With all of the cold weather recently I have been enjoying a lot of soup recipes and with Saint Patrick’s Day around the corner I made this Irish style potato and cabbage soup. Colcannon is an Irish style mashed potatoes with cabbage and bacon in it and I thought that it would make for a nice soup! I was thinking about a potato and leek based soup so it starts out with plenty of bacon followed by onions and leeks along with garlic and thyme. Next up is chicken broth, the potatoes and cabbage which is all simmered until the potatoes and cabbage are tender. The soup is finished off with some cream and if you like you can puree some of the potatoes to thicken the broth up. This soup is so quick and easy to make and it’s so good; especially with some fresh baked Irish potato bread!
Colcannon Soup (aka Irish Potato and Cabbage Soup with Bacon)
An Irish style potato and cabbage soup with bacon inspired by colcannon!
ingredients
- 8 ounces bacon, cut into 1 inch slices
- 1 onion, diced
- 2 large leeks, sliced
- 2 green onions, sliced and divided
- 3 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 teaspoon thyme, chopped
- 6 cups chicken broth
- 1/2 cup heavy/whipping cream
- 2 pounds potatoes, cut into bite sized pieces
- 4 cups cabbage, shredded
- salt and pepper to taste
directions
- Cook the bacon in a large sauce pan before setting aside and reserving 2 tablespoons of bacon grease in the pan.
- Add the onions and leeks and the whites of the green onions and cook over medium-high heat until tender, about 5 minutes.
- Add the garlic and thyme and cook until fragrant, about a minute.
- Add the broth, cream, potatoes, cabbage, and bacon, bring to a boil reduce the heat and simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 10 minutes.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste, mix in the greens of the green onions and enjoy!
Option: Add white cheddar cheese!
Option: Add 1 tablespoon dijon mustard.
Option: Add 2 tablespoons white miso paste.
Option: Add 1 tablespoon lemon juice.
Option: Puree some of the potatoes to thicken the broth.
Tip: Serve with fresh baked potato bread!
Pretty bland. Added double thyme,bay leaf,butter and cheddar cheese
Delicious. I added the white miso paste and held off adding the cream until the last five minutes of cooking. Next time I will add the carrots and celery. I will definitely make this again — my new favorite potato soup. Definite keeper.
I made this yesterday and I added the carrots, celery, dijon, baby red potatoes, and a splash of lemon juice. I also used savoy cabbage. One other thing, when I browned the bacon in the pot that I made the soup in it created a lot of fo d on the bottom of the entire pot which I scraped up when I sauteed the onions and leeks. I also cooked most steps lo get than noted in the directions. This soup turned out wonderful. Great flavor. The amount of “umami” was fantastic. I will definitely be making this again.
I tried your suggestions and it really added to the flavor. I tossed in some white wine just before adding the garlic and then some sherry once the chicken broth and cream went in. Gave it a nice deeper flavor.
Delicious! I followed the original recipe without any of the optional add-ins but did purée some of the potatoes to thickening it up. Very unique flavor. I can’t stop eating it.
Can’t wait to try this.
Pretty bland even with the “optional” ingredients. Make sure you are salting throughout the recipe. I added the dijon mustard, lemon, and carrot. The miso would be a wonderful addition. I ended up using 8 cups of chicken broth to cover all the ingredients and added additional of the optional ingredients to make up for the extra broth. I feel like it needs butter or something.
The soup turned out really good I added carrots, dijon mustard. I made the bacon cheddar soda bread to go along with it instead of the potato bread. Everything turned out real good being the first time making it.
We halved as a clean-the-fridge meal — but only had 1/4 of the potatoes on hand. And it was still delightful. We subbed bouquet garni for the thyme and added the mustard and the end of a bag of Swiss/gruyere blend along with some extra salt and butter. Super quick and easy and flexible.
Very good recipe. Made the whole 12 oz. package of bacon, cooked with about 1 Tbsp. butter. Then, after pouring off most of the bacon grease, as the recipe says, I deglazed the pan with about 1/2 cup of white wine. Kicked the flavor up a few notches. Delicious!
Absolutely delicious. I do use a homemade chicken broth that is very flavorful.
One of our favorite recipes! I added the Dijon and celery, as well as paprika and curry powder, and left out the green onions, and it’s absolutely delicious. Also added extra cabbage and blended some up! We’ve made it multiple times now and it’s awesome.