Colcannon Recipe Cabbage And Potatoes

Combining the flavors of sweet cabbage, fried onion, and creamy mashed potatoes create a traditional Irish dish that the whole family will love.

This dish makes a great side dish served with Corned Beef or perfectly glazed honey ham.

When we think of cabbage recipes we frequently think of cabbage rolls, coleslaw or even just simple fried cabbage with bacon! Colcannon is easy and delicious, it’s great any time of year!

What Is Colcannon?

Cabbage and mashed potatoes! This recipe comes from Ireland and it’s a super cozy. Cabbage is an inexpensive ingredient and adds such a nice sweetness to almost any dish from haluski (cabbage and noodles) to soups and stews!

Colcannon is a traditional Irish dish consisting of cabbage and onion (or leeks) fried until tender and gently folded into rich and creamy mashed potatoes (I add a little bit of bacon too).

This can be made with kale in place of cabbage but I personally prefer the softer sweeter flavor of cabbage. Colcannon is traditionally topped with melted butter (and we all know that mashed potatoes and butter are a match made in heaven).

Ingredients

POTATOES Just like when making mashed potatoes, use a good starchy baking potato. Our first choices are Russet potatoes or Yukon gold! Mash them with lots of butter, light or heavy cream.

While it’s not traditional, feel free to stir in your own favorites from sour cream to cream cheese. You can also make colcannon with leftover mashed potatoes!

CABBAGE Fried cabbage becomes tender and sweet. We use regular green cabbage in this recipe but you can use curly kale (about 1lb) or savoy cabbage in place of green cabbage if you’d like.

ONION Buttery fried onions seem to make almost any dish better! I use a white onion if it’s what I have on hand but leeks make this dish extra special. Leeks are mildly flavored and look like extra large green onions. You can find info about preparing leeks here. Any type of onions work in this colcannon recipe from green onions to white. Stir in a couple of minced garlic cloves if you’d like!

BUTTER & BACON Could anything be better?! I love the flavor bacon adds so if I have it on hand, I add it. I’ve made this many times with just butter and it’s equally delicious.

How To Make Colcannon

To make homemade colcannon:

Cook the potatoes in boiling salted water until fork-tender and drain well. Meanwhile, crisp bacon if using (it’s optional).
Soften onion or leeks and cabbage in the bacon drippings until tender per the recipe below.
Mash the potatoes with cream and butter. Taste and season with salt and black pepper. Fold in the cabbage and onion mixture.

Top this tasty dish with lots of butter, a sprinkle of parsley and/or crisp bacon. Heavenly.

What To Do With Leftover Colcannon

Colcannon will keep up to 3 days in the fridge in a container or covered. To reheat it, place it on the stovetop with a little cream to keep the consistency of the mashed potatoes.

If you have more leftovers use it to top a shepherd’s pie or turn it into crispy potato patties.

More Irish Favorites

Lamb Stew (Irish Stew)
Irish Soda Bread
Irish Pub Style Potato Nachos
Reuben Sandwich Sliders
Corned Beef and Cabbage Slow Cooker Recipe (Video)
Reuben Sliders

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