My absolute favorite part of St. Patrick's Day is definitely the food! Corned beef and cabbage with carrots and potatoes, Irish Stew, Irish Soda Bread, Colcannon! I love it all!
The best part about St. Patrick's Day is you don't have to choose Irish dishes for your meals or parties. You can easily put a ‘lucky' spin on just about any dish you want. Add a little green food coloring to your eggs or drinks (like beer) or give them creative, themed names (Leprechaun bars). Be creative and have fun with it!
In this post, you'll find ideas for other ethnic cuisines than just Irish. Tell me what you think of the ones you try and I love when readers share ideas with me, as well! What's your spin on St. Patrick's Day food?
Sláinte!
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/272256739963068715/Corned Beef and Cabbage – The go to meal
Buy prepared corned beef at the grocery store deli. The potatoes can be ready to heat and serve. Carrots can be carrot sticks or baby carrots. Serve with bread or rolls. This is an easy dinner if you don't want to cook. If you do want to cook, it's still easy. Simmer the corned beef in a slow cooker for 4 to 6 hours. Add carrots, cabbage, and potatoes during the last few hours.
Traditional And Not So Traditional St. Patrick's Menu
All American St. Patrick's Menu
Hot dogs served with pickle relish, “green” mayo and “green” mustard. Add liquid green food coloring to change both to green colors. Mustard takes more color to change. Make sure to label them, they end up looking the same.
Cole Slaw can be store bought or homemade. Homemade is one package of shredded cabbage or bagged coleslaw mix. Add ½ cup of mayonnaise, a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, and a tablespoon of sugar. Mix well. Salt to taste.
Crackers with green cream cheese spread or cheese wiz/spray sprinkled with dried or fresh parsley.
Green apple salad: 3 chopped green apples with skin on, 1 cup of chopped celery, ½ cup chopped walnuts, 1 cup of green grapes, ¼ – ½ cup of mayo, salt and pepper if desired. Mix all ingredients together in a bowl with a fair amount of mayo coating all ingredients. Use enough mayo so that the ingredients can absorb the mayo. Refrigerate at least two hours.
Italian St. Patrick's Menu
Spinach pasta with Alfredo sauce. Sprinkle minced parsley or basil over top for more “green” effect or your choice of plain pasta with pesto sauce. Serve pesto on the side if you want to have plain pasta for the children available.
Baked Italian bread: Take loaf of Italian bread and cut lengthwise. Spread butter or margarine on both halves. Sprinkle grated parmesan cheese, parsley, and basil. Bake on about 350 degrees in oven watching carefully. Bake until toasted.
Cooked asparagus or broccoli with melted cheddar cheese. Melt the cheese and add green food color if you like. Caesar salad or simple garden salad with Italian dressing.
Mexican Food St. Patrick's Menu
Tostadas: Top corn tostadas with warm refried beans, cheddar cheese and shredded lettuce. Top with green salsa or verde sauce. You can add taco seasoned hamburger if you like, just end up with the green lettuce and salsa.
Cheese Quesadillas topped with sprinkled parsley or cilantro.
Nacho cheese dip: Melted pasteurized process cheese spread with green color added.
Guacamole: Homemade or store bought. Guacamole is easy to make, simply mash an avocado. Add finely chopped onions and tomatoes and hot sauce. Serve with tortilla chips
Corn muffins- Use favorite corn muffin mix add diced green bell pepper or chopped cilantro, jalapeno and/or cheese. Any combination works well. You can add some green food coloring if you like. Bake following the muffin mix directions. Sprinkle the muffin tops with grated cheddar cheese about 5 minutes for taking out of the oven.
Breakfast Ideas for St. Patrick's Day
Green Eggs and Ham: Heat up diced ham in pan then prepare scramble eggs and right before you cook the eggs add liquid green food color to eggs then cook. Serve w/green grapes, honey dew melon, kiwi or green apple.
Lucky breakfast: Layer lucky charms cereal and vanilla or key lime pie yogurt. Serve with the green fruit above.
St. Patty's Pancakes:
Make your pancakes recipe adding green liquid food coloring. If you have special pancake shapers use them to make a clover or top hat shape. You can use cookie cutters made purely out of metal but they get very hot and have to pull off pan with tongs. If you make small silver dollar size pancakes. Put three of them together in a shamrock shape on the plate. Outline the shape with whipped cream and then drizzle with mint jelly. Or pancake syrup. Or top with Lucky Charms cereal!
Serve toasted bagels with cream cheese tinted green and orange marmalade. Or toast with mint jelly. Cut an orange in half and that's your pot of gold. Cut a large orange in half, scrape out the orange and save for another use. Fill the orange with pineapple junks for the gold.
Toad in the Hole: A class English breakfast gone Irish. Spray large muffin tin with cooking spray. Butter a slice of white bread. Gently push the bread into the muffin cup to form a cup shape. Break a raw egg into each toast cup. Salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle with chopped fresh parsley, spinach or a mixture of your favorite herbs. Bake at 350 until eggs are set, about 15 minutes. Lift the toast cups out of the muffin tin and serve.
Green Quiche: add spinach to your favorite quiche recipe. About 15 minutes before the quiche is done, add chopped raw spinach to cover the top. The spinach will wilt by the time the quiche is done.
All breakfasts can be served with green fruit. You can also mix and match. Have green eggs and ham, toast topped with mint jelly and green grapes.
St Patrick's Day Party Food
A lot of people love Caesar salad but if you tell them it has anchovies, “fish,” in it, forget about it. So try to embellish or create a new name for a dish. For example broccoli with cheese sauce try using the name “Lucky the Leprechaun's clover trees with melted gold sauce” or if you are using minced herbs over food for a green color effect, tell your family it's “Lucky the Leprechaun's magical clover/shamrock flakes.
If you're a little unsure about picky eaters always serve one dish you know is a hit. Or serve sauces & dips on the side. Be creative. Think Shamrock green and pot of gold yellow.
Cucumber bites – Use a vegetable peeler to cut lengthwise strips of peel down four sides of large cucumber leaving some visible peel, making a square shape. Cut cucumber into 1 inch chunks. With a melon baler scoop out a hole in the middle of the cucumber where the seeds are to create a bite size bowl. Be sure not to go to deep you want the bottom to stay in tack. Fill with garlic and herb cream cheese, or dill dip.
St. Patty's Vegetable table tray- Cut up broccoli, cucumber, celery, green bell peppers, snap peas, green beans and zucchini (all green vegetables) – use ranch or dill dip. For extra color sprinkle minced parsley or dill in and on top of dip. Accent with yellow vegetables such as yellow pear tomatoes and yellow summer squash,
St. Patrick's fruit tray- Use green grapes, sliced green apple, sliced kiwi, balled honeydew melon, sliced green pears and star fruit. Add yellow fruits if you like. Use tooth picks to pick up fruit and dip into vanilla yogurt or key lime pie yogurt.
Clover Dip – Use your favorite spinach dip. Such as Knorr's vegetable recipe mix. Serve with vegetables, crackers, or French baguette bread slices
Saint Patty's pickle tray – Serve dill pickles, and sweet pickles of different varieties, shapes and sizes. You can an assortment of olives if you like.
Irish Deviled Eggs – Hard Boil eggs. Gently crack shells of the eggs, by rolling on a hard surface, but don't remove the shells. Place half of the eggs in 2 cup of hot water, two tablespoons of vinegar and 20 to 40 drops green food coloring. The dye bath should cover the eggs. Let the eggs sit in the dye bath for about 10 minutes. Take out one egg and remove the shell. The white of the egg should now be green and veined with darker green where the dye got through. If not let the eggs stay in the dye bath a little longer. Use your favorite deviled egg recipe. For the other half of the eggs, add chopped green herbs to the egg yolk to turn it green. Or add a few drops of food color to the yolks. A simple recipe for deviled eggs just add mayonnaise and mustard to the yolks.
Magic Leprechaun bundles – Fill lettuce leaf with a tablespoon or so of tuna salad, chicken salad or ham salad. Fold the lettuce leaf around the salad as if you were wrapping a package. Tuck ends underneath. If you use different kinds of salad wrap each in a different kind of lettuce. Some people don't like surprises and if they think they're biting into chicken salad and get tuna instead, well….
Irish Potatoes: Mix sour cream with your favorite dill dip mix or buy ready-made. Bake small red potatoes until done. Cut in half. Place a dollop of dip on each half. Place on a tray dip side up. You might have to gently squash the potato half against the tray so it doesn't roll. Sprinkle with extra dill or chopped parsley. Best served warm but good at room temperature as well.
Pea Salad: Two cans (don't use fresh or frozen) of baby peas, sweet peas, or early peas, drained. ½ cup finely chopped onion or scallions, ½ cup cheddar cheese cut into ¼ inch cubes. You can also use shredded cheese, ½ cup mayonnaise, pepper to taste. Mix thoroughly, gently mash some of the peas into the mixture. Refrigerate for at least two hours. Cheese will start to melt into the mayonnaise. Place a scoop of pea salad on a plastic spoon. Arrange filled plastic spoons on a tray.
For dips hollow out green and gold bell peppers to create bowls to hold dips. You might have to shave just a tiny bit off the bottom of the pepper so it's level.
Hollowed out heads of cabbage heads could be used for holding salads.
Drinks
Simple green drink ideas: Lime Kool-aide
Lime Rain Gatorade
Lemon-line soda
Limeade Concentrate Juice
*use frozen green grapes as ice cubes and add sliced limes to most of these drinks. More drink ideas and recipes below:
Clover Punch:
1 can frozen limeade concentrate thawed
¾ cup lemonade concentrate
¼ cup sugar, optional
2 cups water
Use liquid green food coloring to desired color. For a lighter green add more yellow food coloring than green. Experiment for color mix above ingredients in punch bowl and then add 2 liters of chilled ginger ale.
Serve over ice or frozen grapes. Add lime slices and cherries to punch bowl if desired makes 3 quarts.
St. Patty's Lime Pizzazz Drink:
1 pint (2cups) lime sherbet softened slightly
1 cup club soda
1 cup crushed ice cubes
3 tablespoon presweetened lemonade flavor drink mix
Process all ingredients in blender until smooth. Because of carbonation use hand towel held over lid to blender serve immediately so drinks don't become watery. Makes about four six ounce servings.
Leprechaun Refresher
This one is more time consuming and more work. The recipe is for 1 serving. So for a party the recipe needs to be multiplied
Blend ½ cup milk
1 scoop vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt
4 drop mint extract
3 ice cubes
3 drop liquid green food color
Blend until smooth serve into chilled glasses add a splash of club soda and top with whipped cream.