Colcannon Recipe - How to Make Irish Mashed Potatoes with Cabbage and Bacon (2024)

Looking for an easy, hearty recipe for St. Patrick’s Day? Why not try Colcannon – creamy mashed potatoes with bacon and cabbage!

If there’s one thing I absolutely love… It’s potatoes! Maybe it’s because I grew up on a farm, ha!, but I just cannot resist a good potato dish.

Colcannon is a classic Irish recipe – perfect for St. Patrick’s Day! It combines creamy mashed potatoes with cabbage (or kale!), spring onions and BACON for the perfectly hearty dish. It’s actually so hearty we often have it as a simple dinner by itself (or with a fried egg), but it goes really well with anything gravy-laden, too.

Best of all? It’s incredibly simple to make with everyday ingredients!

Ingredients you’ll need

Here is a visual overview of the ingredients in the recipe. Scroll down to the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post for quantities!

Ingredient notes

• Potatoes: Please use starchy/floury potatoes for this recipe, NOT waxy ones. (Russet potatoes would be the perfect choice for the US, King Edward for the UK.)
• Bacon: I used diced bacon that was pretty thick cut. If you’re using thin-cut bacon you chop up, the result will be a little different, but it works just fine! Many traditional recipes call for back bacon, but I used regular bacon because, well… I like the taste of it better here.
• Cabbage: Savoy cabbage would be best here, use kale if you don’t have any Savoy available. White cabbage may be used if neither kale nor Savoy cabbage are available.
• Milk: Feel free to use cream in place of the milk for extra decadence!

How to make Colcannon

1. Cook the potatoes… However you like! Boiled, steamed, in your instant pot. Just use a pot that’s large enough to mash them with the greens later.

2. Brown the bacon in butter, then

3. add the cabbage (Savoy cabbage is best, but regular cabbage or kale can be substituted) and cook for 5 minutes. Add the spring onion and cook a bit more.

4. Add the cabbage/bacon mix to the cooked and drained potatoes. Add some milk, butter, seasoning…

5. And mash until creamy.

6. Serve with a pat of extra butter in the middle… Done!

Recipe tips

• Do not overcook the potatoes, and make sure to drain them very well. Else the mash will come out gloopy.
• Cook the cabbage well enough in the skillet, otherwise the dish will be difficult to come together.
• To me, Colcannon tastes best when eaten right away. I don’t really enjoy the taste of cooled down cabbage, so I serve it steaming hot.
• Leftovers reheat great as Mashed Potato Pancakes!

Serving ideas

I guess traditionally you’d put ANOTHER pat of butter in the middle to serve this, but truthfully… I only do that for the pretty photos ?

We love this most in place of regular mash when we make bangers and mash… Yeah, talk about decadent. But it’s also great all fall/winter long with something like homemade Salisbury Steak, Beef Tips or Mushroom Gravy ❤️

Watch the recipe video

PSIf you try this recipe, please leavea review in the comment section and add a star rating in the recipe card – I appreciate your feedback! Follow along onPinterest,FacebookorInstagram.

Printable recipe

Recipe first published on 03/02/2020. Updated with better text on 03/05/2021.

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