combined. Add water if it starts to dry too much. You want your mixture to still be a little wet.

Let everything aside.

Cut your baked potatoes in half and scoop most of the flesh out, taking care not to break the “boat” skins that you're gonna stuff in a moment.

Add your potato flesh to your buckwheat veggie mixture and mix very well until combined and you don't have big potato chunks.

Stuff your potato skins and top with some vegan cheese or a cheese sauce. Bake again for 10-15 minutes on medium heat, until the cheese or cheese sauce is golden brown and delicious.

Enjoy warm with a veggie salad on the side!

*** You can use bulgur or quinoa instead of buckwheat 

Sunflower cheese sauce

Ingredients:

** 100 g (¾ cup) sunflower seeds, soaked for at least 1 hour or overnight

** 225 ml (1 cup) plant milk

** 30 g (5 tbsp) nutritional yeast

** juice from ½ lemon

** ¼ tsp garlic powder

** ¼ tsp salt

** ½ tsp smoky paprika

** ½ tsp ground turmeric

Method:

Soak the sunflower seeds for at least 1 hour, or better, overnight.

Add everything in a blender and blend until smooth.

Store in an air tight container in the fridge for about 1 week.

Enjoy!

If you want to see how I made this tasty recipe and also something more personal, then go and watch the video here: 

I hope that you have a happy and wonderful New Year!