Traditional Irish meals bring the Emerald Isle to your taste buds and into your own home. These ten Irish dishes will take you on an culinary adventure.
Food can do a lot. Besides feeding your hunger, it can bring you right back to places you travelled to, or it can help you with the wait before that bucket-list trip. Just by smelling and tasting those dishes, you’re transported to Ireland.
Dust off that apron, get the pots and pans ready, because we promise you that at the end of this article, you’ll be heading straight to the kitchen to get started on lunch and dinner. Here are your ten options to cook like an Irish local.
10. Irish apple cake – moist, fruity, and ideal for autumn
Sometimes dessert needs to come first. The traditional Irish apple cake doesn’t take long to prepare, and it’ll most likely be gone even faster. All you need is a few delicious apples, sugar, butter, eggs, cloves, salt, and flour.
This cake can be served cold or warm with custard. Sounds perfect for a rainy Sunday afternoon, doesn’t it?
9. Fishcakes – the Irish coast on your plate
Although it’s called a cake, we’re leaving the dessert territory behind. Fishcakes were traditionally a clever way to use up leftover fish, making the most of every bit. Cod or haddock are the classic choices, but you can use any white fish.
The other star ingredient for a good fishcake is the potato, which gives the fishcake its hearty texture. Add a parsley sauce, and you can smell the Irish coast in your kitchen.
8. Seafood pie – one for the seafood lovers
Imagine a creamy fish or seafood filling, topped with mashed potatoes and baked until golden. Is your mouth watering yet? It’s a simple, yet hearty meal that practically hugs you from the inside.
Add some vegetables or good Irish bread with delicious butter on the side, and you’ll go for seconds (or even thirds).
7. Boxty – the Irish potato pancake
Potatoes are one of the most versatile foods. There’s so much you can make with them, like the traditional Irish potato pancake – boxty. All you need is grated and mashed potatoes, milk, and flour. Fry it. Eat it. Enjoy it.
You can serve it with cabbage, bacon, salmon, or whatever your taste buds desire. A humble dish that gives you so many delectable options. This is one of the Irish dishes you need to try before you die.
6. Bacon and cabbage – a long-time favourite in Irish homes
Bacon and cabbage is a staple of Irish cuisine, bringing together some of the most typical Irish ingredients. All you need is fresh cabbage, a nice cut of bacon to boil with it, and, of course, potatoes.
Parsley sauce is great with it, and you’ll be tempted to put this on your regular meal rotation – it’s a long-time favourite for a reason.
5. Dublin coddle – utterly Irish and comforting
This slowly cooked stew is said to have been Jonathan Swift’s favourite dish. Who can blame him? Rashers, sausage, potatoes – all cooked together in a flavourful broth. A slice of good Irish bread on the side, and your dinner is complete.
Don’t let its simple appearance fool you. It might not look like it, but a nice bowl of Dublin coddle will convince your taste buds.
4. Soda bread – the simple star
Fresh bread with good Irish butter and cheese. Do we need to say more? You can’t talk about traditional Irish food without mentioning soda bread. Made with buttermilk and bicarbonate of soda, this bread is a true star.
Traditionally, soda bread has a cross cut into it. The cross helps the bread to expand, but folklore says it’s to let the fairies out.
3. Colcannon – next-level mashed potatoes
Colcannon is traditionally associated with Halloween, where it is said to be served with a small prize or ring hidden inside it to predict your future. There’s no need to wait until October, though – enjoy it all year round and take your mashed potatoes to the next level.
While the ingredients might be simple – potatoes, milk, cabbage or kale, spring onions, and butter, this dish gives you all the flavourful comforts you could want.
2. Shepherd’s pie – the best of the best
A traditional Shepherd’s pie uses lamb, but if you’re not a fan of lamb, you can opt for beef and turn it into a cottage pie. Whatever meat you choose, add some vegetables, top it with a generous layer of creamy mashed potatoes, and bake until golden.
This utterly delicious dish is a go-to comfort meal, not just in Ireland, but also in Great Britain. It truly is the best when it comes to meaty, satisfying pies.
1. Irish stew – the quintessential Irish dish
It doesn’t take much to make an Irish stew, but oh, it’s absolutely tasty. You’ll need root vegetables, lamb or mutton. Simmer it all together, and let the savoury flavours and rich aromas take over your kitchen.
Once you have a hot, steaming bowl of stew in front of you, you’ll forget whatever else might be going on around you. It’s comfort by the spoon.
Are you drooling yet? These traditional Irish dishes will take you to Ireland, bite by bite, until you’re back there yourself.
