Spud Lite

Often it’s not the potato itself but what’s put on the potato that influences just how nutritious it is. With this in mind, a number of restaurants offer consumers low-calorie alternatives like the salad spuds mentioned above. Such health-conscious options lower the calorie count, cholesterol, and sodium levels of a stuffed potato.

Jason’s Deli offers reduced portions of all of its potatoes. “We are known for our big potatoes, but we also know that some people don’t always want a larger portion,” Tillman says. “That’s why we also offer half-portions so that customers can indulge in the comfort food they love with a little less guilt.”

Tillman adds that customers also have the option of customizing their baked potatoes with any of the items found on their build-your-own menu, which includes healthful options such as steamed veggies, organic field greens and spinach, basil pesto, and low-fat balsamic vinaigrette.

“The Plain Jane is my favorite,” Tillman says. “You can substitute items and build your own potato.”

McAlister’s Deli has also made sure to provide health-conscious alternatives on its Giant Spuds menu. The chain has a Veggie Spud, topped with red onions, bell peppers, diced tomatoes, black olives, green onions, and mozzarella with a side of salsa. There is also a menu option called JustASpud, which comes with light sour cream and green onions on the side. Customers come up with their own combinations. “We are trying to use our products in a smart manner,” Brechtel says, “so we encourage customization.”

What’s Next

As consumers continue to satisfy their yearn for tasty spuds, restaurants are turning an R&D eye toward the next big thing. Souplantation is launching its first-ever Potato Festival in February 2009, in which the menu will highlight numerous potato dishes, including three potato soups, a potato foccacia pizza, a broccoli cheese potato topper, and a pineapple and marshmallow-topped sweet potato.

“We did a survey asking several thousand of our customers to rank the types of items they’d like to see more of on our menus and potatoes ranked right up there,” Scharff says. “So based on consumer requests we decided to add this new promotion.”

Scharff adds that the restaurant chain now offers a sweet potato topped with a maple cream sauce that is popular with consumers. “Toppings like the pineapple-marshmallow and the maple cream can really transform a sweet potato,” she says.

Souplantation has also expanded its sweet potato offerings to include items such as sweet potato soup and golden yam bisque.

Totally Baked restaurant in New York City offers a Sweet Spa Potato, topped with roasted sweet potato cottage cheese, maple syrup, crunchy pralines, and banana caramel, as well as a Sweet Potato Pie Potato, featuring spiced pecans, marshmallows, nutmeg, and maple syrup drizzles.

A quick Google search yields a number of unusual toppings being used by at-home cooks that might soon appear at a restaurant menu near you: pizza sauce and mozzarella; Greek yogurt; Indian-inspired ingredients such as masalas and curries; lemon juice and black pepper; buffalo wing sauce and ranch dressing; and caponata.

The Idaho Potato Commission also makes a number of suggestions for baked potato toppings on its Web site. They include topping ideas such as eggplant parmigiana, fresh asparagus, king crab and gouda, lobster, broccoli and shrimp, curried shrimp, sausage, and mushrooms.

That’s the beauty of the potato. It leaves plenty of room for interpretation. As Joan Scharff of Souplantation says, “They are the canvas. With some creativity, you can do as you like.”