oh lovely recipe!! a few ideas...you can use sweet potatoes instead of potatoes for an interesting flavour.

also, my favourite substitute for potatoes is raw plantains....i hope its the right name..maybe its called green bananas or green plantains..it can be found in indian grocery stores. it is great mashed, but because its iron rich, it tends to darken...best to soak it in water or add a little lemon juice to keep the colour from becoming too dark. It is also great with grated/toasted coconuts and tempered with mustard seeds. it is quite a favourite in our house, actually. do try it if you happen to pass by an indian grocery store's vegetable section.

oh..and sesame seed oil(not the chinese kind..the middle eastern kind. its called gingelly oil in south indian cookery parlace) is really awesome with this...

Sounds great! I love new twists on old favorites! And since I have just begun to cook with Bulgur Wheat, I can't wait to hear about the Bulgur Pilaf with Toasted Noodles.

Mmmmm. I'm all about comfort food made healthy! This looks wonderful!

Thanks, Heidi!

Another great recipe with a beautiful photo. :D

I especially like the idea of using a white bean instead of the potato. Think I might try it that way soon.

Sounds really good. I think I could get this past my husband. I think the 2 yo might pick out the greens. She does when I add them to soups. Does the book say who contributed which recipes? I have lidia's family table & love it.

I think I would add white beans to the potatoes and then fry like pancakes. maybe with a tomato or pesto sauce as a spread.

Thanks for the heads up on the book. Can't wait to get it.
Love smashed potatoes with additions - do it all the time but have to admit, never with a leafy green. Next on the list!

Being from the south you can imagine the kind of mashed potatoes I was raised on [plenty of cream and butter].

This recipe sounds absolutely wonderful and I will try it. We do love greens in the south too so it isn't a stretch to combine the two.

I have not seen one of your recipes that I did not want to try.

Thank you for sharing this wonderful site...[sight :)] and recipes.

This is how we always make mashed potatoes. Also good with spinach and caramelized onions. Or horseradish!

I think kale makes anything better. My current favorite is finely chopped kale with quinoa, a little lemon juice, and a dash of Alepo pepper. Thanks for a great site.

Looks gorgeous.

Funny, when I was a YO, I insisted on lumps in my mashed potatoes... I wanted to make sure they were "real" and not from a box :-) But, I also would have picked out the greens ;-)

-L

I love following the seasons... and recipes that dance together and pass in the night!

From my market here in Tuscany, I bought turnips and their greens.

I roasted the turnips, but would have loved to try them as the puree, with the greens blended in.

We twice cook the green's and flavor with garlic.
What's not to love!

Italians often add polenta to soups or stir in sauteed greens, More comfort food.

Right now we are getting tiny kale to eat raw in salads!

M

Im so happy to see a mashed potatoes recipe without calling for a half-stick of butter!!! Adding greens to mashed potatoes sounds so brilliantly intuitive. I may do a variation with Bok Choy...

-Jared

The Dutch would call this stamppot. It's common there (although not so much with olive oil).
They also use a different word for pea soup after the first day - when freshly made, it's erwtensoep, the next day it's snert.

A great way to sneak some veggies into mashed potatoes is to mash in some cauliflower. They'll never know what hit 'em.

In Holland you boil the potatoes with the minimum of water, and place the kale on top to steam while the potatoes cook. Then when it's time to serve you mash it all together.

No olive oil, but reserve some of the liquid from cooking and add a little bit of milk, or butter or sometimes vinegar to give it a little bit of a bite.

This is a fantastic way to get kids to eat leafy greens, because they don't really notice the strong flavour when it's combined with the potatoes.

Love this recipe. Maybe you can't pass this onto the kids. However, it's a sure fire way to get us "grown-ups" to incorporate those dark leafy greens in our diets. You know, the ones we buy at the market that somehow become a science experiment in the bottom of the refrigerator.

I've done something very similar with mashed white beans and kale--with garlic, olive oil, rosemary and a squeeze of lemon. It was good on toast. I hadn't thought of doing it with potatoes though...

The olive oil puts you hot on the trail of the Dalmatia's blitva here. I've been meaning to post a blitva recipe for a while since it's an essential element of that cuisine, and here's another impetus. I'm definitely a staunch proponent of potatoes mashed with greens, but I have such a taste for the dark leafies now that the affair often ends up consisting of just as much green as spud - and it's no less comforting that way.

Check me in a couple of days for blitva...

I've made a similar recipe before, and I love the contrast of the smooth, creamy potatoes with the slightly crunchy, bitter kale. Beautiful photo!

I don't know what planet Ash's kids come from, but mine are from the planet "eewww, there are green things in my potatoes, c'est quoi, ça?"

Never-the-less I personally adore potatos, kale, and olive oil, and add "fried" shallots and parmesan... oh-la-la... how could you go wrong.

Now I just have to try and find kale in the markets in the southern France.

In terms of kids and a recipe like this - where you can't taste the green that much - you have to make up a good story about what it is. Mashed potatoes from special rainforest potatoes.

I will certainly be trying this recipe and it looks like it will work perfect with my Umbrian olive oil. I have also included a link on my blog.

Many thanks from Rachel at Amelia Oil.

Heh, funny. I just finished eating mashed potatoes and chard. It's one of my boyfriend's specialties, apparently it's very popular in Croatia (where he's from). Super delicious. I'll have to try kale sometime too.

Sorry about double posting, I just actually read through your recipe now, and it's interesting how differently this can be done. What we do is boil the potatoes and the stalks of the chard together. When they're almost tender, add the leaves in. Strain the whole thing, add chopped garlic, and smash with a fork, not quite down to mashed potato consistency. I like some nice lumps in mine.

Just thought I'd share an alternate twist on this simple and yummy dish.

I'm new to your blog and am enjoying making my way through your archives and this recipe is as tempting as all the others. It seems to be dredging up memories for your readers and I' m afraid I'm going to stick my oar in too! It does remind me of the traditional Irish colcannon, basically mashed potatoes and greens but with about half a pound of butter! Going to give this a try but my little one is a bit odd and is more likely to eat the kale and leave the mash!

i would not have thought to jazz up mashed potatos like this! wow, you can make it healthy!

I'm so enjoying your blog!

I made something a little similar tonight...something about St. Patrick's day had me dying for a colcannon.

My fridge is overflowing with veggies, a result of a very impulsive market trip. So I did mashed cauliflower, turnip, and parsnip instead of the potatoes, and stirred in a sauteed savoy cabbage with onions. I added a soy milk sauce to the cauliflower-root veggie mixture, with just a touch of thyme and nutmeg.

Really good. It tasted of early spring -- green and warming.

I have a child who is allergic to milk, so my favorite way to make mashed potatoes these days is to chop some bacon, fry it until crisp, saute in some leeks, and then mix with the cooked, diced potatoes and some good chicken stock to moisten it all up. I'm going to try it like that but with kale added in next time I have some kale. I think my kids may actually eat it - they like it cooked with potatoes and smoked sausage already!

Love this recipe! Looked and tasted great along side a grilled grouper we caught this morning.

As far as the kids go, I've had great luck with actually making a puree of the greens and making GREEN mashers. We have even snuck broccoli, peas, and asparagus into those 'taters just to make them green for my nieces and nephews. Our gang loves them!

Great recipe- I never thought of kale, although I "invented" a similar dish a few summers ago and ate it nearly every week.

I used spinach in place of kale and Yukon gold, or "golden potatoes" instead of normal baking spuds (no cream or Parm for me, as I'm allergic to all milk products, but the golden potatoes are naturally buttery...plus the olive oil).

Hello,
Mashed potatoes work best with floury potato types ( especially this late in the potato year). King Edward are best, red skinned newer varieties like rooster are really good too. Two things that make a difference-
1. cut them into rough but fairly even cubes, about an inch by inch by inch. Don't boil the water, let it come to temperature with the potatoes in, and a rolling simmer is hot enough. Otherwise they are soup on the outside, rocks on the inside. (Think long grain not risotto). Check after 10 minutes.
2. Drain them and let them sit somehere warm, where steam can escape for two to three minutes. The dry mass is then higher and the starches are lovely and floury.
2a If you add stuff like milk or butter, warm them first, so you don't cool the starch down.
This endeth the potato lesson. (Sorry about the length of this post, I live in the cold and wet - root veg gooood.)

Being Irish i love mashed potatoes! It's pretty much what we are brought up on in Ireland and indeed this dish has a special name, champ! What a cool name for a side dish eh, champ! Really starting to appreciate your site for it's excellent recipes and have been using them quite a few times for cooking on the yacht! kepp it up!

this looks absolutely scrumptious! thanks for sharing the recipe. i adore your photo, as i do all of yours! i haven't had mashed potatoes in a lifetime it seems.

Summertime:

serve cold with lemons!

——— e.

Yum -- this looks great! I like to mix in a small portion of sweet potato to my mashed potatos, adds a gentle sweetness as a background note.

I am a Pakistani and normally we love to eat spicy cooked food. But this mashed potato recipe is really a good/healthy one and I have added this to my regular meals chart

Oh my... looks absolutly delicious! I love mash potatoes and I would of never thought to add greens with them. I am the weirdo who loves to eat mash potaotes with green peas and garlic. I will have to try this next time I am cooking for family or guests. The presentation looks fantastic.

I really liked the white beans substitution also. Good brainstorming Heidi.

Oh yum, I'm certainly going to try this--thanks for sharing it. That cookbook sounds fantastic, too.

What a great twist on a favourite. My wife and I are slowly pulling out of winter and have had our fill of winter vegetable (like potato) recipes...until this one! Looks and sounds great!

I've been making something like this for a couple years, but instead of olive oil I use toasted sesame oil and sometimes also toasted sesame seeds...sprinkle with tamari - YUM!!

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Dear Heidi, The image of the mashed potato in the dish looks most inviting. Thanks a lot for this recipe. It would also be a wholesome dish since it combines the goodness of milk, greens and potatoes.

Use stock to cook the potatoes, then mash them all together. No need to use butter or milk (I'm lactose-intolerant).

I would have never thought of using kale this way. I might try this over the weekend but omit the cream. Thanks!

We have been using this recipe traditional to Holland for my whole life. Its called boerenkool met wurst. Traditionally we make it with sausage in a pan, cook the kale with the sausage drippings and then extract the kale, chop it and add it to mashed potatoes. This is a delicious addition to add some olive oil. Not to mention healthier!

Any suggestions about a substitution for the garlic cloves? I, for one, am allergic to garlic. The fresher the worse off I am after eating it. But this dish sounds delicious and I want to be able to get the best flavor possible while skipping the garlic.

I just made the mashed potatoes tonight after coming across this recipe this morning. =) Absolutely delicious, and even a great group project!

I used to eat this all the time as a kid! The only green my mom would ever cook was boiled frozen spinach (yucky and boring), and she usually served it at the same meal as mashed potatoes (the lumpier the better, IMO). I really hated spinach, but I had to eat it, so I would mix the spinach into the potatoes. I can't say I loved it, but I got used to it. I wish I had known to add garlic and pepper to it back then, as it actually sounds quite yummy.

Heidi-- you mention using this as an empanada filling... do you happen to have a good (tried and true) empanada recipe? I found some by searching online but they seem to be high on the fat/lard content (yuck!!). Thanks! Love the site!

In India , we add minced onions, little green chillies and coriander leaves to the oil till the onions are goldben brown and chillies and coriander well blended. It gives a different taste and is called "Podimass"

. . . metwurst. This reminds me of a Dutch dish my husband likes to make. Mashed potatoes, kale, gouda and metwurst.

it sounds + looks delish!!

Anything is better with kale in it... well, maybe not, but I've loved kale since I read about it in a garden book which mentioned it was called "the green doctor". I know this must be a tasty dish. One thing I do when making mashed potatoes is to use the cooking water instead of adding milk. I scoop the potatoes out of the pot with a slotted spoon, pour an amount of the water off into a measuring cup and add powdered milk, or powdered soy milk if I'm cooking for someone who is avoiding dairy... or sometimes a combination of both, into the water and then add that a bit at a time to the potatoes. Any leftover water I keep for soup making.