I chose twice-baked potatoes for my pairing with “Poker Face” for no other reason than I liked the sound of the name poker potatoes. I do suppose that this recipe also serves as a metaphor for the story within a story format that each episode of the show has.

This vegan recipe makes 4-8 “servings” (depending on how hungry you are or if you eat this as a side instead of a main dish). If you find a vegan bacon that is also gluten-free, this recipe is gluten-free.

Ingredients
4 large russet potatoes
4 slices vegan bacon
0.25 cups vegan milk
0.25 cups vegan cream cheese, softened
0.5 cups vegan sour cream
0.25 teaspoons black pepper
1.25 cups vegan shredded cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons chives (fresh or dried)
optional toppings: more chives, more sour cream, microgreens

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 400°F.

Bake the potatoes in the microwave for 5 minutes (being sure to poke them with a fork for proper ventilation).

While the potatoes are cooking, fry up the vegan bacon and crumble it into tiny pieces. Set aside.

After the potatoes have softened in the microwave, slice each potato in half and scoop out the inside, leaving roughly half an inch of potato in the skin so it can serve as a little bowl or boat.

Drop the scooped parts into a bowl with the cream cheese, sour cream and milk then mash, just like you’re making creamy mashed potatoes. You can replace the cream cheese with vegan butter or margarine, but then the filling won’t be as creamy.

Mix in the bacon, black pepper, chives and 1 cup of the shredded cheese.

Put the scooped-out potatoes on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Fill them all with the bowl mixture.

Top them all with the remaining cheese.

Bake the potatoes in the oven at 400°F for 20 minutes.

You can serve them as is, or we decided to fancy them up with some microgreens we had on hand.

Enjoy with an episode or a season of “Poker Face!”

The Easy Route
You might be able to find some premade vegan mashed potatoes, but you would still have to hollow out some potatoes for the peak twice-baked effect.

Know of a restaurant or brand that makes vegan twice-baked potatoes? Please share those details in the comments.

The Pairing
“Poker Face” is an incredible show that blends aspects of detective procedural shows with pulpy noir and a dash of dark comedy.

Natasha Lyonne stars as Charlie, a woman with the uncanny ability to always be able to tell when someone is lying.

Her particular set of skills gets her in trouble with some Las Vegas gangsters (led by an A+ Adrien Brody), and she flees them to a series of eventful stops in small towns in the Southwest throughout the first season of “Poker Face.”

What I like most about this series is that it seamlessly blends the overarching story of Charlie on the run with mini mysteries that are solved in each episode, in line with many shows in the detective genre.

In this case, though, it gives fertile ground for a star-studded string of supporting players to dazzle us in each episode, from Chloë Sevigny and Charles Melton to Lil Rel Howery and Hong Chau to Judith Light and Tim Meadows.

The show wouldn’t work, though, without Charlie effectively bringing everyone together. Lyonne is absolutely perfect, melding her signature dry wit with a modern detective show’s antics.

It also helps that the show was created by the mystery-loving mind of filmmaker Rian Johnson, known for the “Knives Out” films, “Looper” and his stunning neo noir feature debut, “Brick.”

I have been craving a second season since the moment we finished our binge watch of the first when the show premiered in early 2023. It sounds like we will hopefully have more “Poker Face” some time this year.

If you decide to make twice-baked potatoes and/or watch “Poker Face,” let us know! Tag us in your Instagram posts & stories, threads, TikToks and/or tweets: @veg_out_recipes. We’re also on Bluesky as @vegoutrecipes.bsky.social.