Potato without skin
Allowed — On the allowed list of the leaflet this book follows and of every hospital compared.
In one line: Peel it and leave no skin on.
Stoma note: Tends to thicken stoma output.
Potato flesh is starch and water, and cooked soft it is about as gentle as food gets. The skin is a different matter entirely. It is tough, it is on every avoid list, and it is the only thing standing between a potato and unrestricted use.
The preparation
Peel it. Then peel the bits you missed. Cut into even pieces so they cook through together, and boil, steam or braise rather than roasting hard, since a crisp edge is a hard fragment. A potato is ready when a piece falls apart against the side of the pan under light pressure.
Mash needs care with method rather than compliance. Push cooked potato through a ricer or a sieve for the smoothest result, beat in warm milk and plenty of butter, and stop as soon as it is smooth, since overworked mash turns gluey.
What this book does
Uses potato constantly, as mash under everything, as the body of most of the soups, in a pie, in gnocchi and in a bake. It is also the first thing to reach for when a recipe's amber ingredient has to come out, because extra potato will hold a soup together on its own.
Chips are allowed by the leaflet this book follows, skin off, with the caveat that a lot of very fatty food in one sitting can be uncomfortable. Instant mash is allowed and is a reasonable thing to keep in the cupboard for a day when peeling is too much.
For a stoma
Mashed potato is one of the reliable thickeners of loose output. See thickening stoma output.
Recipes using it
- Bangers and mash with onion gravy
- Karl Marx's beetroot and potato soup
- Cheese and potato bake
- Cottage pie for two with silky mash
- Cream of cauliflower soup with a cheese crouton
- Cream of chicken soup
- Creamy chicken and white wine casserole
- Fish pie for two
- Greek lemon chicken and potatoes
- Rosa Luxemburg's spinach and potato soup
- Chicken and potato stew with creamed courgette
- Potato and leek velouté
- Potato gnocchi in sage-infused butter
- Roast chicken thighs with gravy and mash for two
- Salmon in a paper parcel with butter sauce
- Salmon and potato fishcakes with lemon butter
- Lemon sole in brown butter with silky mash
- Steamed cod in white sauce
Swaps
- Instead of Jacket potato with the skin on, use Potato with the skin removed before eating, or peeled before cooking
- Potato skin is tough and fibrous and travels through the gut largely unchanged. Some hospitals allow the skin back in once tolerance has settled, so this is a swap for the early or strict phase of the diet.
- Instead of Skin-on roast vegetables, such as parsnip or potato, use Peel before roasting
- Skin holds onto fibre that the flesh does not, so peeling before roasting keeps the same dish minus the part that causes trouble.