Friday, July 31, 2009

Vegan Colcannon

Colcannon is simple Irish style mashed potatoes with cabbage.In Irish 'colcannon' is the term for 'white headed cabbage' or simply 'white cabbage' .Traditionally ,this side dish has mashed potatoes,kale or cabbage,pork/meat (optional) along with butter,salt and pepper.Other additions are chives,milk,herbs etc as per taste.

There are quite a few vegan version available on the net.My version/adaptation is from VeganYumYum's Colcannon recipe.She had made her dish with kale rather than cabbage and had replaced pork/meat with seitan and had sprinkled nutritional yeast in it.Now these items being unavailable here ,I used white cabbage itself and spiced up the dish with red chilli flakes and used TVP (Textured Vegetable Protein) or soy chunks or soy meat as you can call it and used vanaspati instead of vegan butter.

Ingredients:
Potatoes: 3 medium sized or almost 1 cup

Vanaspathi/Vegan Butter/Butter/Margarine: 2 tbsp
Cabbage: 1 small cup chopped
Soy chunks: 1/2 cup prepared as per instructions and roughly chopped
Garlic: 2-3 small cloves minced/crushed

Soy milk: 1/4 cup warmed (can also use milk if dairy is ok)

Red chilli flakes
Salt
Pepper

Preparation:
Chop the potatoes into small cubes and boil them till fork tender.Alternately you can boil,peel whole potatoes and then chop them into big pieces.I did the latter.Also chop the cabbage finely and mince the garlic cloves.Soak the soy chunks in warm water for about 15-20 minutes.Then squeeze them out of water and repeat the process again to obtain soft chunks.I simply soak the chunks in hot water for about 30 minutes and then squeeze them out and use them in dishes.Do as per package instructions.

Heat vanaspati in a pan/kadai,add minced garlic and cabbage and saute.Once it starts releasing water,add in prepared and roughly chopped soy chunks,little salt,pepper and chilli flakes and mix well.Cover and cook till the water evaporates and the spices blend in and the cabbage is soft.Take off heat.

Add in potatoes and warmed soymilk to this warm mixture and mash thoroughly with a potato masher/ladle so that everything is mixed and mashed thoroughly.Adjust salt and pepper and spices if any needed and garnish with fresh herbs and serve warm as a side to any preferred main course.

You can increase the soymilk for a more creamier texture,but not too much.Also if you do not have soy chunks,then feel free to leave it aside.I used these just because I had them and wanted to see how they taste in a mashed potato.It was a hearty potato dish and obviously if you like spicy food then its better to add your choice of spices be it red chilli flakes or more pepper ,oregano,thyme etc.

The colcannon is on way to Vaishali's IAVW:British where a yummy vegan Brit dishes can be seen .Its also going to AWED:Britain ,started by DK and currently hosted by Simran .

12 Comments:

Anonymous said...

This Irish colcannon is totally new to me...but looks delicious and the white calls..!!

chef and her kitchen said...

Nice n new...looks really different..

Vaishali said...

Soy chunks, potatoes and cabbage sound great together, and this dish looks really creamy. Thanks, Sweatha, for this recipe.

Yasmeen said...

Health addition to the plain white potatoes,love it:D

Ann said...

I love this recipe. looks yumm adn creative.

Unknown said...

Love the addition of cabbage. geat that it is vegan.

Purva Desai said...

Healthy, Unique and delicious.....thanks for sharing

Doloncookbook said...

Nice & new recipe to me ... looks great ....

Soma said...

Cute.. I like all the healthy substitutions you have done..
Soma(www.ecurry.com)

Unknown said...

hummmm this looks so tempting yaar but soya chunks and soya milk............. I thiank I can use normal milk naa?....... great recipe.

lubnakarim06 said...

Something very new to me.....looks yum....

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