Champ with vegan bacon

 

As it is St. Patrick’s Day today, it inspired me to make a little Irish style dish yesterday. In the end it wasn’t too Irish, as my leek addition sent it maybe on the other side of the Irish sea to Wales. Anyway I tried to make champ, which is a traditional Irish dish, potato mash with scallions. I also added buttered leeks, onion, garlic and Cheddar to the mash.

I made my own vegan bacon to go with it. I will post the bacon recipe once I have experimented with it a few times more, but it was quite excellent. On the side I served fried vegan Bratwurst and kale, beetroot and cabbage slaw. It was a nice dinner.

 

So I guess none of us are really celebrating St. Paddy’s this year, but are you making some special green food or drinks to mark the day? In any case, have a nice day!

Your VegHog

 

Colcannon casserole

It's St. Patrick's Day tomorrow, so I wanted to share an Irish inspired green dish with you. Perhaps you would also like to make it tomorrow, if it sounds tempting. For me it was the main on the plate, but this can also be made as a side dish.

I made Irish Colcannon with a twist. First of all I used kale as the brassica and then I made a casserole in the oven of the whole thing. I also used a lot of lovely leeks and Cheddar in this dish. I served the casserole with lambs lettuce and homemade kale crisps on the side. Those crispy kale crisps were a nice side with the soft and comforting casserole. I was also glad to find such fresh lambs lettuce for a change. It was a very wholesome dish.

Colcannon casserole

Ingredients

850 g potatoes

2 leeks

2 onions

3 garlic cloves

2 tbsp vegetable oil

4 stalks kale

1 cup dry cider

Salt to taste

Ground black pepper to taste

150 g grated Cheddar

3 tbsp butter

Method

Peel and cook the potatoes, and then mash them. Add some butter and salt to the mash.

Slice the leeks, chop the onions and garlic and cook them in oil until they are soft.

Add the cider, salt and pepper to the mix.

Chop the kale coarsely and remove all the hard bits. Add the kale to the pan and let simmer for a while.

Once you are happy with the leek and kale mix flavour, stir it in to the potato mash. Also stir in the butter and Cheddar.

Place the mix in an oven dish. Here is only a small ramekin depicted, but you can also make this in one large casserole dish.

Bake it in the oven at 200 C for about 15 minutes and enjoy! 

I'm sharing this recipe with this month's Eat Your Greens, a vegan and vegetarian cooking challenge created and hosted by Shaheen from Allotment 2 Kitchen, and co-hosted by me every other month.

Have a nice weekend and St. Paddy's Day, if you're celebrating!

Your VegHog

Irish Colcannon

As St. Patrick's Day is approaching, I thought I'd cook something Irish and ideally green. After a while of browsing vegetarian, or potentially vegetarian, Irish recipes I found Colcannon (Irish: cál ceannann "white-headed cabbage"). However I didn't use cabbage for this recipe, but thought that kale would nicely update the dish into a more modern version. Also the cabbages at my local shop were so white that no green would've been to be seen. This organic kale was just perfect for the purpose. After having read a few traditional Colcannon recipes, I decided my ingredients and started cooking.

I once spent St. Patrick's Day in Dublin, but missed the parade, as I found a nice pub quite early on the day with my friend. We could see some of the parade on television in the pub (!) when it was just a few metres away outside... and then when we decided to leave the pub, the parade had passed our point and only piles of rubbish were left on the streets. Oh well, it was a fun experience nevertheless. Needless to say that we then continued to another pub. I still like to tell the story, which is possibly still a bit funnier than actually having watched the parade. And now after this interlude, to the cooking of the dish.

Ingredients

1 kg potatoes

1 onion

2 garlic cloves

3 leeks

180 g kale

50 g butter

100 ml dry cider

150 g mature cheddar

Salt and pepper to taste

On the side: 6 Cumberland veggie sausages + olive oil for frying + salad

Method

Peel the potatoes, boil them until soft and then mash. Chop the onion and garlic finely and cut the leeks into thin slices.

Start cooking the onion, garlic and leeks in butter until they are soft. Then add the kale and cook until it's wilted a little. Add the cider and let it mostly evaporate. Then also add the grated cheddar and season with salt and pepper. Combine the mash with the leek and kale mix and serve.

If you also want to serve veggie sausages on the side, fry them in olive oil until browned. Also prepare any side salad that you want to serve with the dish. I chose to serve just mixed salad leaves on the side.

In all its greenness I also want to submit this dish to this month's Eat Your Greens challenge. This is a vegetarian cooking challenge for dishes using green vegetables by Shaheen from A2K - A Seasonal Veg Table. 

Enjoy the dish and happy St. Patrick's Day next week!

Your VegHog