Ingredients (For One)

• 15-20g Unsalted Butter
• 1/2 Leek, Finely Sliced
• 2 Bacon Medallions, Chopped
• 1/2 Red Onion, Finely Chopped
• Spray Oil
• Large Baking Potato, Thinly Sliced
• 60g Reduced/Low Fat Mature Cheese
• Dried Chives (Optional)

Method

1. Melt the butter in an oven friendly frying pan
2. Add in the leek and bacon medallions to sweat them out
3. Remove this mixture and place into a bowl with the red onion
4. Spray some oil onto the pan and cover it with a layer of potatoes
5. place the bacon and leek mixture on top
6. Sprinkle on about 30g (1/2 the) cheese
7. Top with another layer of potatoes and top with the remaining cheese
8. Return to the heat, with a lid on, for about five minutes
9. Cover with baking paper and press the mixture down (I used a large saucepan) before covering with foil
10. Place into the oven for 15 minutes at about 200c (220c will work too)
11. Remove the foil and press it down again before removing the baking paper and returning to the oven for 15 minutes to brown up
12. Turn onto a plate and sprinkle with optional dried chives

Eating And Storage Tips

When I shared this recipe on TikTok somebody suggested that instead of bacon you could use corned beef and I can absolutely imagine that working too. It would add a few extra calories but you could just pop it straight into the bowl, a little mushed up, with the onion and only have to cook those leeks up. If you have leftover ham/gammon if you chop it up fairly small that could also go in here instead of bacon medallions. Or of course just regular bacon works too.

This is one of those dishes that, because of doing the potato so thinly, it has a lot of volume and really makes it feel like you are having a super hearty meal. Despite all that it comes in at just over 500kcal and curbs the hunger for hours.

You could absolutely make either a bigger one of these or a lot of smaller ones to do for more people and add additional vegetables on the side to bulk it up. You could also make this up and divide it into quarters and have one or two of them for your lunch. It works well cold too!

Thinking of reheating it? It’s time to pop the frying pan back out. If you go to do it in the microwave any crispness that it had managed to build up will instantly vanish and those potatoes will become even softer and change the feel of this dish quite a lot. You can probably get away with it if you just want to take the fridge chill off it but remember it has bacon in so you’d only be half heating meat; if you like to live dangerously go ahead!