It’s only been a few months, and we’re still very much sticking to out New Year’s Resolutions with this “hot-ified” recipe for the usually buttery, fatty, bacon-filled Irish mashed potatoes called colcannon…
For this kale-cannon, as we like to call it now, we switched out the regular white potatoes, which by themselves aren’t bad, with sleeker sweet potatoes, which offer more nutritional value than their rustic, country cousins. Simple green cabbage isn’t bad either, but we substituted in superfood kale, a double-strength counteraction to the bacon, which we just couldn’t leave out from the dish. Granted, it’s only a few crisp sprinkles on top, along with a tiny pat of butter that leaves a luxurious golden impression on top, but like so many other things in life, that’s really all you need.
Make double or triple the recipe. Leftovers taste great pan-fried, with a sunny-side up egg on top.
“Kale-cannon”: Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Kale and Bacon
serves 6-8
Ingredients
3 pounds sweet potatoes, scrubbed and chopped into large chunks
½ to ¾ cup olive oil
salt and pepper
1 large bunch of kale, ribs removed and sliced into thin ribbons
Optional Garnishes
3-4 pats of butter
cooked bacon, crumbled
fresh parsley
Directions
Place cut sweet potatoes in large pot and fill with enough cold water to cover sweet potatoes by about 2 inches. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer until sweet potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes.
Reserve about ½ cup of the cooking water, then drain the sweet potatoes. Remove the skins (many of them will have already fallen off).
In another pot, boil the sliced kale until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain and reserve.
Mash the sweet potatoes with olive oil, adding cooking water to get the desired consistency. Season the potatoes with salt and pepper (we used about ¾ teaspoon salt and about 5 turns on the pepper grinder).
Stir in cooked kale.
Place in serving bowl (or into individual bowls). Make an indentation on the top of the potatoes and place a small pat of butter. Sprinkle with crumbled bacon and chopped parsley.
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