Hutspot: yummy Dutch winterfood for people who can't cook

It has been a while since I submitted an instructable, so when I was in the supermarket getting food I thought I might as well make an ible out of my meal today :)...
Let me be the first to say that I can't cook very well. I can keep stuff from burning, and I can probably follow instructions on a recipe, but I neither have much skill nor interest in cooking. Luckily this recipe is very easy...
The traditional Dutch kitchen has a lot of different variety of stamppot and hutspot, consist of mashed potatoes with some vegetables, and usually "rookworst" (smoked sausage) and sometimes diced bacon. You only need one pan, so not that much dishes to do afterward!
For hutspot the vegetables used are carrots and onions.

Step 1 What you need

You only need very basic stuff, as you can see in the picture:

• A large pot
• something to mash potatoes with, a fork works as well
• salt & pepper
• potatoes (the kind that falls apart easily when cooked, I used 1 kilo but you could use more if you want to)
• onions and carrots: b/c hutspot is eaten a lot over here there are the handy prepared boxes. For anyone not living in Holland: if you buy just a small bag of small carrots (maybe use about 3/4ths) and about 5 white onions (just small or average, use 4 if your onions are really big), that will be enough. What you're going for is to have a little bit more carrots than onions, and about the same volume in carrots+onions as potatoes.
• milk or butter: You need something to make the mashed potatoes nice and smooth, I like to use milk but butter works just as well.
• a potato peeler and a knife to cut potatoes with

optional ingredients:

• diced bacon (I've used a 250 grams package) + a small frying pan and some oil/butter
• smoked sausage

Although these are optional, it is a lot nicer if you choose one or use both.

I ate about half of this in one go, so I would say it's a recipe for 2 people.

The nice thing about this recipe is that nothing is critical, there's not really anything you can get wrong, as long as you keep the volume of the potatoes about the same as the volume of the vegetables you can use as much as you like.

Comments

[Lyron]

I am dutch to, some dutch words: ik ben eigenlijk maar 11 jaar oud. i love stamppot

[Ona]

Oooh so good. My husband is 100% Dutch...named Arie. His parents introduced me to Hutspot when we were dating. We had it often and our "kids" now 30 and 26 can't live without it. They have introduced it to their spouses, and since we are new Opa and Oma, our grandaughter Vivien (ya, that's the Dutch spelling) will have it as soon as she is able...she is only 6 months old. Today is St. Patricks Day and our son says, forget Colcannon, it's Hutspot tonight at their table.

[aphrael]

Glad you like it! Did you try other Dutch stamppot recipes as well?

[Ona]

Not really, but my mom in law sometimes but a bit of leftover meat like ham. She made it only when there were leftover spuds, which was often. The Dutch seem big on boiled spuds! She sometimes added leftover bits of ham. We actually make it from scratch, don't wait for leftovers, and have that alone for dinner. Are you Dutch, and do you make any other traditional meals? My husband and I were in Holland last fall to reconnect with all the family. Only his siblings live here in the states. I love it there.

[aphrael]

I am Dutch myself yeah, and we are sure big on potatoes :) I do make other stamppots (with endive or "boerenkool" for instance). Other than that I don't really know what meals would qualify as traditionally Dutch... maybe pea soup? I never make that myself though, I'm not very good in the kitchen :). Stamppot is about all I can manage to make from scratch. Wonderful that you like our little country :) the US is pretty cool though too (assuming you're American?), I visited a friend there last October, had a great time :D. Food-wise you have some great things as well (nice burgers and meal salads in restaurants for instance), but it's usually in an overwhelming quantity if you're used to the European portions! Good food though :)

[ClayOgre]

Actually...a really yummy thing to do with your potato peelings is to deep fry 'em. You need to wash the potatoes really good before you peel them, then just plop the peels into a deep fryer and fry until crisp. Add a bit of salt and eat.

[Jojootje]

Lekkerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!! Deliciousssssssss!!!