If you love stuffed baked potatoes, you’ll definitely love this Turkish kumpir recipe! Although it is originally a street food, you can easily make it at home by following a few very easy steps. Then you will end up with deliciously creamy, cheesy, and flavor-packed loaded baked potatoes.
We’ve shared several other Turkish street foods here before. The most popular ones are simit, which is the cheapest, cig kofte, doner kebab and lahmajun. Kumpir is yet another street food that is made with baked potatoes and a variety of toppings.
What's even better about our kumpir recipe is that it is vegetarian! After making the base, you can customize it to your tasting.
You can easily make it vegan by substituting the butter and cheese with vegan alternatives, or you can make it meaty by adding some sautéed chicken, cured meats and sausages, or even flaked fish!
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Today we will have a look at these versatile stuffed baked potatoes and exactly how to make them. We will also give you some handy tips to ensure your potatoes are soft, fluffy, and creamy. If you want to use some different toppings and need some inspiration, we’ve included some of our favorites too!
What is Kumpir?
Kumpir is the name for Turkish style stuffed baked potatoes, basically the Turkish version of the UK's jacket potatoes.
It is a popular food in Turkey that is served with an endless amount of vegetarian and meat toppings, and often a sauce of some sort.
Kumpir is especially popular in Istanbul, particularly in the Ortaköy district, which is famous for its kumpir stands. The area is often crowded with locals and tourists eager to try this amazing dish.
The vendor will mix the butter and cheese into the potato right in front of you, then let you choose from an array of toppings to add on top. The result is a colorful and hearty dish that’s as fun to look at as it is to eat.
Common toppings you will find in many kumpir restaurants in Turkey include:
- Pickles
- Olives
- Sweet corn
- Ezme salad
- Kisir
- Red cabbage salad
- Russian salad
- Fried vegetables
- Hummus
- Cacik
- Haydari
- Ketchup and mayonnaise
Meatier versions include Middle Eastern spicy sausages called sujuk, regular sausages and salami.
Ingredients
The base for a Turkish baked potato recipe always remains the same; large potatoes, butter, cheese and a bit of seasoning.
Our fully loaded baked potato recipe is completely vegetarian!
We use bulgur salad kısır, Russian salad (see the note below), quick pickled red cabbage, delicious dill pickles, corn, and lastly, a mixture of chopped black and green olives. The flavors of these ingredients are perfectly balanced and will fill you up in no time.
*A note on Russian salad: This is a Turkish style of Olivier salad from Russian cuisine and called Rus Salatasi in Turkey. It is simply a mixture of diced and boiled potatoes and carrots, sliced dill pickles and boiled peas, yogurt and mayonnaise.
Instructions
This vegetarian kumpir recipe is extremely easy to make and very versatile. You can easily remove, add, or substitute the ingredients and toppings to change the flavor profile to your liking!
First, bake the potatoes. Preheat the oven at 400°F (200°C). Wrap each potato with aluminum foil and bake them for 50-60 minutes or until they are done.
Once fully baked, remove them from the oven and foil. Place the cooked potatoes back into the oven for 5 minutes to crisp up their skins. Allow them to cool a bit before splitting them open with a knife.
Second, stuff the baked potatoes. Use a fork to fluff the inner flesh or the potato, but do not damage the crispy skin.
Add 1 tablespoon of butter and a pinch of salt to the fluffed potato and mix well. Gradually add the cheese and keep mixing until it gets creamy.
Add as many toppings as you’d like and serve while still hot.
Tips
When choosing potatoes for kumpir, make sure they are nice and big as well as even in size. This way you will ensure that they bake evenly.
When fluffing the potato to make the cheesy filling, the potatoes need to be as hot as you can touch. This way the butter and cheese will melt quickly and create a perfectly smooth and creamy inside.
You can also make use of tongs or rubber washing gloves to handle the hot potato much easier.
To make this kumpir recipe completely vegan, all you have to do is replace the butter and cheese with vegan alternatives.
If you aren’t a big fan of potatoes, you can try using sweet potatoes or orange potatoes instead. They are a healthier substitute and can be used in exactly the same way.
Frequently Asked Questions
A perfectly baked potato will have an internal temperature of 210°F (99°C). You can test this with a probe thermometer and insert it into the center of the thickest part of the potato.
Another way to test the doneness is by inserting a knife or cake testing needle into the potato. If it goes in easily and the potato is very soft, it has been fully cooked.
If you need a potato to cook quickly, using a microwave is definitely a better option.
However, if you have the time and want an extremely soft and fluffy baked potato, it's best to bake them in the oven. You will also get much crispier skin in an oven than in a microwave.
Part of what makes a loaded baked potato so great is the wide variety of toppings you can choose from. There isn’t a right or wrong topping – whatever you love the most will be just fine.
However, if you have no idea where to start with toppings, some basic ones include chicken, bacon, salsa, and more cheese!
Wrapping potatoes in foil does not speed up the cooking time, but it does affect how the potato cooks.
For one, the skin doesn’t crisp up when wrapped in foil. We love doing it this way because we can control the amount of crisp after the inside has been baked.
The foil also acts as a packet that helps create and trap steam during the baking process. The steam makes the cooked potato much softer and fluffier compared to unwrapped baked potatoes.
A lot of people say yes, and a lot of people say no – we say that it is entirely up to you. Adding oil to your baked potatoes before baking will help them get crispy skin, especially once the foil has been removed. Adding oil is also a way to add flavor to your kumpir potato.
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More Potato Recipes
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📖 Recipe
Kumpir -Turkish Stuffed Baked Potatoes
INGREDIENTS
For the potatoes:
- 4 large potatoes
- 4 tablespoon butter
- 1 cup mozzarella grated
- ½ teaspoon salt
Toppings:
- ½ cup Russian salad please look at the notes below
- ½ cup bulgur salad kısır
- ½ cup chopped red cabbage chopped and massaged with salt and lemon
- 5 dill pickles chopped
- 4 tablespoon corn
- 1 tablespoon black olives chopped
- 1 tablespoon green olives chopped
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat the oven at 200C/400F.
- Individually wrap each potato with aluminum foil.
- Bake them for 50 minutes to 1 hour depending on how large they are. Test if they are done by inserting a knife into a potato.
- Remove the foil and put the potatoes back in the oven. Bake for 5 minutes or until their skin is nice crispy. This will help you when stuffing the potatoes with the filling ingredients.
- Remove from the oven. Let them cool a bit. Split each potato in the center with a knife. Be careful when doing this as the inner side of potatoes will be hot.
- Use a fork and fluff up the inner flesh. Try not to damage the skin.
- Add in 1 tablespoon of butter and salt to taste into each potato and mix them up with the soft potato inside.
- Gradually add in the cheese as much as you want and keep mixing until it gets creamy.
- Add the toppings as you like and serve.
NOTES
- When choosing potatoes for kumpir, make sure they are nice and big as well as even in size. This way you will ensure that they bake evenly.
- When fluffing the potato to make the cheesy filling, the potatoes need to be as hot as you can touch. This way the butter and cheese will melt quickly and create a perfectly smooth and creamy inside.
- You can also make use of tongs or rubber washing gloves to handle the hot potato much easier.
- A note on Russian salad: This is a Turkish style of Olivier salad from Russian cuisine and called Rus Salatasi in Turkey. It is a mixture of diced and boiled potatoes and carrots, sliced dill pickles and boiled peas, yogurt and mayonnaise. Unlike the original Russian olivier salad, It doesn’t contain any meat or eggs.
- To make this kumpir recipe completely vegan, all you have to do is replace the butter and cheese with vegan alternatives.
- If you aren’t a big fan of potatoes, you can try using sweet potatoes or orange potatoes instead. They are a healthier substitute and can be used in exactly the same way.
NUTRITION
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
ADDITIONAL INFO
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Nile says
OMG I ate these potatoes in Istanbul and have been looking for a recipe since then. They turned out so good! I topped mine with chorizo, cheddar and some ketchup. YUM!