Every year on St. Patrick’s Day, my family serves corned beef. “It’s the proper Irish American thing to do” (according to my family). I called my grandpa, and the first thing he said after Happy St. Patrick’s day was, “I’m making Irish beef” aka corned beef. It’s almost unforgivable to not prepare it. I also love corned beef with a passion and look forward to it each year, so it was an easy tradition for me to keep going.

This year, however, I wanted it to be a bit different. Despite all the times I’ve had corned beef, I’ve never had colcannon. Colcannon is a traditional Irish dish made of potatoes and kale or cabbage. It looked creamy, buttery, and all potatoey goodness, not to mention kale has become my new culinary obsession–how could I not try it? Also… I may have already made corned beef earlier this week ;p

The dish did not disappoint. I played around with it, mixing from two family cookbooks and substituting kale for cabbage. Colcannon made me a very happy person. It was everything I imagined it to be and I’m angry with myself for taking so long to make it. I’m going to try it with cabbage next time and see if I prefer that or kale. Kale just has a great texture to it that really adds extra umph to the dish. The cabbage may win me over though…we’ll see!

This might be a new tradition of serving it along side the corned beef, or better yet, I’ll just have a week of classic Irish food. I might just have to make shepherd’s pie sometime this week…

What other classic Irish dishes do you like to make? Does your family celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with food traditions? Let me know!

Colcannon

Print Recipe

Description

A traditional Irish dish of potatoes and kale.

Ingredients

2 lbs. Potatoes, cut into fours for easy cooking
1 bunch of Kale (about 5 stalks), chopped into thin slices
1/2 c Heavy Cream
1 stick Butter, cut into five pieces
5 Green Onions, chopped
Salt and Pepper to taste

Instructions

In a large pot filled with water, place the potatoes in the pot and cook until tender.
While potatoes are cooking, sauté kale until it softens a bit and the leaves begin to wilt.
Turn off heat and add green onions to kale.
Once the potatoes are ready, drain water and return the pot to the stove.
Add butter and mash the potatoes.
Add heavy cream.
Add the greens into the potatoes and mix well.
Salt and pepper to your liking.