Baked Potatoes with Minced Meat

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and let it heat up. Grate the dry onions and garlic and place them into a deep mixing bowl.

Add the ground meat, egg, breadcrumbs, warm water, salt, cumin, and black pepper to the grated onion and garlic. Knead well for approximately 5-7 minutes until all ingredients are completely integrated and reach a homogeneous, soft meatball mixture consistency.

Transfer the prepared ground meat mixture to a medium-sized baking tray or a baking dish lightly greased. Spread it evenly by pressing down gently to achieve a uniform thickness.

Peel the potatoes and slice them into rings. Slice the tomatoes in a similar manner into half-moons or rings. Arrange the sliced potatoes and tomatoes in an orderly row over the ground meat mixture, placing them consecutively and slightly overlapping.

To prepare the sauce, combine the tomato paste, olive oil, hot water, and dried thyme in a separate bowl. Add 1/2 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar, which is our Robo Şef's recommendation, to the sauce mixture at this stage and whisk smoothly until the paste is completely dissolved. The vinegar will break the heaviness of the paste and provide a perfect acidity balance to the sauce.

Pour the prepared vinegar tomato sauce evenly over the ingredients in the baking tray.

Cover the top of the tray first with moistened parchment paper. Bake in the preheated oven as is for approximately 40 minutes. Then, remove the paper and continue to bake for approximately 15-20 minutes more until the tops of the potatoes are lightly browned. Serve by slicing while hot.