Bacon & Sprout Colcannon (Gluten & Dairy Free)
Have you ever heard of colcannon? I first came across the old Irish recipe a few years ago, and loved how beautifully simple it was. Rich creamy mashed potatoes with buttery cabbage – comfort food at its best. Not exactly a varied, balanced meal in and of itself, but a pretty great side dish or starting point.
Over the years I have tweaked the recipe, playing with how much cream and butter is really needed, whether you can replace the white potatoes with white vegetables (you can – celeriac works amazingly for a lower carb or higher veg version), and using different greens (wilted kale is especially lovely in this).
This is my very favourite version. Still simple (I wanted to stick with the simplicity that is at the heart of this dish), but more of a meal, with plenty of added veg, and some just-as-yummy dairy free options thrown in for good measure. And it makes the most of my preferred way of making Brussels sprouts – the only way my kids will eat them – by frying them in butter and/or olive oil with bacon and onions until caramelised, making them surprisingly sweet and subtle in flavour, and far less likely to cause the nasty side effects they are so associated with.
This is still comfort food, but in its best form. It is comforting and filling, but also nutritious and vegetable-heavy. White potatoes may be classed as carbs rather than vegetables, and may be less nutritious overall than some other root veg in some respects, but they are rich in potassium, B vitamins and vitamin C, and definitely a good natural unrefined carb choice for your plate. To get the fullness of the nutrients, I rarely peel them, but I make an exception for colcannon – it’s so mash-heavy that it isn’t quite the same without peeling. Do feel free to leave the skins on yours if you are happy to, though!
And paired with the sky-high nutritional content of Brussels sprouts, which contain your entire recommended daily intake of vitamin K in one portion (as well as much of your folate and vitamin C), this meal is a nutritional feast, particularly for any pregnant mums out there who need vitamin K and folate more than ever.
I cannot promise you your kids will eat Brussels sprouts this way, but I have found it to be the best way to get them into my kids. I buy them fresh on a stick which they find highly amusing, and get them to help me pull them off and wash them, then I finely sliced them so they wilt and caramelise nicely, but also so they mix in well with the mash and often get half eaten before they are fully noticed. 😉
And if your family are still in the anti-sprout camp? Try this with a bag of kale, finely sliced and fried like the sprouts. It contains less folate, but twice as much vitamin K as the sprouts, and may be more palatable (although also more noticeable as a darker green) for some kids. Again, get them helping you washing it, stripping the kale leaves off the stalks and tearing it for you to slice. Kale is super easy to grow – hardy enough to get a year-round crop in your garden or a pot in your house or on your windowsill, very generous in the amount it grows for you, and sturdy enough to survive kids growing it. My son hated the stuff until he randomly chose to grow it (with no encouragement) last year. It is still growing in our veg box, and he waters it and carefully gets some scissors and collects leaves (with supervision) regularly, tasting it fresh off the plant when he wants to, or helping me harvest and wash it for salads or meals. He now eats it without question, and even claims he enjoys it. It’s amazing what exposure to vegetables and involvement in bringing them to the table gets them to do!
The best kind of comfort food - filling and warming but also nutritious and veg-heavy. Easy to adapt, with dairy free options included. Perfect for a cheap and simple cold day dinner. Sugar and gluten free.
- 1 kg (2 lbs) potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped (a lovely variation is half potatoes-half celeriac)
- 1 400g (14oz) tin cooked cannellini beans, drained
- 60 g (1/4 cup) plain full-fat yogurt (use coconut yogurt for dairy free)
- 2 tablespoons + 2 tablespoons olive oil
- salt & pepper
- 1 tablespoon mixed herbs or 1/2 tablespoon dried rosemary
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter (or use more olive oil for dairy free)
- 1 200g (1/2 lb) pack bacon lardons or 6 rashers of back bacon, roughly chopped
- 1 onion, finely diced
- 500 g (1 lb) fresh Brussels sprouts, finely sliced*
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Make the mash: boil the potatoes until soft (about 15-20 minutes), then drain and mash. Add in the beans, yogurt and 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, and mix until you have soft, fluffy mash. Season generously with salt & pepper and mixed herbs.
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While the potatoes are cooking, fry the bacon lardons in a drizzle of olive oil until cooked through and just starting to crisp up. Set aside and add the butter and 2 tablespoons of olive oil to the pan, along with the onions. Set over low-medium heat and stir regularly until the onions are softened and starting to brown. Add in the sprouts and cook gently until everything is soft and slightly golden. Add the bacon back in and heat through for a minute, then add to the mash and mix through well. Serve hot.
*see text above for alternatives if you guys are not sprouts fans!
