Grünkern-Chili-Cheese-Kartoffeln (baked potatoes with green spelt chili and cheese)
Baked potatoes split and topped with a quick chili made from green spelt, the young, smoke-dried spelt grain with a nuttier, more savoury character than the ripe grain, finished with melted cheese under the grill. Green spelt needs a real simmer to soften, closer to farro than couscous, and rushing it leaves a chewy, undercooked chili.
Prep20 min
Cook60 min
Oven200°C
Servings4
Christoph's baked potatoes with green spelt chili, the spelt given a real simmer to soften rather than rushed like couscous.
Ingredients
Units
Temperature
Servings
Potatoes
- 4 large baking potatoes rounded
- 20 ml neutral oil rounded
Green spelt chili
- 150 g green spelt rounded
- 400 ml vegetable broth rounded
- 150 g onion, finely chopped rounded
- 1 red bell pepper, diced rounded
- 20 ml neutral oil rounded
- 12 g chilli powder rounded
- 400 g chopped tomatoes rounded
- 400 g kidney beans, tinned, drained rounded
- to taste fine salt rounded
- 150 g grated cheese rounded
Dietary labels are a guide, not a guarantee. If you have an allergy, read the ingredients yourself.
Method
- Heat the oven to 200°C. Prick the potatoes a few times with a fork, rub with oil, and bake directly on the oven rack for 55 to 60 minutes, until they give easily when squeezed.
- Meanwhile, rinse the green spelt and combine with the broth in a pan. Bring to a simmer and cook 20 to 25 minutes, until tender with a slight chew, not crunchy. Drain any excess liquid.
- Heat the oil in a separate pan. Sweat the onion and pepper for 5 minutes, until softened.
- Stir in the chilli powder and cook 30 seconds, until fragrant.
- Add the chopped tomatoes, kidney beans and cooked green spelt. Simmer 10 minutes, until thickened. Season with salt.
- Split the baked potatoes open and fluff the insides with a fork. Spoon the chili generously over each, top with grated cheese, and grill for 3 to 4 minutes, until melted and bubbling.
Notes
- Give the green spelt a proper simmer, not a quick soak. It is a fuller, chewier grain than couscous or bulgur and needs real cooking time to soften; rushed, it stays unpleasantly crunchy in the finished chili.
- Bake the potatoes directly on the oven rack, not wrapped in foil. Foil steams the skin soft; an unwrapped potato on the rack develops a properly crisp skin.
- Fluff the potato flesh before topping it. A whole, dense potato interior does not take on the chili’s flavour the way a fluffed, aerated one does.
- The chili keeps for 4 days in the fridge and freezes well, separately from the potatoes, which are best baked fresh.
Ingredient substitutions
- Green spelt can be swapped for pearl barley if unavailable, cooked the same way; the flavour will be milder.
- Kidney beans can be black beans or any tinned bean you have.
- Grated cheese should be a good melting variety; a smoked cheese is a good match for the green spelt’s roasted, nutty character.
From Christoph Mayer