• 6 medium-size potatoes
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2 leeks
• 2 cups chopped green cabbage
• 1 bunch kale
• Sea salt
• Black pepper
• 1/4 cup unsweetened organic soy milk
• Butter or veggie butter

Scrub the potatoes and put them into a saucepan with enough cold water to almost cover them, and add a big pinch of sea salt. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 15 minutes.

Drain off some of the water and continue to cook on a low heat until the potatoes are tender. (Once the potatoes start to soften up, if they're completely immersed in water, they may start to disintegrate.)

While potatoes are cooking, heat olive oil in a big pan and add the leek, cabbage and about 1 teaspoon of sea salt. Sauté while stirring, until the veggies are starting to wilt, then add the chopped kale. Continue to sauté for about 3 minutes.

Remove the skins from the potatoes and put into a saucepan. Heat the soy milk in a small saucepan, add to the potatoes and mash thoroughly. Mix in the sautéed greens and serve immediately in a warmed dish, sprinkled with freshly ground black pepper.

Traditionally, this dish is served with a knob of melting butter in the center, but if you don't eat dairy products, you can use a veggie butter like Earth Balance.

If you're not serving your colcannon right away, you can put it into a casserole dish and when ready to eat, drizzle the top with a little olive oil and put into a preheated oven at 350° for about 15 minutes to heat through.


Variations:

• If you don't eat potato, you can make this with sweet potato for a different delicious dish. Alternatively, you could use mashed parsnip or a mixture of parsnip and turnip.
• In place of leek, you could use 1 large, diced onion or several shallots. You could also omit the leek and use spring onion. The white part of the spring onion can be sautéed with the cabbage and kale and the green part chopped and added to the veggies about 30 seconds before the end of cooking.
• If you can't find kale, you can use collard greens, Swiss chard or spinach, or you could just use cabbage.
• You could use a veggie stock cube or some vegetable bouillon to season in place of the sea salt. You can dissolve the cube in the warm soy milk before adding to the potatoes.
• If you're lucky enough to find some young spring nettles, they would make a lovely addition to your colcannon. Nettles are wonderfully nourishing and a great tonic for the liver. You will need to wear some light rubber gloves so you don't get stung while working with the raw nettles.
• You can form your colcannon into potato cakes, and panfry in olive oil until crispy and browned on both sides. This is a good way to use up any leftover colcannon.