Bubble and Squeak Bites

These little beauties are just 3 ingredients (plus some oil to fry the onions) and make great finger food for little vegans and a great side dish for adults.

All you need are potatoes, cabbage, onion and a dash of oil. I used 4 medium/large potatoes, 500g of cabbage (I used white because that was what I had in the fridge but green would have looked great) and 2 medium onions. This made enough for 3 meals for all of us (with the adults having another dish with it).

Boil the cabbage and the potatoes. If you are cooking them together start the potatoes off first as they take longer to cook. No need to peel the potatoes as there is lots of goodness in the skins (although they do need chopping. I cut them into about 6 pieces each and shredded the cabbage). While these are cooking, fry the onions (diced) in your oil- probably about a tablespoon.

Once all of the vegetables are cooked, mash the potatoes and mix in the cabbage and onions. Fashion into small "cakes". The first time I cooked these I fried the cakes but found that they fell apart but the next time I baked them for about 10 minutes at 180 degrees celcius until they started to brown. When they were baked they held their shape much more easily and was better finger food for mini fingers.

Little Miss really seemed to enjoy these. Next time I may try adding some garlic into the mix to add to the flavours. Nutritional yeast could be added to the mash for a cheesy taste and to add vitamins. You could also add margarine and/or soya yoghurt to the mash to make it more creamy.

These are the fried version and had to be remolded back to shape

These are the baked version

I am not very good at frying foods well (pancakes often turn into what we now call "scramble") so you may have more success with frying  but I like how the baked version is dry and crispy on the outside but fluffy on the inside.

I froze about 20 of these small cakes in the freezer and popped them straight in a warm oven for easy snacks or meals which worked great. These will go with most foods so are very handy to have on standby although I found them quite addictive.

I hope you and your little ones enjoy these.

Jules XOXO