Despite being a little bit Irish, I haven’t had much Irish food. I even visited Dublin for a couple of days about ten years ago, but I got food poisoning after my first meal there and didn’t eat a thing the rest of my stay. It was a real shame. So this year for St. Patrick’s Day, I decided to explore a dish with Irish roots instead of dying a milkshake green or whatever. I landed on colcannon, which is basically mashed potatoes with cabbage or kale mixed into them. Mashed potatoes are and have always been my jam. Like, I’ll take a scoop of mashed potatoes over fries any day. So this seemed like a no brainer.

My research on colcannon told me that most people keep colcannon very simple. Typically, it’s only four ingredients: potatoes, milk, butter, and cabbage/kale. So to justify putting another colcannon recipe out there, I decided to veganize it. But since so much of the flavor comes from rich dairy products, I needed a way to spice my vegan version up. Enter, garlic confit. My basic idea was to use the garlic enriched oil from my confit to replace butter. And my god, what a dream. I may never make mashed potatoes any other way.

But the thing is, garlic confit seems like a lot of work

I know. I thought the same thing. But it’s actually really easy to make. And such a flavor powerhouse. It’s similar to roasted garlic, which I could eat on pretty much anything. To make confit garlic, you really just need to peel a bunch of garlic and simmer it in oil until it’s tender and golden brown. You can include herbs or chiles to enhance the flavor even more if you’d like. I obviously opted for both, adding a few sprigs of thyme and about 1/8 tsp of red chili flakes. What’s wonderful is that you don’t even need to watch the pot. I mean, don’t leave the house or anything. You don’t want to burn it down. But I totally set it up and went and did something else while it cooked and you can, too.

This time around, I made a small batch of garlic confit. It lasts for ages, though. So next time you’d better believe I’ll be making a huge batch and putting it on literally everything. I may even do a separate recipe post for it. Because it’s just that good.

Do I need any special equipment?

Nah, not really. I used a potato ricer, but it’s not essential. Up until recently, though, I used my stand mixer to make mashed potatoes. I was always happy with the results, though the consistency was admittedly less even. So if you have a potato ricer or masher, use that. If not, a stand or hand mixer will do just fine. Ok, now let’s get down to business.