Colcannon | Irish Mashed Potatoes with Kale

Colcannon is a traditional Irish mashed potato dish, typically made with kale, cabbage, leeks, or assorted chopped greens, along with butter and milk.

This version of colcannon is loaded with kale, but still totally tastes like mashed potatoes. It's a great way to get a serving of leafy greens in your favorite comfort food.

Cannellini and Fennel Soup with Tomatoes and Kale

The flavors in this Cannellini and Fennel Soup with Tomatoes and Kale are incredible. This soup is so easy to make, and the Italian flavors totally shine.

This Italian white bean soup with fennel, kale, and San Marzano tomatoes is flavored with garlic, crushed red pepper, basil, and smoked paprika.

Kale and Garlic Ciabatta

This Kale and Garlic Ciabatta begins with one of my favorite doughs, Peter Reinhart's Pain à l'Ancienne. It's a rustic high hydration dough that is cold fermented. You can also use this dough for rustic baguettes and focaccia.

The dough for this kale and garlic ciabatta requires very little mixing, thanks to the "stretch-and-fold" method of mixing bread dough. I first tried it after reading Peter Reinhart's book, Artisan Bread Every Day, which I bought seven years ago. I highly recommend this book.

Cheesy Kale, Tomato, and Chile Focaccia

Cheesy Kale, Tomato, and Chile Focaccia. Light and airy, studded with pockets of mozzarella cheese and topped with cherry tomatoes and jalapeño chiles.

I made this focaccia with an 80 percent hydration dough, which I let rise overnight in the refrigerator. You can actually keep this dough in the refrigerator for up to four days before baking, which is wonderful for developing the best flavor.

Coconut Butternut Squash Soup with Kale

I think this Coconut Butternut Squash Soup is a wonderful way to say goodbye to winter. 

This coconut butternut squash soup is slightly spicy and a little bit sweet. It's garnished with a delicious sauté of kale and red onions.  It's a delicious way to chase off the winter chill.

Kale and Feta Pesto Stuffed Cod

This Kale and Feta Stuffed Cod is so moist and succulent. It is so easy to make, and is the perfectly easy "company's coming" dish. You might actually get accused of being "fancy." 

Every year, my cousin goes fishing in Alaska. When he gets to the dock, the fish is cleaned and then flash frozen, shrink wrapped, and then shipped home. He ends up with a freezer full of amazing fish. Typically, he ends up with equal amounts of salmon, halibut, and cod.

Chorizo Kale and Chicken Stuffed Poblanos

These decadent and cheesy chorizo, kale, and chicken stuffed poblanos are from a new cookbook, Stuffed: The Ultimate Comfort Food Cookbook by Dan Whalen, the author of the hugely popular blog, The Food in my Beard. The back cover of the book describes Dan as "the mad scientist of comfort food."

As the title hints, this book is about taking your favorite comfort foods and stuffing them into your other favorite comfort foods. He even has a recipe for Turduken in the book.. and it's stuffed with corn bread stuffing. See what I mean? 

Other recipes from the book that I want to try... pepperoni bread, chicken stuffed waffles, and sweet potato tamales, just to name a few. Oh yeah, and cheese stick Pot Stickers. Seriously.

At the end of this post, you will have an opportunity to win a copy of this fabulously fun and decadent book.

So about these stuffed poblanos...

This is a cross section of the rolled up chicken stuffed with cheese, kale, and chorizo and then stuffed into a poblano and then topped with more cheese. The kale makes them extra healthy, right? 

I used Mexican chorizo and seriously recommend that you do the same. Next time I make these, I will try to pound the chicken to be thinner to make it look more swirly (and I will be making these again). 

Serve these with Mexican rice and garnish with sour cream and avocado slices if you like. We loved these. 

Chorizo Kale and Chicken Stuffed Poblanos

I’ve (Dan Whalen) been cooking this recipe for a really long time and it never disappoints. It’s fairly straightforward and is easy enough to make on a weeknight, but tastes like something much more special. Feel free to use another type of cheese if you want to tone down the heat level. Choosing the right chorizo in my opinion is the most important part of this recipe. I usually like the ground uncooked Mexican stuff, but most of the authentic Portuguese cured/smoked kind are tasty, too. Some of the more Americanized brands are a little too smoky/sweet and come off “hammy” to me.

Makes: 6 to 8 servings

Heat: 5.3

Pig-Out Scale: 6.4

Filling

1 tablespoon (15 ml) olive oil

½ pound (225 g) ground chorizo

3 branches kale

8 ounces (225 g) pepper Jack cheese

8 ounces (225 g) queso blanco, crumbled

10 poblano peppers (number includes two extra in case of breakage)

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Make the Filling: In a skillet over medium heat, with a little olive oil, cook the chorizo to brown it (whether it is already cooked or not). Remove the thick stems from the kale and rip the leafy parts into small pieces. Shred half the pepper Jack and combine with crumbled queso. Slice the other half of the pepper Jack into thin slices.

Prep the Poblanos: Broil the poblano peppers for a few minutes, turning and moving around constantly to slightly char parts of the skin and soften them up a bit. Using a paring knife, remove the stem from the peppers and shake out the seeds and insides.

Prep the Chicken: Slice the chicken the long way to make 2 thin cutlets out of each breast. You may want to also pound these out to thin them further.

Stuff It!: Top the cutlets with the chorizo, kale and cheese. Roll the cutlets up and stuff them into the poblano peppers. Try and match smaller peppers with smaller cutlets. Also, don’t worry if some rip! Practice makes perfect and we can hide those rips with cheese later.

Cook It: Preheat the oven 350˚F (180˚C, or gas mark 4). Bake the peppers for about 45 minutes, until fully cooked. Top with the slices of pepper Jack and broil until browned.

Recipe from Stuffed: The Ultimate Comfort Food Cookbook: Taking Your Favorite Foods and Stuffing Them to Make New, Different and Delicious Meals. by Dan Whalen (Page Street Publishing; August 2013) Posted with permission.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book to participate in the Stuffed Blog Tour.