December 23, 2024

At Home with GCH: Irish Colcannon

Irish Soul Food!

Irish Soul Food!

St. Patrick’s Day is this weekend.  Now if you’re like me, your carefree days are behind you and you will not be found in a pub, swilling green beer!  But it is fun to partake in a little luck of the Irish, wear something green, and eat some Irish soul food.  If Corned Beef and Cabbage is more effort than you want to put in, have I got the recipe for you!

Colcannon is classic folk food, meaning it’s what the poor villagers could throw together in a pot to feed a large, hungry family.  This is not a fancy dish, but it’s filling, easy, and incredibly tasty!  If it’s still cold where you live, this will warm your tummy!

Irish Colcannon

Ingredients:

  • 4 slices of bacon, diced
  • 3 large or 4 small potatoes, scrubbed, peeled if desired, and cut into 1-inch chunks
  • 1/2 head green cabbage, thinly sliced
  • 3 tablespoons butter
  • 1/2 to 3/4 cup milk
  • 2 green onions, diced
  • salt and pepper

Directions:

  1. Put bacon in a large pot over high heat.  Cook until crispy, then remove the pan from the heat.
  2. While the bacon is cooking, simmer the potatoes in a little water and cover with a lid.  When you can break the chunks of potato with a fork, add the cabbage and simmer until the potatoes are done, about 3 minutes more.  You want the potatoes to be cooked through but not mushy.
  3. Lift the potatoes and cabbage from the water and add to the pot with the bacon in it.  Yes, leave the grease in the pot!  Over medium-low heat, fold in the butter and milk, stirring to combine and break up the potatoes.  Season with salt and pepper and stir in the green onions.

Now…if you made this recipe, you have half a head of cabbage left over.  May I suggest Roasted Cabbage Wedges?  With a little olive oil, salt, and fennel seed, the cabbage becomes sweet, tender, and delicious!  An unexpected way to eat this nutritious green veggie!

 

Roasted Cabbage Wedges
Roasted Cabbage Wedges

Ingredients:

  • 1 head green cabbage (or half a head)
  • olive oil
  • salt and pepper
  • 1 tablespoon fennel or anise seeds (optional, but I really like it!)
  • 1/2 lemon

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 375*F.  Cut the cabbage in half from top to bottom.  Cut out the core, and cut each half into four wedges.
  2. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.  Arrange cabbage wedges on the sheet and drizzle with olive oil.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and fennel or anise seeds, if using.  Bake for 10 minutes, or until the edges of the leaves take on some color.  With a spatula, flip over the wedges and bake for another ten minutes.  The cabbage wedges should be soft, with crispy edges.  Serve with a squeeze of lemon if desired.

Explore, experiment, enjoy! — Dana


To view even more of Dana’s unique recipes, you can visit her at Frugal Girlmet!



If you would like to contact Dana in regards to this blog, please email her at Dana@girlfriendscoffeehour.com

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About Dana Kim

Dana Kim – Blog Contributor
Dana currently lives in Hollywood, California, with her husband and two children. She is currently learning to cook traditional Korean food, to teach her daughters about their heritage and culture. She loves trying all different kinds of recipes and is happy to share those recipes here!

Comments

  1. Thank you Dana! My hubby will love this!!!!

  2. dana, here’s just one reason i enjoy your blogposts so much: you always have a twist or a tweak or some ingenious addition! so often, i have also made a dish very similar to your recipe but, like i said, you have a special something in yours. i.e., the fennel or anise seed on the roasted cabbage…perfection! thank you! <3

  3. Hey! That’s my colcannon recipe 🙂 or maybe it’s just how one makes colcannon. Either way, delicious!

    • Shelley, you’ve never made me Colcannon! I would be honored to taste yours. Mine is a composite of some recipes I found online, using the ingredients I had on hand, to my own taste. I’ve never had anyone else’s so I don’t know how mine compares – let’s find an old Irish grandma to taste test for veracity! 😉

      • That looks like mine, too 🙂 It makes for great little potato pancakes the next day! (If there’s any leftovers)