Hey babes,

If you exist in the same timeline that I do, then we are both celebrating Saint Patrick’s Day today. As luck would have it, we’re also experiencing a cold snap in my part of the world, so fate appears to have aligned for this recipe.

As I’m sure you know, St. Patrick’s Day celebrates the anniversary of the death of the Patron Saint of Ireland, and more largely Irish culture in general. If you live in the states, you could be forgiven for thinking it’s a celebration of green food coloring, bad fake accents, and pub crawling, but here in the House of Babes, we prefer not to boil a nationality down to a caricature (and we don’t use artificial food coloring).

So, as a result, I went exploring traditional Irish dishes. While everyone thinks of corned beef (again, here in the states), this was actually added to the celebration around the turn of the century, when Irish immigrants started opting for the dish to save money. Potatoes and cabbage, however, have been a part of traditional Irish cuisine for closer to five centuries. Colcannon is probably the quintessential example of this. A mashed potato dish packed full of cabbage, this is typically also packed full of butter and milk, and sometimes swaps kale in for the cabbage.

While I could definitely eat mashed potatoes by themselves, a popular revamp of this traditional recipe is to turn it into a rich, creamy soup. And since I don’t eat dairy and want to also maximize nutrition while still nodding to the classics, I thought a few small modifications might make this well-known recipe a knock-out. So, let’s talk about the ingredients.

The Mighty Spud

Potatoes get a bad rap for their high glycemic load and their contribution to the beige diet most Americans eat, but that isn’t entirely fair. For one thing, research has shown that potatoes can be incorporated safely into the diet without raising the blood glucose level any more than more traditionally low-glycemic options. For another, if you look at America’s top three most beloved potato dishes (and potato chips for good measure) compared to a simple potato, I think it becomes clear where the problem lies:

	Russet Potato	Lay’s Potato Chip (1 oz)	McDonald’s Fries, Small	McDonald’s Hash brown	Chick-fil-A Waffle Fries, Small
% Calories from Fat	0%	56%	40%	55%	53%
Sodium Content (mg)	24	170	180	307	190

Figured it out? Yep, oil and salt, the scoundrels that regularly implicate innocent carbohydrates in their crimes.

So, now that we’ve established their lack of vice, let’s talk about their virtues. Potatoes, particularly with their skins (the only way I recommend them), are absolutely top of the charts for satiety, meaning that they will keep you full longer than other foods in similar amounts, even beating out more expected items like beef and legumes.

Though they are not superfoods in terms of antioxidants or vitamins, they do still have a decent amount of potassium and vitamin C, and more choline than most plant foods, which is critical for cell integrity and the production of neurotransmitters. If you really want to throw some antioxidant power into your pot, consider switching out the russets for purple potatoes, just don’t skip on the skins.

Cabbage Patch Babe

Cabbage does more than add a varying texture to the pot. It is over a third fiber by energy source, and an excellent source of vitamins K and C, and decent source of folate. As a cruciferous vegetable, it is also great at fighting chronic inflammation, and if you were to sub in purple cabbage, you’d also be looking at a whopping dose of anthocyanins, which have been linked to a reduced risk of heart disease (could there be a purple colcannon soup in the future, perhaps for Lent?!).

Kale Kween

I’ve talked a little about the powerful effects of kale before, but it deserves all the praise I can heap on it. (True story: my kids once told their pediatrician kale was my favorite food when they were asked about our meal habits- I was both embarrassed and so proud). Right out of the gate it contains absolutely massive doses of vitamins K, A, and C, and along with our friend cabbage does an excellent job of feeding the gut microbiome and lowering cholesterol. It also has cancer and inflammation-fighting properties, and boosts immunity (doubly so when cooked).

Now that I’ve gotten the preamble out of the way, let’s get into the nitty gritty. Let me know what you think in the comments below, and what your favorite St. Patrick’s day dishes are!