Colcannon is Ireland’s take on mashed potatoes with personality. Kale makes a nice green colcannon for St Patrick’s Day, but red chard makes a red and green version for Christmas. Shredded cabbage is best if you want your green-enhanced mashed potatoes to be more discreet. Adapted from Simply Recipes.
Ingredients
- 3 pounds russet or Yukon Gold potatoes
- 6 cups thinly sliced chard leaves, thick stems removed (about 1 bunch – can also use cabbage or kale)
- 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter (2 tablespoons for cooking chard; the rest for mashing potatoes)
- 1 cup milk
- 1/4 cup scallions or chives, minced
- Salt
- Pepper
Directions
- Scrub potatoes well and place whole potatoes in large pot with a tightly-fitting lid. Add water to a level about 1/3 up the potatoes. Bring to a boil, cover pot, then reduce heat to low. Cook 25-35 minutes, depending on size of potatoes, until potatoes poked with a fork easily pierce through.
- While potatoes are cooking, melt two tablespoons butter in a pan over medium heat. Add chard and cook briefly until wilted. Remove from heat and season with salt and pepper.
- Heat milk with scallions on stovetop or microwave.
- Plunge cooked potatoes into cold/ice water for a few seconds, then pull peel off and return hot potatoes to pot.
- Add remaining butter to potatoes and mash with potato masher or fork, seasoning with salt and pepper to taste.
- Add cooked chard and milk, mixing together and adjusting seasonings as necessary. Serve hot.
Serves 6-8.
Notes
- You don’t have to use this method for cooking potatoes – peel, cut and boil works fine too. Cooking potatoes in their skins keeps a little more flavor and nutrition, and it saves you the trouble of peeling the raw potatoes. Watch this video for a demonstration of a quick method for peeling hot potatoes.
- Cut butter in half if you like, though you may need to add a bit more milk. I’m indulging here for Christmas.
Here’s a link back to the post and pictures.
