Bubble and Squeak is the funny name given to a dish made of leftovers from a British roast dinner. Leftover mashed potato is mixed with leftover cabbage and cooked in butter.

Patties on a wood board with gravy

It is said that this dish originates back to 1770 and originally contained meat, boiled beef actually. It wasn’t until around 1951 that the meat was omitted and only potatoes and vegetables started to be used and that has carried on until now.

This bubble and squeak recipe is very similar to Irish colcannon (pic below) which is a mix of mashed potato and cabbage, bubble and squeak is cooked again after mixing, where colcannon is served more like mashed potato.

A fork full of colcannon

A great use of Sunday dinner, Thanksgiving or Christmas leftovers that  included mashed potato.

Depending on what you had for your roast dinner, there’s any combination of ingredients that can be used but there must be potato as the main ingredient. How I was taught to make it by my mother is, after mixing it all gets put in a pan with melted butter and cook until the potato is browned.

Now, this does not make for prettiest of dishes when made this way. For the sake of presentation, I form the mix into patties and shallow fried in a pan. Food should look appetizing after all.

Pouring onion gravy over banger and mash

If you don’t have the leftovers to make these potato patties, I have been known to make the potatoes and cabbage just so I can enjoy this dish. There’s no real traditional way to serve bubble and squeak but on this particular occaision I made British bangers and gravy (picture above).

What’s in a name? Bubble and Squeak has 2 meanings. The one I know is that it came from the sounds the ingredients make as they cook, the other (which I’m no so sure about) is the noises your stomach makes after eating it.

If you’ve made this Bubble and Squeak Recipe or any other recipe leave a comment below. I love to hear from my readers!

Yield: 6

Bubble and Squeak

5 Bubble and squeak on a board with onion gravy

Leftover mashed potato is mixed with leftover cabbage and cooked in butter until browned.

Prep Time 1 minute
Cook Time 6 minutes
Total Time 7 minutes

Ingredients

  • 6 cups (768 grams) leftover mashed potatoes
  • 2 cups (256 grams) cabbage
  • 1 tablespoon (15 grams) salted butter

Instructions

  1. To a large bowl add the mashed potato and cabbage. Mix until the cabbage is well mixed.
  2. Take 1 cup of the mix and shape into patties. You can flour your hands if they are too sticky. Repeat until all the mix is used.
  3. Add the butter to a sauté pan over medium heat. Once melted and bubbling cook the patties until browned about 2-3 minutes, turned and repeat.

Nutrition Information

Yield

6

Serving Size

1

Amount Per Serving Calories 266Total Fat 11gSaturated Fat 3gTrans Fat 1gUnsaturated Fat 5gCholesterol 7mgSodium 719mgCarbohydrates 38gFiber 4gSugar 4gProtein 5g