I cook potatoes like this every weekend for simple and delicious recipe

Coming up with inspiration for healthy but delicious and simple meals day after day can be challenging. But one vegetable that is very versatile and can be used in many different ways for a variety of meals is the humble potato.

What's more, potatoes are cheap and it's easy to batch cook with them, getting enough for more than one family meal in a week. And you can add simple kitchen ingredients to make a vibrant, tasty and healthy meal that everyone will love.

Are potatoes healthy?

Believe it or not, this is not a simple answer. Many people do consider potatoes to be healthy and it is uncontroversial to say that they can be part of a healthy and balanced diet.

But because they have a high starchy carbohydrate content, some scientists say you should limit your intake because the starchy carbs turn to sugar quickly during the digestive process, leading to spikes in blood sugar. This can lead in the short term to that familiar blood sugar crash you might recognise after meals and, in the long term, scientists say repeated blood sugar spikes over a long period of time can lead to inflammation and even to chronic disease.

A standard brown-skinned potato (also called a Russet potato and the sort you probably more commonly eat and cooked with) contains lots of nutrients, including vitamins C and B6, potassium, magnesium and sodium. It also contains some fibre.

But many of these nutrients are concentrated in the skin, so if you peel your potatoes before cooking and eating them, you are removing a significant proportion of fibre and other nutrients. Potatoes also contain antioxidants, which studies show can prevent certain types of chronic disease, like heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

This specific recipe idea comes from the , which is run by Emma, who says she "likes to experiment and prepare simple and quick recipes so that the food is easy, tasty and inexpensive". For this recipe she uses potatoes, tuna and eggs as the main base, with lots of other delicious (but simple) ingredients added for flavour.

You will need:

• 3 potatoes
• 1 tin of tuna
• Spring onisons
• 1 egg
• A little Parmesan cheese
• 3 tablespoons flour
• Salt, black pepper
• Olive oil
• 3 tablespoons sour cream
• Dill
• 1 cucumber portion (around half a cucumber will be plenty)
• 2 garlic cloves.

Method

Boil the potatoes until tender then drain off the water and mash them.

Drain the liquid from your tuna and get it as dry as you can using a sieve or colander.

Add the tuna to the potatoes.

Finely chop the spring onions and add them to the potatoes and tuna.

Crack the egg into the mixture, add salt and black pepper.

Finely grate a handful of Parmesan cheese, then add this to the mixture, then give it all a good mix.

Add the flour, combine again.

Lightly flour a surface, roll the potato mixture into balls a little bigger than a golf ball, flatten slightly then coat in the flour.

Add olive oil to a frying pan, then lay the potato cakes in the pan to fry. When golden brown on one side, flip to fry the other side. When golden brown on both sides remove from the pan.

To make the dipping sauce, while the potatoes are frying add the sour cream to a bowl.

Chop the dill and add it to the cream. Grate the cucumber and add, then grate or crush the garlic and add to the mix before combining well. Serve the potato cakes beside the dip and enjoy.