Colcannon with Kale and a Butter Well
Inspired by techniques from America's Test Kitchen and NYT Cooking.
Potatoes mashed with milk infused by butter-softened kale and spring onions, served with a pool of butter in a well.
Always check the labels of the products you use.
Method
- 1
Boil the potatoes. Put the potatoes and 1 tbsp salt in the saucepan, cover with water by 2.5 cm and bring to the boil. Simmer for 18-22 min, until a knife slides in and out with no resistance.
- 2
Cook the greens. Meanwhile strip the kale leaves from the stems, slice the stems thinly and cut the leaves into 2.5 cm pieces. Melt the 85 g butter in the frying pan over medium heat and cook the stems with 1 tbsp water, 1 tsp salt and the pepper for 6-8 min until soft. Add the leaves and spring onions for 1-2 min until wilted, then pour in the milk, bring to a simmer, take off the heat and cover; the warm milk picks up the flavour of the greens.
- 3
Mash. Drain the potatoes, return them to the pan and stir over low heat for 30 seconds to drive off moisture, which makes a fluffier mash. Strain the hot milk over them, keeping the greens back, and mash to the texture you like. Fold the greens through and taste for salt.
- 4
Make the butter well. Pile the colcannon into a warm bowl, press a deep well into the centre with the back of a spoon and drop in the 30 g butter. Serve as it melts into a golden pool.
Storage
Refrigerate covered up to 3 days. Reheat in a pan with a splash of milk, stirring, or in a covered dish in the oven, until piping hot (74 °C). Cool leftovers in a shallow container and refrigerate within 2 hours (within 1 hour on a day above 32°C).
EU nutrition claims
- Low sugars: 4.4 g sugars per 100 g (limit ≤ 5 g)
- Source of fibre: 1.6 g fibre per 100 kcal (needs ≥ 1.5 g)
Per 100 g of the finished dish, worked out from the nutrition per serving and the lowest likely cooked weight (about 113 g a serving), so the true values are, if anything, lower. Thresholds from the Annex to EU Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006. How we decide
Free sugars
0 g per serving
0 % of the 50 g daily maximum · 0 % of the ideal 25 g
Free sugars under 50 g a day, ideally about 25 g, based on WHO free-sugar guidance (not endorsed by WHO). The share shown is the share of one serving. WHO
Equipment
- large saucepan
- 30 cm frying pan with lid
- fine-mesh sieve
- potato masher
Nutrition per serving (estimated values)
| Per serving | Amount |
|---|---|
| Energy | 306 kcal |
| Protein | 6.4 g |
| Carbohydrate | 31.8 g |
| of which sugars | 5 g |
| of which free sugars | 0 g |
| Fat | 18.2 g |
| of which saturates | 11.1 g |
| Fibre | 4.9 g |
| Salt | 1.84 g |
Protein per 100 kcal
2.1 g High Protein needs ≥ 5 g (20% of energy)
Calculated from USDA FoodData Central ingredient values
