Twitter Swears By Padma Lakshmi's Creative Potato Hack
Social media has become the nexus for a treasure trove of cooking tips and tricks. From the worst food trends we ever saw on TikTok to finding the best charcuterie board accounts on Instagram, celebrity chefs and home cooks alike have made these platforms into destinations where culinary knowledge can be exchanged. In fact, "Top Chef" host Padma Lakshmi took to Twitter to reminisce about her creative potato hack, and the Twitterverse not only agreed with the cookbook author's method of cooking this tuber — they swore by it.
Potatoes have been around for over 8,000 years (per BBC) and since their beginnings in the Andes Mountains, they've become a household staple grown and eaten almost everywhere in the world. According to Statista, people in the United States love potatoes, and the average person ate 30.6 pounds of them in 2020. They eat them boiled, fried, mashed, scalloped, and add this tuber to a variety of delicious dishes to the tune of 30.6 pounds per person in 2020. Potatoes are both filling and satisfying which is why when it comes to cooking up one quickly, Lakshmi turns to the microwave to do the job and Twitter is definitely on board with this cooking method.
Cook it in the microwave
A Padma Lakshmi fan recently shared on Twitter that they enjoyed a microwaved potato inspired by the celebrity chef. The fan wrote, "Just had a microwaved yellow potato (we don't have any russets) in my tiny window between the gym and kid pick up based solely on @PadmaLakshmi's frequent discussion about how amazing microwaved potatoes are. She's not wrong guys." Lakshmi responded to the foodie by sharing the tweet and adding, "Ah, the microwave baked potato. Low effort. Supremely satiating. Delicious!" The perfect combo, in our humble opinion.
Naturally, it sparked a conversation and another tweeter humorously asked Lakshmi, "Do you also do the stab it with a fork prior to heating like you're the murderous spouse in an Agatha Christie Story?" The creator and host of "Taste the Nation" was happy to play along and quipped, "Padma in the kitchen with a paring knife, (Yes, take a sharp knife and pierce the potato all over before nuking in the microwave)." Still another fan reminded the community not to forget the "room temperature butter" to make it even better.
We know what you may be thinking: Gordon Ramsay can't stand microwaves and would likely not support this hack. Well, Ramsay probably isn't going to be strolling into your kitchen to eat, so break out your potatoes and bask in the convenience of the appliance as you enjoy Lakshmi's preferred potato cooking method.