Jacket potatoes cooked in salt (organic?)

Jacket potatoes are potatoes that have been cooked with the skin on and are therefore not raw. Available in organic quality, they make a nutritious side dish for many dishes.

Use in the kitchen

What are jacket potatoes? To make jacket potatoes, you usually use waxy potatoes with white or cream-colored flesh and boil them in salt water with the skin on. Are jacket potatoes and boiled potatoes the same thing? To make boiled potatoes, you peel the potatoes before cooking or boiling them. If you leave the skin on, fewer nutrients and flavors get into the cooking water, which makes the potatoes much more nutritious than peeled ones. Do you have to salt jacket potatoes? You can boil jacket potatoes with or without salt. Boiling in salt water, however, has the advantage that the potassium contained in the potato stays in the potato and does not pass into the water. Steaming with water vapor is the gentlest method of cooking.

Potatoes are divided into different cooking types based on their cooking behavior. A different cooking type is chosen depending on the intended use. The biggest difference is the starch content. This depends on the variety, weather and ripeness and often varies. The values are different depending on the source - so they are given here as approximate:

• Waxy potatoes have a rather moist flesh and are usually long or oval in shape. They are harvested earlier than floury potatoes. The starch content is rather low at around 11-13%, which means that the skin remains intact during the cooking process and does not burst. Waxy potatoes include Allians, Belana, Goldmarie or Princess. These varieties are ideal for preparing potato salad, gratin, fried potatoes or jacket potatoes. ¹
• Most waxy potatoes, on the other hand, have a starch content of around (13-15%) and are therefore average. They are suitable for many recipes. Well-known varieties include Gala, Marabel, Milva or Toscana. These tubers can be used to make mashed potatoes, fried potatoes, jacket potatoes or baked potatoes. ¹
• Floury potatoes almost fall apart after cooking and have the highest starch content: between 14 and 16%. Popular varieties include Adretta, Gunda, Lilly and Russet. ² They can be used to make dishes such as mashed potatoes, dumplings and gnocchi. They are also suitable for soups and stews. ¹

Jacket potatoes are used for other dishes such as potato salad, rösti, mashed potatoes, potato dumplings and fried potatoes. They are often used as a side dish, e.g. with asparagus and a vegan hollandaise sauce. Depending on the dish used, other spices are suitable to better bring out the flavor of the potato. Jacket potatoes are often served with a fresh quark sauce: in addition to salt andpepper, fresh chives, parsley, garlic and finely chopped onions can also be used. In a sweet version, potatoes harmonize with the flavor of the vanilla pod.

Your own preparation

For 500 g of boiled potatoes you need 500 g of waxy potatoes and 1 teaspoon of salt. The potatoes should preferably all be about the same size so that they cook at the same time. It is best to wash and clean the potatoes before cooking with a vegetable brush. Then put the potatoes in a large pot, fill it halfway with water and add the salt. Cook the potatoes for around 30 minutes (cooking time varies depending on the size of the tubers). To test whether they are done, pierce a potato with a fork; if you feel no resistance, the potatoes are cooked. Alternatively, use a pressure cooker.

Vegan recipe for jacket potatoes with herb curd

Ingredients (for 4 people): 1 kg potatoes (waxy; organic), 250 g soy curd, 1 bunch of fresh herbs (e.g. parsley, chives, dill), 1 onion, 1 clove of garlic, 1 tbsp rapeseed oil (refined), salt,pepper.

Preparation: Wash the potatoes thoroughly and cook in a pot covered with salted water for about 20-25 minutes. In the meantime, finely chop the onion and garlic and sauté in a little rapeseed oil. Wash the herbs, shake dry and chop finely. Mix the soy curd with the onion, garlic, herbs, salt and pepper. Drain the potatoes and serve with vegan herb curd. A colorful salad or oven-baked vegetables also go well with this.

Vegan recipe for rösti made from jacket potatoes

Ingredients (for 4 people): 600 g potatoes (waxy; organic), salt,pepper, nutmeg, 2 tbsp rapeseed oil (refined).

Preparation: Cook 600 g of waxy potatoes in their skins in boiling salted water for about 15 minutes until not completely soft. Drain and allow to cool well. Peel and grate the potatoes. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Heat 2 tablespoons of rapeseed oil in a pan. Form the potatoes into flatbreads and fry for about 5 minutes on each side until crispy. Serve the vegan rösti immediately.

Vegan recipes with jacket potatoes can be found under the note: " Recipes that have the most of this ingredient ".

Purchasing - Storage

You cannot usually buy jacket potatoes ready-made. However, waxy potatoes, which are used to make jacket potatoes, are available all year round from major retailers such as Coop, Migros, Denner, Volg, Spar, Aldi, Lidl, Rewe, Edeka, Hofer, Billa or in organic supermarkets such as Denn's Biomarkt and Alnatura. Look for the relevant label on the packaging. Major retailers often also offer the tubers in organic quality.

The availability of waxy potatoes varies depending on the size of the store, catchment area, etc. You can find our recorded food prices for the DA-CH countries above under the ingredient image - and by clicking you can see their development at various suppliers.

Storage tips:

The best way to keep boiled potatoes is to cover them with a cloth and keep them dry in the fridge for 3 to 4 days. Alternatively, you can freeze the cooked potatoes and defrost them again when needed.

Ingredients - Nutritional values - Calories

100 g of boiled potatoes in salt provide 87 kcal of energy, 0.1 g of fat, 20 g of carbohydrates and 1.9 g of protein. Due to the method of preparation, it contains 240 mg of sodium, which makes up 30% of the daily requirement. ³

Vitamin B₆ (pyridoxine) is present at 0.3 mg/100g (21% of the daily requirement). Baked falafel, for example, has similarly high amounts (0.33 mg/100g). Dried herbs such as rosemary and dill (both 1.7 mg/100g) contain particularly high levels of vitamin B₆, although only small amounts of these are consumed. ³

Do boiled potatoes contain potassium? The potassium content is 379 mg/100g. This covers 19% of the daily requirement. Cooked white beans (391 mg/100g) or cooked lentils (369 mg/100g) have similar values. Good sources of potassium are pulses and nuts, such as almonds (733 mg/100g) orchickpeas (718 mg/100g). ³

100 g of boiled potatoes contain 13 mg of vitamin C. Vitamin C is sensitive to heat and also dissolves in water, which means that cooked ingredients often have less vitamin C than raw ingredients (see raw potatoes ; 20 mg/100g). Raw green chili peppers (242 mg/100g) and raw yellow bell peppers (184 mg/100g) contain particularly high levels of the vitamin. ³

Potatoes are rich in secondary plant compounds such as phenols, flavonoids, polyamines and carotenoids. Various factors such as genotype, agronomic factors, post-harvest storage, cooking methods and processing conditions influence the concentration and stability of these compounds. ⁴

You can find all the ingredients of jacket potatoes, the coverage of the daily requirement and comparison values with other ingredients in our nutrient tables. In the article Nutrients explained you will get a detailed insight into the topic.

Effects on health

Are jacket potatoes healthy? How potatoes affect human health depends on how they are prepared. Jacket potatoes with skins on (boiled in water or steamed) have a much better nutritional profile than, for example, fried potatoes or French fries. Raw potatoes have a high glycemic index (GI), but this can be lowered by different preparation methods, such as boiling or baking. Adding protein and fat to a meal also lowers the glycemic index of potatoes. ⁵

Eating jacket potatoes also leads to a greater subjective feeling of satiety than French fries, ⁶ which can have a positive effect on appetite control and weight loss. This is due to the protease inhibitor II contained in potatoes, which has a prolonging effect on the satiety hormone cholecystokinin. ⁷ In one study, 44 healthy women took protease inhibitor II as a dietary supplement, which led to a significantly lower feeling of hunger, the desire to eat something else and a significantly higher feeling of satiety after eating a meal. ⁸

Another health benefit is the starch it contains. This consists of the two polysaccharides (complex sugars) amylose and amylopectin. ⁹ The so-called resistant starch (RS) is particularly interesting for human health. It is produced in larger quantities when cooked potatoes cool down. ¹⁰ When they cool down, the amylose retrogrades. This process causes the starch to crystallize and is therefore more resistant to digestive enzymes. This in turn means that cooled potatoes have a lower GI than warm cooked potatoes. ¹¹ The human body cannot break down resistant starch, which is why it works in a similar way to fiber. It has prebiotic, hypocholesterolemic and hypoglycemic properties, acts as a laxative and reduces the risk of ulcerative colitis (chronic inflammation of the colon) and colon cancer. ¹² The content of resistant starch varies with the preparation method. Baked potatoes have a higher RS content than boiled potatoes and chilled potatoes have a higher RS content than warm or reheated potatoes. ¹³

In addition, the biological value of potato protein is considered to be high. It is characterized by relatively balanced amino acid concentrations and a higher content of essential amino acids compared to other plant proteins. Potatoes are considered the best plant source of lysine, which is often lacking in vegetables and grains. In general, the protein content in cooked potatoes is maintained or even increased. ⁵

Secondary plant substances

Although potatoes contain secondary plant substances, their nutritional added value lies primarily in the starch and biologically valuable protein they contain.

The content of phenols, carotenoids and anthocyanins is relatively low compared to other fruits and vegetables. Studies also disagree on how preparation methods affect the content of secondary plant substances. Both increases and decreases have been observed compared to the raw form. ⁵

Dangers - Intolerances - Side effects

The glycoalkaolides α-solanine and α-chaconine contained in potatoes can lead to symptoms of poisoning after consuming large quantities. In 2018, the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment ( BfR) therefore recommended a maximum intake of 0.5 mg glycoalkaloids per kg body weight. Due to a case of poisoning in 2015, the BfR also called for the current glycoalkaloid content in potatoes to be reduced from 200 mg to 100 mg per kg fresh weight. Correct storage and cutting out green areas significantly reduces the glycoalkaloid content. ¹⁴

Ecological footprint - animal welfare

The CO ₂ footprint is primarily used to assess the climate friendliness of a food. This depends on various factors. The type of agricultural production (conventional vs. organic), seasonal, regional or domestic production or import by truck, ship or plane, different types of packaging and whether the goods are fresh or frozen all play a decisive role. ¹⁵

1 kg of fresh potatoes (organic and conventional), regardless of their starch content, has a CO ₂ footprint of between 0.2 and 0.39 kg CO ₂ eq/kg. ^15,16 The amount of water required to produce 1 kg of potatoes is 287 litres. ¹⁷

For detailed explanations of various sustainability indicators (such as ecological footprint, _CO2 footprint, water footprint), see our article: What does the ecological footprint mean?.

Worldwide occurrence - cultivation

Potatoes originally come from the area of what is now southern Peru, from where they were introduced to Europe in the 16th century and made known worldwide. After wheat, rice and corn, they are now the fourth most used food crop. ¹⁸

In 2022, China, India, Ukraine, Russia, the USA, Germany, Bangladesh, France, Pakistan and the Netherlands were among the world's top 10 potato producing countries. ¹⁹

Information on cultivation and harvesting as well as growing in your own garden can be found under the ingredient: Potato, pulp and peel, raw (organic).

Wildly found

Wild potato species are now found primarily in America. There are currently 151 species of wild potatoes known. From the southwest of the United States to the south of Chile. Most of them are native to Peru and Bolivia and grow in different soils and climates. From the dry desert along the Peruvian coast to the valleys of the Andes at altitudes of up to 4200 m above sea level. ²⁰

Further information

Potatoes ( Solanum tuberosum) belong to the nightshade family (Solanaceae) and are starchy foods like cassava ( Manihot esculenta), sweet potato ( Ipomoea batatas), yam ( Dioscorea) and Jerusalem artichoke ( Helianthus tuberosus), which are not related to each other. You can find further information, for example, in the ingredient description of Potato, pulp and peel, raw (organic).

Alternative names

: In Germany, jacket potatoes are also called Quellmänner, Quellkartoffeln, Quellesjer, Gequellde or Ganze Abern. In Austria they are called boiled potatoes and in Switzerland and southern Germany they are called Gschwellti. In English they are called jacket potatoes or boiled potatoes.