How to cook potatoes with the microwave in only 10 minutes – Backpacker tips

Boiling potatoes made fast and easy

Potatoes are healthy, contain a lot of fibre and vitamins and take an eternity to cook. Especially on a gas cooker you have an enormously high consumption of gas. Even on a normal stove potato have to cook for half an hour. We will show you how to cook the popular potatoes quickly and thus save energy! Honestly, we didn't eat (and buy) potatoes during our trip, because the preparation on our gas cooker was simply no fun. However, if you have a microwave at your disposal, it is much easier and quicker.

Have fun and enjoy.

What you need

• Potatoes
• one knife
• Salt

Either

• a plastic bag (freezer bag or other heat-resistant material)
• and a microwave

Or

• a pot/pan with water
• and a stove/gas cooker

Here's how it goes

With the microwave

Wash the potatoes and quarter them (size approx. 4x4x4cm). Put the potato pieces into a plastic bag (freezer bag or other heat-resistant material!), poke a few holes in the top of the bag (to equalize the pressure) and add some salt. Other spices also work, potatoes only take on flavour during the cooking process.

Close the bag (with a clip, zipper or knot) and put the bag in the microwave for about 10 minutes (the wattage depends on the microwave, full strength to 100% is ok; the time depends on the wattage and the size and amount of potatoes). When the time is up, you can prick a potato with a knife to check if it is cooked. If the knife can be pulled out easily and the potato feels soft, it is cooked.

With the gas cooker

As a backpacker, you usually don't have a microwave at your disposal, so here is an alternative tip for the gas cooker.

If you want to cook the potatoes in salted water in a pot, cut them into smaller pieces (approx. 4x4x4cm). This way the pieces cook much faster. Alternatively, you can also cut the potatoes into thin slices and fry them in the pan. If you add some water or other liquid like tomato sauce, the potato slices will also cook faster.

Tips, questions or comments

Do you have another good tip on how to cook potatoes? Then we look forward to your comment here under the blog post. Enjoy your meal and have a good trip.

Disclaimer

IMPORTANT!!! When choosing a bag, please make sure that it is heat resistant. We have already witnessed that others have ruined a microwave with this method.