Vegan Colcannon variation (Irish mashed potatoes with cabbage)

I don’t know if I’ve shared this before, but having multiple food leftovers that I need to use before they spoil always sparks my culinary creativity. The challenge is:

How can I build a dish that includes all these ingredients?

This is exactly how I came up with this recipe. I had some raw cabbage, cooked butter beans and gold potatoes that needed intervention, and my goal was to build a full meal with it. A quick internet search suggested mashed potatoes with cabbage, with seems to be a traditional Irish dish called Colcannon. This dish includes dairy, and it cannot be considered complete as it lacks enough good quality protein. And I thought: How can I make this better?

The answer: this recipe. Besides the cabbage and potatoes, both full of goodness like vitamin C and K, folate, fiber, and protective phytonutrients, it includes:

• mashed white beans: not only increases creaminess without butter or oils, but also fiber and protein content
• plant-based milk: helps achieve the right consistency and adds calcium
• nutritional yeast: adds even more protein and vitamin B12, and a cheese flavor, without the sodium and fat of dairy cheese
• flax seeds: increase the omega-3 content, fiber and protective lignans
• turmeric and black pepper: boost the inflammatory power and provide a nice yellow pigment

The result? A nutritional complete meal, delicious and filling, that is oil-free, cholesterol free, gluten-free and added-sugar free.

I did not do this myself, but it could be further improved by cooking the potatoes beforehand and letting them cool down. This will develop resistant starch, which feeds our gut microbiome and produces beneficial short-chain fatty acids as a result.

Ingredients

Ready in about 30 minutes.

Yields about 6 servings. 1 serving = 1 cup.

• 2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced (I used golden)
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 1/2 green cabbage (other leafy green like collards or kale can work too), shredded
• 3 green onions, tops and bottoms separated, diced
• 1.5 cup of cooked white beans or 15 oz can (I used butter beans)
• 3 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1/2 cup plain unsweetened plant-based milk (I used almond milk, for higher protein content use soy)
• 1 tbsp milled flax seeds (optional but recommended)
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• Salt and pepper
• 1 tsp dried or 1 tbsp fresh chives

Instructions

1. Cook potato in microwave with a little of water until soft, about 7 min. Drain excess of water, it’s OK to leave a little. If cooking beforehand, let them cool at room temperature and then place in the fridge for a few hours.
2. In a large deep pan, cook onion and bottoms of green onions with a splash of water or vegetable broth until soft.
3. Add cabbage and 1/2 cup water or broth, cover, and cook everything until soft, about 10-15 min, adding water as needed. Stir frequently. Towards the end, add tops of green onions.
4. Add beans to cooked potatoes and mash with a masher.
5. Add milk, flax seeds, nutritional yeast, garlic powder, turmeric, chives salt and pepper. Mix.
6. Fold in cabbage and onions and mix.
7. Adjust seasoning and consistency. Add more milk if too thick, or more flax seeds if too thin.
8. Eat alone, as a side, as dip, or with a slice of whole grain bread.

I recommend eating this dish with a slice of whole grain or sourdough bread and a green salad as a full meal, but it can also be eaten on its own, or used as side or a dip.

Let me know if you make it!

Nutritional value

For reference only. Final values will depend on things of the size of the potatoes, type of beans or type of plant-milk used.

1 serving = 1 cup.