Recipe
🥙 LUNCH
Stoemp met Worst
A rustic Belgian mash of potatoes crushed with carrots and softened leeks, seasoned with nutmeg and served with browned pork sausages and mustard.
Belgian · easy · serves 4
prep 15 min · cook 30 min
~804 cal · 25g protein · 55g carbs · 54g fat · 8g fiber · 9g sugars · 23g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Stoemp is Belgium’s answer to a vegetable mash: homely, substantial and deliberately unfussy. The name comes from the Brabantian and Flemish verb "stoempen", meaning to mash or crush roughly, and that is the defining feature. Unlike a smooth purée, stoemp is kept coarse and rustic, with the vegetables crushed into the potato so you can still see and taste them.
The base is always potato, but the vegetable folded through it changes with the season and the household: carrot and leek is a classic combination, but cabbage, kale, Brussels sprouts, spinach or endive all appear. It is enriched with butter and milk or cream and seasoned simply with nutmeg and black pepper. It belongs to the same family as Dutch stamppot, Irish colcannon and English bubble and squeak, but tends to be creamier from the dairy.
Served plainly it is a side dish, but topped with browned pork sausages (stoemp met worst) and a spoon of Dijon mustard, it becomes a proper café-style meal. It is also good with bacon, meatballs in tomato sauce, or a fried egg.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally gluten-, egg- and nut-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
1 kg floury potatoes, peeled and chunked
300 g carrots, peeled and diced
2 leeks, sliced and washed
60 g butter
150 ml whole milk
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
to taste black pepper and salt
2 tbsp chopped parsley
8 pork sausages
2 tbsp Dijon mustard, to serve
Instructions
1
Boil the potatoes and carrots in salted water until very tender, about 15-18 minutes, then drain well.
2
Meanwhile, soften the sliced leek in half the butter over medium heat for 8-10 minutes until sweet, without browning.
3
Return the drained potatoes and carrots to the hot pot for a minute to steam-dry, then add the milk, remaining butter, nutmeg, salt and pepper and mash until rustic but cohesive. Fold in the leeks and parsley.
✎ Chef’s note
Steam-drying the drained vegetables first keeps the stoemp fluffy rather than watery; leave it coarse, not smooth.
4
Brown the sausages in a little butter or oil over medium heat, turning, for 12-15 minutes until cooked through.
5
Spoon the stoemp onto plates, top with the sausages, and serve with Dijon mustard on the side.
Belgian café and home cooking.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Flanders. Flanders cooks with beer the way other regions cook with wine, most famously in carbonnade, beef braised slowly in dark ale until sweet and deep. Endive, waterzooi stews, mussels, twice-fried potatoes, and some of the world's most serious chocolate round out the table.
🗺️
Belgium. Beer culture in Belgium was inscribed by UNESCO in 2016, and the inscription counts almost 1,500 beers made by several different fermentation methods, notes the Trappist breweries that pass profits to charity, and records that beer goes into the cooking as well as the glass, including cheeses washed in it. Liege and Brussels waffles are two different products, not two names for one.
🌍
Europe. A surprising amount of European cooking is under five hundred years old. Tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, maize, beans and chocolate all crossed from the Americas after 1492, and none of them was trusted quickly: the potato took most of the eighteenth century to be accepted as food rather than animal fodder across much of the north.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Belgium
Carbonnade FlamandeBeef braised in dark Belgian beer with onions and a mustard-slathered slice of bread, sweet-sour, deep, and made for frites.
Belgian WafflesDeep-pocketed waffles, crisp outside and fluffy within, dusted with sugar or topped with fruit.
Moules-FritesA steaming pot of mussels cooked in white wine and shallots, served with a heap of crisp Belgian fries.
Browse all Belgium recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan, Steamer.
Storing it: Thickens as it sits. Reheat with extra water or milk to loosen, and keep 2 to 3 days refrigerated.
Make it a Belgium meal
SpeculoosDessert
Carbonnade FlamandeDinner
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Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Stoemp met Worst?
A rustic Belgian mash of potatoes crushed with carrots and softened leeks, seasoned with nutmeg and served with browned pork sausages and mustard.
Where does Stoemp met Worst come from?
Stoemp met Worst is a Belgian dish from Flanders, Belgium.
Can Stoemp met Worst be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Stoemp met Worst recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Stoemp met Worst safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Stoemp met Worst take to make?
About 45 minutes total (15 minutes prep, 30 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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