Corned Beef, Cabbage, and Potato Gratin

This easy casserole makes a one-dish St. Patrick’s Day meal

Ready for St. Pat’s Day? Craving some corned beef and cabbage, but don’t have the time to make it? We’ve got the solution.

This dish combines the three most popular elements of a traditional St. Patrick’s Day dinner – corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes – into one scrumptious dish. And you can use deli corned beef rather than cooking your own – a real time saver.

So you’ll have more time to celebrate. You lucky leprechaun, you.

Easy Corned Beef Hash

Top With a Fried Egg for Extra Flavor

What to do with leftover St. Patrick’s Day Corned Beef?

One popular option is just having a whole second dinner — complete with leftover cabbage and carrots. And because cold Corned Beef sliced thinly makes a dynamite sandwich, that’s another idea.

But my favorite way to use leftover corned beef is to make Corned Beef Hash.  It’s delicious served neat, and even better when topped with a fried or poached egg.

And it’s versatile!  You can eat it for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.  Or even as a late-night snack.

Corned Beef

With or Without Cabbage

When was the last time you cooked Corned Beef?  If you’re like most of us, it was some St. Patrick’s Day in the past. 

It’s one of those dishes I seem to cook only every 3 or 4 years.  I always wonder why.  I love the flavor.  And although Corned Beef is available at every deli counter, it’s rarely as good as home cooked.

So this year I decided it was time to cook Corned Beef again.  It’s a simple dish to make, even if you add the traditional cabbage (and other vegetables).

Easy & Tasty Braised Cabbage

Saint Patrick’s Day Cabbage Never Tasted Better!

Although green cabbage is ubiquitous in every supermarket, for most of us it’s not on the weekly — or even monthly — grocery list.

It’s one of those foods that we may have only occasionally, and then in the same predictable ways — often in coleslaw. Sometimes in stuffed cabbage or cabbage rolls.

And, of course, many of us eat it (or at least serve it) as an accompaniment to corned beef on Saint Patrick’s Day.

Maybe we neglect cabbage because, fairly or not, it is seen as a staple food of “poor” folk — perhaps including our own cash-strapped immigrant ancestors. Even though many of us seek out “ethnic” food, cabbage doesn’t seem to qualify as the right sort of ethnic.

Then there’s the preparation problem. Too often, cabbage is boiled to a pulp, resulting in a limp, bland-tasting, stinky mess.

Well, it’s time to give cabbage its due. Molly Stevens has developed a recipe for braised cabbage that she calls the “World’s Best Braised Green Cabbage.”

After you taste it, you may conclude that it’s not just the best braised cabbage recipe — it’s the best ever cabbage recipe!