Friday Food Finds: Unicorn Pudding, Spiked Seltzer, Wasabi Ranch Chips, and More!

You asked and we listened: This week’s Friday Food Finds features a bevy of boozy beverages that will be the perfect poolside companions as the temperatures rise and winter-time depression subsides. In addition to a spiked seltzer and sparkling water, we also sampled some hot new snacks on the Taylor Strecker Show, including a unicorn pudding, uniquely flavored Kettle chip, and America’s favorite condiment: hot sauce. But which bites of the bunch were our favs and which just bit the dust? Check them all out below and let us know what you’re most excited to try for yourself.

Bon & Viv Spiked Seltzer

These were dangerously delicious. In fact, they’re so dangerous that buying them by the case may not bode well for those who lack self-control. The flavors are elevated (hi, rosemary and elderflower) and the taste lacks that artificial bitterness found in some of its competitors. Needless to say, we are counting down the days until summer when these can be permanent fixtures at picnics and pool parties.

Sipp Infusions Sparkling Water

We’re not entirely sure why Taylor found these lackluster. They’re great! At only two grams of sugar per serving, this is an excellent alternative for those who are wanting to ditch soda, but not entirely ready to embrace the sparkling water trend. Like the Spiked Seltzers above, we were very impressed with the unique flavor offerings. Vodka would also be an excellent addition to all three options, which means we’re already planning a cocktail hour.

Snack Pack Unicorn Magic Pudding

We wanted to hate these….we really did. They are just sooo gimmicky with their unicorn-themed marketing tactics. But alas, those nostalgic (and very artificial) cotton candy and bubble gum flavors really knew how to pull us in. Initially, the paste-like texture may have been off-putting, but we couldn’t put them down. Kids will absolutely love these, so #yasssunicorn and come through, star dust.

Stoneridge Orchards Chocolate-Covered Berries

Chocolate-covered dried fruit isn’t the most exciting thing in the world and these are just okay. They’re certainly juicier than other varieties, but if we’re going to put chocolate on anything with sugar, that thing will be a cookie or peanut butter or an ingredient that’s actually worth the indulgence. Sorry, not sorry.

Wasabi Ranch Kettle Chips

The intention behind Wasabi Ranch is great, but we wanted these to have more wasabi taste. America demands spice, Kettle! Don’t appease those with weak palates. In this case, we’ll pass but forever cherish their Spicy Thai variety. That’s an Asian-influenced flavor we can always get behind.

Red Clay Hot Sauce

Since Taylor admitted she’s only obsessed with Frank’s, her opinion—quite frankly—is irrelevant. This hot sauce was good, but not the greatest. We appreciate the subtle endnotes of oak (it’s aged in barrels), but don’t think it holds up to some more mainstream varieties. It definitely needs more heat.

Reese’s Thins

We were reluctant to try these, considering peanut butter is the only reason to eat a Reese’s. The Thins variety, however, definitely holds up and is a much better alternative to the Miniatures. The fact that they also come in dark chocolate is just icing on the cake. Good on you, Hershey’s. Good. On. You.

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Naturally Green Irish Food for St. Patrick’s Day

In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, you can use artificial dye to tint anything green, from glasses of beer to entire rivers. If you’d rather avoid food coloring, though, you can also find lots of naturally green things to serve for the occasion, from avocados to zucchini—but then you may stray far from the Irish roots of the holiday. If you choose your ingredients carefully, you can create an entire meal that’s both naturally green and evocative of the Emerald Isle’s traditional foods.

We’ve gathered at least one verdant victual for every course, and tried to make sure there’s something authentically Irish about each one too, even if a few inclusions may have been under a rather looser interpretation of what constitutes “Irish” cuisine. And like so many other Americans under the spell of Saint Paddy’s Day, we couldn’t resist green beer either.

Traditional Irish Leek and Potato Soup

The View From Great Island

For a less traditional but more vibrantly colored take, you can make a spring lettuce and leek soup, but this recipe relies on leeks alone to lend gentle color and fantastic flavor. Potatoes and just a handful of other ingredients join the leeks for a simple but delicious dish. Get the Traditional Irish Leek and Potato Soup recipe.

Mushy Peas on Toast with Mint

Feed Me Phoebe

Mushy peas are more English (often served alongside fish and chips), but they’re enjoyed widely in Ireland too. Make a nice minty mash for topping toast, or spooning on a plate as a potato alternative to accompany protein and other vegetables. Get the Mushy Peas on Toast with Mint recipe.

Green Irish Soda Bread

Lands and Flavors

The Irish soda bread you see in stores around St. Patrick’s Day is usually studded with currants or raisins, which technically makes it tea cake, not true soda bread. Of course, this version, tinted green with spinach (not to mention vegan too), is also non-traditional, but it does stick to the spirit of simplicity that marks the original incarnation. Get the Green Irish Soda Bread recipe.

Green Eggs and Corned Beef

Viktoria’s Table

Traditional corned beef and cabbage is a wonderful combo and hard to pass up, especially if you only make it once a year, but if you’re looking for something a little different, this omelette gets its green hue from arugula pesto, and cradles chopped corned beef—which may not actually be Irish, but is inextricably associated with Irish-American St. Patrick’s Day celebrations by this point (and makes a damn fine Reuben if you have any left over). Get the Green Eggs and Corned Beef recipe.

Oven Poached Salmon with Spinach Butter

Lemon Thyme and Ginger

Ireland has always been big on dairy and still produces beautifully flavored, luscious butter, so if you can get it, use that in this spinach sauce to go over salmon (which also has a place in Ireland’s culinary history, although their numbers aren’t what they used to be). Get the Oven Poached Salmon with Spinach Butter recipe.

Rosemary Pesto Rack of Lamb

Mark’s Daily Nosh

The phrase “Irish lamb” may usually be followed by the word “stew,” but consider trying something a bit different—and green, of course. If rack of lamb seems too much to tackle (or just too expensive), try these lamb burgers with rosemary pesto instead, but this preparation is much easier than it looks. Get the Rosemary Pesto Rack of Lamb recipe.

Irish Creamed Kale

Donal Skehan

When you think green vegetables of Ireland, cabbage is probably what comes to mind, but kale has a place in their repertoire too (and kale is, after all, related to cabbage). This is basically a sturdier version of creamed spinach and goes well with just about anything. Get the Irish Creamed Kale recipe.

Cheddar Horseradish Colcannon

Healthy Seasonal Recipes

Colcannon is essentially a mixture of mashed potatoes and kale (sometimes cabbage instead), but this version adds cheese—use a delicious Irish cheddar if possible—and horseradish for a kick. If you want a more uniform green mash, you can achieve it with a higher ratio of leaves that are more finely puréed, as in this spinach mashed potatoes recipe, but chunkier colcannon is texturally pleasing and green enough for us. Use it to replace regular mashed potatoes atop shepherd’s pie, or serve as a side with pretty much any protein. Get the Cheddar Horseradish Colcannon recipe.

Lemony Barley Salad with Kale Pesto

Friends. Food. Family.

Yes, it’s kale again, this time blended into pesto and tossed with nutty, pleasantly chewy barley, an Irish grain that predates potatoes in the country’s agricultural history by thousands of years—but tossing this pesto with roasted spuds wouldn’t be a bad idea either. Get the Lemony Barley Salad with Kale Pesto recipe.

Naturally Green Shamrock Shake

Amanda’s Cookin’

Mint has grown wild in Ireland since at least the late 1800s, so it can reasonably be considered an Irish-ish ingredient. If you want a more vivid hue sans artificial dye, your best bet is intensifying mint’s natural shade with matcha or even making a minty smoothie with spinach added, but for something more akin to McDonald’s seasonal Shamrock Shake, try this pale green fresh mint and vanilla ice cream concoction. Get the Naturally Green Shamrock Shake recipe.

Pistachio Cardamom Pound Cake

The View From Great Island

Pistachios are in no way Irish, but tea definitely is, and a warm cuppa is clearly the perfect partner for this cake, so why not let it squeak by as an appropriate St. Patrick’s Day dessert? It is organically green, after all, and also happens to make a lovely breakfast the next morning, which is always a bonus. Get the Pistachio Cardamom Pound Cake recipe.

Naturally Green-Tinted Beer

Wholefully

All right, so this one is all Irish-American, but if you really want green beer and really don’t want man-made food dyes (especially if you’re gonna down a whole bunch of these), you still have multiple options for going green! This source helpfully breaks down what happens to the flavor of the beer when it’s combined with each naturally derived shade of green, too (matcha, wheatgrass, and spirulina)—happily, they all sound surprisingly appealing. Get the Naturally Green-Tinted Beer recipes.

Authentically Irish

12 Traditional Irish Foods to Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day

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How to Make Anything Into a Meatball

Whether encountered in Italian nonnas’ kitchens or in Swedish furniture store cafeterias, meatballs are always a welcome treat—but they’re certainly not locked into tradition if you don’t want them to be. You can turn pretty much anything into an edible ball, and not just various kinds of meat and grains; full meals can be compressed into one satisfying spherical package.

While there are loads of meatball recipes out there (just scroll down to see several), you can also approach meatball making as an improvisational process.

As long as you follow a loose basic formula, you can adapt them to whatever you have on hand, or whatever you’re in the mood for.

So here’s a template for making meatballs (and meatless balls) of whatever kind you fancy:

Pick Your Protein

Meat

• Literally any type of meat is fair game for grinding and forming into orbs: beef, pork, veal, chicken, turkey, duck, goose, bison, lamb, goat, venison, elk, rabbit—you get the idea.
• Combining more than one kind of ground meat is a classic move, and can help cut down on strong or gamy flavors, as well as add more fat to the mix.
• You can also work in finely diced bacon, sausage, pancetta, prosciutto, salami, etc. for extra flavor and fat.
• If you have leftover tender cooked meat, you can even mix some of that into your raw ingredients, as outlined here.
• Don’t forget about the option of adding seafood, as in these shrimp and pork meatballs.
• Whatever blend you use, aim for about a pound of meat to serve 4 people (though that can stretch farther as part of a larger spread), and simply double or triple your ingredients as needed.
• Fattier meat mixtures will result in more tender meatballs, but if your protein is lean, you can add a bit more luscious body via cheese, like ricotta, feta, shredded Cheddar, or shredded mozzarella.

Chowhound’s Lamb Meatballs recipe

Veggies, Beans, and Grains

• For meatless…foodballs (face it, there’s no great alternative name for them), you’ll want some sort of meaty matter like beans, lentils, tofu, seitan, tempeh, mushrooms, or coarsely ground nuts.
• For better flavor and texture, you can add cooked veggies, like greens, mashed yams or potatoes, cooked squash, or cooked eggplant too, and/or cooked grains like quinoa.
• You’ll also need a dry ingredient and an egg or egg substitute, which are covered in the next section.
• For a great visual representation of meatless meatball possibilities, check this chart out.

Bind It Up

Bread

• Use about ¼ cup of purchased dried breadcrumbs or panko per pound of meat.
• Alternatively, make the same amount of fresh crumbs by pulsing bread in your food processor. Rolls, sandwich slices, baguettes, bakery loaves, whatever you’ve got.
• Gluten-free bread works too, but pulverized rice Chex is another great gluten-free option.
• You can even use blitzed Saltine crackers, rolled oats, cooked rice, almond flour, coconut flour, or cornmeal to add body, texture, and sticking power.

Eggs

• Mixing in one raw egg per pound of meat will do you well.
• If you don’t eat eggs (or you’re just out of them), you can substitute a variety of things that will help hold your other ingredients together when you roll them into balls:
  • a flax or chia egg (i.e. 1 tablespoon of flax seeds or 1 tablespoon of chia seeds, whisked with 3 tablespoons boiling water)
  • ¼ cup of ripe mashed avocado
  • a commercial egg replacement
  • 3 tablespoons of aquafaba

Chowhound’s Rice Paper Banh Mi with Pork Meatballs recipe

Season Well

Spice Blends and Other Flavor Agents

• In addition to plenty of salt and freshly ground pepper, you can use whatever spices you like, from curry powder, Chinese five spice blend, or za’atar, to jerk spices, berbere, or Tex-Mex chili powder.
• Feel free to add some sauteed onion, minced garlic, and/or fresh herbs too, like parsley, cilantro, mint, oregano, basil, etc.
• You can even experiment with adding pesto, harissa, and other sauces and condiments to the meat (or meat-free) mix.
• Cheese can add great flavor too, and extra moisture if it’s something creamy like blue cheese or ricotta, but drier Parmesan and the like are great for punching up flavor without changing the texture too much.

Do a Taste Test

Since, as with meatloaf and sausage, you won’t have a chance to fix the seasoning of your meatballs once they’re done, you should really taste a tiny piece of the mixture before you commit to cooking the entire batch! Of course, you’ll want to cook that morsel too; just break off about a teaspoon’s worth of your meatball blend, cook it, and taste it. If it needs something more, add a bit of salt, pepper, acid, spice, or whatever you think is lacking to the raw mix and try again.

Handle Gently

• Even if it seems squicky, mixing your meatballs by hand is best, as it means you can employ a lighter touch—important so as not to make your meatballs too dense or tough—and you can feel when everything comes together.
• Don’t overwork the mixture, just be sure everything is combined and evenly distributed.
• You can use a scoop if you’re hell-bent on uniformly sized balls, but be careful not to compress the mixture, and when rolling them between your palms, be sure not to squeeze, or you’ll lose a certain fluffiness and be more likely to end up with dry, leaden meatballs.

Consider Sauce

While sauce is totally optional, it very often improves even the most already-fantastic meatball, as long as it harmonizes with the flavor profile of the meat mixture, of course. Marinara for Italian meatballs and cream sauce for Swedish meatballs are obvious choices, but use your intuition when it comes to other parings. Think Greek lamb meatballs (or falafel, which technically fits into the veggie balls category) served with tzatziki, or Indian-spiced chicken meatballs (or spinach-chickpea balls), with any good tikka masala or korma sauce. A rich, coconut milk-based sauce is a natural with curried or Thai-flavored meatballs, while a cheese sauce could work beautifully with burger-inspired balls. Barbecue sauce is great with shredded pork, so why not with pork meatballs? If you’re feeling fancy, match duck meatballs with a sauce à l’orange. The possibilities are almost limitless.

Chowhound’s Elk Meatballs with Bourbon Barbecue Sauce recipe

Make Ahead

Another thing meatballs have going for them? They can pretty much all be made ahead of time.

• If you want to freeze raw meatballs, you’ll need space for a sheet pan in your freezer, since tossing them right into a plastic bag means they’ll probably stick together when they freeze (although if you’re going to cook them in a big pot of sauce or slow cooker later, that doesn’t matter so much). Frozen raw meatballs should keep for up to 4 months in the freezer.
• You can also pre-cook your meatballs and then freeze them, to simply re-heat later on. Frozen cooked meatballs are best used within 2-3 months.
• When it comes time to cook or re-heat frozen meatballs, if you’re simmering, slow cooking, pressure cooking, or baking, there’s no need to thaw the meatballs first (though the cook time might increase by a few minutes), but if you’re pan-frying them, then you may want to let them sit in the fridge overnight, or quick-thaw them by placing the bag of meatballs under cold running water.

Cook Your Balls

Pan Frying

This is a good way to get a nice crust on your meatballs, but it is more time-consuming if you need to make them for a crowd, since you’ll have to do multiple batches. You can cook meatballs entirely in a hot pan (non-stick or else slicked with some cooking fat so they don’t adhere and get ruined), in which case you’ll want to turn the heat down once they’re browned so they don’t dry out. Or you can just give them a quick sear to brown the outsides before transferring them to the oven, a slow cooker, or a pot of sauce on the stove to finish cooking.

Baking or Roasting

Baking meatballs still imparts a decent amount of browning, and allows you to cook a lot more of them at once. You can lightly oil your baking sheet(s), or line with foil or parchment paper for easier clean up. Just be sure not to over-bake.

Simmering or Braising

If you’re making a warm sauce, you can cook your meatballs directly in it; easy, and they’ll add their own rich flavor to the sauce as they cook. You can brown them in a pan first if you want, but if you’d rather not dirty another dish, just slide the raw meatballs (frozen, fresh, or thawed) into the pan once the sauce is simmering, and let them cook entirely in there. However, if your meat mixture is particularly fatty, you might end up with too much grease floating in your sauce, so use your judgment and fry them first if they need some fat rendered out. If they’re already fully cooked, you’re obviously just simmering them long enough to heat them through.

Slow Cooking

All the benefits of simmering or braising, but no need to watch a pot! Browning first is optional, and you can cook the meatballs from fresh or frozen in your sauce in the slow cooker. The same caveat about especially fatty mixtures applies, though.

Pressure Cooking

If you want to make meatballs in your Instant Pot or other pressure cooker, you can either use fresh, raw meatballs as outlined in this teriyaki turkey meatball recipe, or cook frozen meatballs (whether those are store-bought or previously homemade and saved for later), as outlined here or here. If your appliance’s manual doesn’t include instructions for meatballs, you can find plenty of recipes online, which you can always simply use as a guideline for cooking time and technique if you’re not into the specific ingredients.

Finally, Feast!

Nestled on sandwich bread or slider buns, served over rice, mashed potatoes, noodles, or pasta, added to soup or spring rolls, or just impaled on toothpicks for fast-disappearing party snacks, meatballs are marvelous in all their forms.

Here are some meatball recipes inspired by other meals to whet your appetite and illustrate the world of possibilities when it comes to savory spheres.

Reuben Meatballs

Take Two Tapas

Ground corned beef (use pastrami if you prefer) is added to these meatballs, which are topped with sauerkraut, cheese, and dressing once they’re cooked. You could experiment with adding rye bread crumbs to the meatballs themselves, or simply offer rye toasts alongside. These would be easy to scale up and make on sheet pans or in a slow cooker too—and definitely easier than assembling multiple full-size Reubens for a game day crowd. Get the Reuben Meatballs recipe.

Chicken Parmesan Meatballs

Alton Brown

All the glorious flavors of chicken Parm in a slightly tidier package, and with way fewer carbs (although if that’s not a concern, these would be fantastic piled on a crusty hoagie roll). Get the Chicken Parmesan Meatballs recipe.

Slow Cooker Barbecue Bacon Cheeseburger Meatballs

Betty Crocker

Turns out Betty Crocker still has some nifty tricks up her sleeve, like stuffing these beauties with cheddar cheese for a Jucy Lucy-esque take on meatballs. If you don’t want to stuff the individual balls, you can also simply put some cheese on top of each one, but either way, be sure to provide plenty of pickles and sauce. These are pretty perfect party bites. Get the Slow Cooker Barbecue Bacon Cheeseburger Meatballs recipe.

Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Meatballs

Damn Delicious

Speaking of perfect party food, check out these buffalo chicken balls. They’re a far healthier (and arguably more convenient) alternative to wings with all the same delicious flavors. Serve with blue cheese, ranch, and celery on the side and watch these vanish in record time. Get the Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Meatballs recipe.

Pepperoni Pizza Meatballs

Blog Chef

If you’re cutting carbs or just don’t want to fuss with crust, try these on for size. For an easier take, you can make this low-carb pizza meatball casserole, but there’s something really delightful about gooey cheese stuffed inside each sphere. The pepperoni is chopped up in the tomato sauce, but you could try adding some to the meat instead (or in addition to). Put these on a pizza for a meta meal, spoon over pasta, or just serve them with toothpicks as a game day appetizer. Get the Pepperoni Pizza Meatballs recipe.

Low Carb Loaded Nacho Meatballs

I Breathe I’m Hungry

Attempting to eat healthier? Or just wary of soggy chips? These low carb keto meatballs pack bold nacho flavor into each bite. If you want a bit more goo, you could opt for a nacho cheese sauce on your Mexican-spiced meatballs, but these do have cheddar on top and mixed into the meatball itself. Get the Low Carb Loaded Nacho Meatballs recipe.

Kung Pao Chicken Meatballs

Kevin is Cooking

Peanut butter, chile paste, and soy sauce lend amazing flavor (and moisture) to these chicken meatballs, which are topped off with a quick kung pao sauce and plenty of peanuts, scallions, and dried chiles. Serve over rice for a full meal, or as a novel and delicious appetizer or cocktail party nibble. Get the Kung Pao Chicken Meatballs recipe.

Turkey and Stuffing Meatballs

Foodie with Family

In case it’s been long enough since Thanksgiving that you’re actually starting to crave those flavors again, these meatballs combine stuffing and ground turkey for a much easier take on the classic holiday tastes. Serve with cranberry sauce, or make a cranberry glaze to coat the meatballs. And it only makes sense to serve them with mashed potatoes and gravy. Get the Turkey and Stuffing Meatballs recipe.

Related Video: ‘Mob Wives’ Star Renee Graziano Makes Meatballs

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12 Irish Foods To Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day That Aren’t Corned Beef and Cabbage

Every St. Patrick’s Day since I can remember, my mother has made our traditional celebratory meal of corned beef and cabbage, with a side of soda bread. And though I’m about 25 percent Irish (thanks Ancestry.com!), I’ve never been what you would call “into” this traditional meal. Still, any proper quarter Irish woman wants to celebrate her heritage on this fine Irish holiday, which is why I started researching alternative St. Paddy’s Day meals to eat that didn’t involve homemade corned beef.

The history of Irish cuisine or traditional Irish food is actually quite complex—British colonialism and the Great Famine obviously had a huge impact on what is technically now considered traditional Irish fare. (Despite the fact that potatoes are what Ireland seems to be known for, they were actually brought by British settlers.) And though Irish cuisine is much more diverse than it gets credit for, much of it is categorically hearty (makes sense since clouds and rain are prevalent here—they don’t call it the Emerald Isle for nothing). The reality is however, if you walk into any Dublin pub you’ll find a varied, traditional menu that may not have the word cabbage written once. But most likely you will have a meal that is perfect for soaking up an Irish stout. Here’s how to bring some Dublin pub food into your own kitchen come St. Patrick’s Day without even cruising by the cabbage in the grocery store.

1. Champ

Similar to the better known colcannon, champ is a flavorful combination of mashed potatoes, scallions and a whole lot of butter (sidenote: there’s a lot of dairy in Irish food in general as dairy farming is and always has been big here). Eat it as a side for breakfast alongside Irish bacon or at dinner with pork or beef. Even if you’re not Irish, consuming this amount of dairy in this recipe for dinner might make you an honorary Irishman for at least a night. Get the Champ recipe.

2. Black Pudding and White Pudding

Chowhound

Often served for a traditional Irish breakfast alongside eggs or bacon, these puddings are not like the sweet chocolate or rice puddings you’re imagining. Black and white puddings are cased sausages made from a varying combination of ground meat, oatmeal, fat, and starch fillers. What sets apart black pudding, also called blood sausage, is the ingredient of pig’s blood. Don’t let that turn you off, though, this is the perfect breakfast comfort food. Get the Black Pudding recipe.

3. Oysters

Chowhound

Ireland is, after all, an island! Much like other cool climate islands in the north—looking at you Iceland—fish and shellfish play a large part in Ireland’s food economy. If you’re wondering where to go in Ireland for your Native Flat Irish Oysters, look no further than Galway, who hosts a renowned yearly Oyster Festival. Ireland also has Pacific oysters year round, but it’s the luxurious seasonal native oyster (only available April-September) that draws crowds. Flat oysters served au natural with Guinness and buttered soda bread is the only way to make this a meal, according to locals. (See our guide to appreciating and eating oysters.)

4. Boxty

Chowhound

Much like a latke, a boxty is the Irish version of a potato pancake, one of the main differences being the use of mashed and chopped potatoes for texture, like in this recipe. This is an Irish classic and potatoes are often immediately associated with Ireland because of the famine, even though ironically enough they weren’t actually introduced to Irish cuisine until almost the 17th century by Sir Walter Raleigh, via the Americas. Get our Boxty (Irish Potato Pancake) recipe.

5. Irish Goat Cheese

St Tola

As previously mentioned, Ireland’s dairy products are aplenty because of the endless lush green pastures perfect for cows to  graze. Classic cheddar is an Irish favorite, but specialized goat cheese is also a pride of many Irish farmers. Try this flavorful St. Tola Ash Log for a smokey flavor not found outside the isle.

6. Beef and Guinness Stew

Chowhound

Guinness is clearly one of the most Irish things you can imbibe and if you ever make it to the Guinness Factory in Dublin to taste the freshest, crispest pint you’ve ever had, you’ll truly understand why. It’s no wonder it’s Irish tradition to use this thick stout for a rich and beefy dinner stew like this one. Get our Guinness-Braised Beef recipe.

7. Blaa

IrishCentral

This soft and fluffy yeast bread originated in the Irish town of Waterford, an adaptation of a recipe brought by French Huguenot refugees fleeing persecution by the Catholic Church. Covered in white flour like this recipe, blaa tastes quite similar to what Americans would classify as a dinner roll, but is often served at breakfast or used for sandwiches. Get the Blaa recipe.

8. Shepherd’s Pie

Chowhound

A hearty combination of ground beef, veggies and mashed potatoes, this simple dish is an Irish staple. Often referred to as a cottage pie, or meat pie, Shepherd’s Pie is traditionally made with lamb and named for the shepherds who tend to sheep. Get our Shepherd’s Pie recipe.

9. Barmbrack

Seasons and Suppers

Lesser known than its soda bread counterpart, barmbrack (brack for short) is an Irish sweet bread usually made with various kinds of raisins. Similar to the Mardi Gras tradition of baking a toy baby into a king cake, it’s common for this bread to have a prize baked into it for Halloween as an apparent predictor of fortunes. Get the Barmbrack recipe.

10. Coddle

IrishCentral

Coddle came about as a way to use up leftover meat Thursday evenings before the Catholic tradition of meatless Fridays for lent. It’s a slow cooked stew usually made up of stock, scraps of meat like Irish bacon or sausage and various vegetables. This stew has a little bit of everything, and is often referred to as ‘Dublin Coddle’ to delineate where the recipe came from. Get the Coddle recipe.

11. Bangers and Mash

Co+op Stronger Together

Often thought of as a British staple, Bangers and Mash is also considered an Irish staple. Strangely called bangers because UK’s post World War I sausages were often filled with non-meat products causing them to pop and crack when cooked, these sausages are combined with mashed potatoes and served alongside homemade gravy. This particular recipe features cabbage in the mix with the potatoes, technically making it bangers and colcannon. Get the Bangers and Mash recipe.

12. Yellowman or Irish Honeycomb

CulturEatz

Even though Yellowman sounds kind of like a Marvel super villain, it’s actually a type of toffee candy famed for being a mainstay at Ballycastle’s 400 year old Ould Lammas Fair. Often compared to honeycomb toffee, what makes this toffee recipe stand out is the very hard and crunchy rind— there’s even a song about it! Get the Irish Yellowman Candy recipe.

Related Video: How to Crisp Up a Sausage

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Pasta e Fagioli

A soup of many names, Pasta e Fagioli, Pasta Fagioli, or Pasta Fazool, this classic Italian soup of beans and short pasta with tomatoes and vegetables is a classic favorite.

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