Recipe
🍽️ DINNER
Stamppot Boerenkool
Kale mashed straight into potatoes with a well of gravy and smoked sausage, the Netherlands’ winter engine.
Dutch · easy · serves 4
prep 15 min · cook 30 min
~534 cal · 15g protein · 52g carbs · 30g fat · 6g fiber · 5g sugars · 14g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Stamppot is winter food for the flat, cold Low Countries, and its season opens with the first hard frost, which Dutch growers swear sweetens the boerenkool, the curly kale, out in the field. At its simplest it is potatoes and a green (kale, endive, or sauerkraut) boiled together and mashed into one soft, comforting mound.
It is unpretentious by design, and the Dutch are fond of it for exactly that reason. One pot, one masher, and a coiled smoked sausage, rookworst, laid on top to warm through so its juices soak down into the mash. A well pressed into the middle for gravy or a knob of butter is as elaborate as it gets.
The most famous cousin, hutspot, carries a national memory: the story goes that when the Spanish siege of Leiden broke in 1574, the fleeing soldiers left behind pots of a carrot, onion, and potato mash, and the starving city ate it in celebration. Stamppot is still eaten in that spirit, plain, warming, and quietly proud.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally gluten-, nut- and egg-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
2.5 lbs floury potatoes, peeled
6 cups curly kale, stripped and chopped
1 ring rookworst (smoked sausage)
Hard to find? a horseshoe of Polish kielbasa or another lightly smoked, cooked sausage - coarser and more garlicky than the fine, gently spiced rookworst, but it warms through on the mash the same way
4 tbsp butter
2/3 cup warm milk
2 tsp for the mash, plus more to serve mustard
to taste black pepper
1 tbsp a splash of vinegar or gherkin brine
1 cup gravy (from ), to serve
a scrape nutmeg
Instructions
1
Boil the potatoes in salted water; lay the kale on top for the last 10 minutes and the sausage on top of that to warm through.
2
Lift out the sausage; drain the pot well.
3
Mash the potatoes and kale together with the butter, warm milk, mustard, nutmeg, the splash of vinegar, and plenty of salt and pepper, rustic, not smooth.
✎ Chef’s note
Salt, nutmeg and a little acid are what make stamppot taste of something. Kale is bitter and potato is bland, and the mash soaks up seasoning, so taste and season again at the end.
4
Mound onto plates, press a well into each, and fill it with gravy.
5
Slice the sausage over the top and serve with sharp mustard. Winter handled.
Dutch farm-winter tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Gelderland. The Dutch province of Gelderland cooks hearty country food, stamppot, smoked sausage, and rich winter stews. Farmland and forest shape its comforting table.
🗺️
Netherlands. Dutch food is hearty and unpretentious, stamppot mash, split-pea snert, herring eaten by hand, and an epic love of cheese. A colonial past brings Indonesian rijsttafel and sweet treats like stroopwafels and hagelslag.
🌍
Europe. Europe has written a great deal of its food into law. A regulation of 1992 created the protected designation of origin and the protected geographical indication, tying a name to a place and a method, and an EU evaluation published in 2021 counted more than three thousand registered names across those schemes, from cheeses and hams down to particular shapes of bread.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Netherlands
WentelteefjesStale bread turned in cinnamon-sugar custard and fried in butter until golden, the classic Dutch way to use up an old loaf.
UitsmijterFried eggs over ham and cheese on buttered bread, the Dutch open-faced lunch plate served any time of day.
StroopwafelTwo thin waffle wafers pressed around a layer of warm caramel syrup, the Dutch treat meant to rest on your coffee cup.
Browse all Netherlands recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan.
Storing it: Stews and braises keep 3 to 4 days refrigerated and often taste better the next day. Reheat gently, adding a splash of water if it has thickened.
Make it a Netherlands meal
PoffertjesDessert
UitsmijterLunch
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Frequently asked questions
What is Stamppot Boerenkool?
Kale mashed straight into potatoes with a well of gravy and smoked sausage, the Netherlands’ winter engine.
Where does Stamppot Boerenkool come from?
Stamppot Boerenkool is a Dutch dish from Gelderland, Netherlands.
Can Stamppot Boerenkool be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Stamppot Boerenkool 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 Stamppot Boerenkool 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 Stamppot Boerenkool take to make?
About 45 minutes total (15 minutes prep, 30 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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