Chef Joost
Andijviestamppot
The Dutch trick is not cooking the andijvie at all: let the hot potatoes do the work, so the greens soften, stay bright, and keep their clean bitter bite.
Culinary Explorer
A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.
Spruitjesstamppot (Dutch Brussels Sprout Mash)
Created by
Spruitjesstamppot is the winter mash that redeems the vegetable Dutch children feared: roasted little sprouts, floury potatoes, red onion, and crisp bacon, pounded together with just enough butter to make peace.
Main Dishes
Dutch
Weeknight
Budget Friendly
One Pot
15 min
Active Time
40 min cook•55 min total
Yield4 servings
The vegetables in my grandmother's second notebook arrive with weather on them. Sprouts after the first hard cold. Potatoes from the sack under the stairs. Red onions because even a frugal pot deserves a little sweetness. This is the family-table doorway for spruitjesstamppot, not a feast day, not a painted banquet, just the grey Tuesday food that teaches a country what it really eats.
But let me tell you a secret. Most people who say they hate spruitjes don't hate Brussels sprouts; they hate the memory of them boiled to a grey-green apology in school kitchens. The sprout is innocent. Water did the damage. Roast the halved sprouts first and the cut faces brown, the sulfur quiets down, and the nutty sweetness steps forward like it had been there all along.
The name already tells you how plainspoken the dish is. Spruitjes are little sprouts, and stamppot comes from stampen, to pound or mash: not a romance, a kitchen command. Mash them through floury potato with red onion and crisp spekblokjes, smoked bacon cubes, or smoked tempeh when the table needs to be meatless. Hou het altijd simpel. Brown first, mash second, butter in the kuiltje, the little hollow on top, and the old bitterness has nowhere left to hide.
Potato-based stamppot belongs to Dutch cooking after the potato became common in the eighteenth century, when cheap mashed vegetables fed households through the cold months. Brussels sprouts were cultivated around Brussels in the Low Countries and were sufficiently identified with that city that English called them Brussels sprouts by the late eighteenth century; in Dutch kitchens they are simply spruitjes, little sprouts. Spruitjesstamppot is a twentieth-century home variant rather than a festival monument, and that is its point: weekday Dutch food keeping season, thrift, and appetite in one pot.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
floury potatoes (kruimige aardappelen)
Quantity
1kg
peeled and cut into chunks
Brussels sprouts (spruitjes)
Quantity
650g
trimmed and halved
neutral oil
Quantity
2 tablespoons
smoked bacon lardons (spekblokjes, bacon cubes) or smoked tempeh
Quantity
150g
diced if needed
red onions
Quantity
2
thinly sliced
whole milk or unsweetened oat milk
Quantity
125ml
warmed
butter or plant butter
Quantity
40g
coarse Dutch mustard
Quantity
2 teaspoons
freshly grated nutmeg
Quantity
1/4 teaspoon
apple cider vinegar
Quantity
1 tablespoon
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Quantity
to taste
extra butter or plant butter (optional)
Quantity
a little
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| floury potatoes (kruimige aardappelen)peeled and cut into chunks | 1kg |
| Brussels sprouts (spruitjes)trimmed and halved | 650g |
| neutral oil | 2 tablespoons |
| smoked bacon lardons (spekblokjes, bacon cubes) or smoked tempehdiced if needed | 150g |
| red onionsthinly sliced | 2 |
| whole milk or unsweetened oat milkwarmed | 125ml |
| butter or plant butter | 40g |
| coarse Dutch mustard | 2 teaspoons |
| freshly grated nutmeg | 1/4 teaspoon |
| apple cider vinegar | 1 tablespoon |
| salt and freshly ground black pepper | to taste |
| extra butter or plant butter (optional) | a little |
Equipment Needed
- •Large heavy pot or braadpan
- •Sturdy potato masher
- •Rimmed baking tray
Instructions
- 1
Roast the sprouts
Heat the oven to 220C. Toss the halved spruitjes, Brussels sprouts, with 1 tablespoon of the oil, a good pinch of salt, and black pepper, then spread them cut side down on a rimmed baking tray. Roast for 20 to 25 minutes, turning once, until the cut faces are browned and the outer leaves have crisped at the edges. That browning is not decoration; it is the difference between sweetness and the old school-kitchen bitterness.
Give the sprouts space. A crowded tray traps moisture and sends you straight back to the boiled version everyone claims to hate. - 2
Boil the potatoes
Put the potatoes in a large pot, cover with cold water, and add a tablespoon of salt. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 18 to 20 minutes, until a knife slides through without resistance. Drain them well and let them sit in the colander for a minute; wet potatoes make a slack stamppot, and nobody asked for that.
- 3
Brown bacon and onion
Return the empty pot to medium heat. Add the spekblokjes, smoked bacon cubes, and cook until the fat renders and the edges turn crisp. If using smoked tempeh or vegan spekjes, start with the remaining tablespoon of oil and a pinch of salt. Add the red onions and cook for 6 to 8 minutes, stirring often, until they are soft and browned at the edges. Stir in the vinegar and scrape the bottom of the pot clean. Spoon a third of the mixture into a small bowl for the top.
- 4
Mash the potatoes
Return the drained potatoes to the pot with the remaining onion and bacon. Add the warmed milk, butter, mustard, and nutmeg, then mash with a sturdy potato masher until rough and creamy. Do not use a blender. Stamppot should have shoulders, not wallpaper paste.
- 5
Fold and finish
Fold in the roasted sprouts, crushing some into the potato and leaving some browned pieces visible. Taste for salt and pepper. Spoon the stamppot into a serving bowl, make a kuiltje, a little hollow, in the top, and let a small knob of butter settle there if you like. Scatter over the reserved bacon and onion and bring it straight to the table.
Chef Tips
- •Spruitjes are a cold-month vegetable, best from roughly October to March, and they are sweeter after frost. In June, make the same mash with young green cabbage and save this one for its season.
- •Buy small, tight sprouts with bright green leaves. Yellowing leaves and a strong cabbage smell before cooking are not signs of character; they are signs to choose another box.
- •For a vegetarian or vegan table, use smoked tempeh or vegan spekjes, oat milk, and plant butter. Add a small pinch of smoked paprika if the tempeh is mild; the dish wants smoke, not meat by law.
- •Mash by hand. A machine turns potato starch gluey, and stamppot is meant to be rough enough that you can still see what went into it.
Advance Preparation
- •Trim and halve the sprouts up to 24 hours ahead; keep them dry and covered in the refrigerator so they roast instead of sag.
- •Peel the potatoes up to 12 hours ahead and hold them covered in cold water; drain before cooking.
- •Leftover stamppot keeps three days refrigerated. Reheat gently with a splash of milk or oat milk, and crisp a little fresh bacon or tempeh for the top if you want the texture back.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 455g)
Calories
550 calories
Total Fat
27 g
Saturated Fat
10 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
15 g
Cholesterol
45 mg
Sodium
980 mg
Total Carbohydrates
64 g
Dietary Fiber
10 g
Sugars
9 g
Protein
17 g
Where cooking meets culture.
Culinary guides, cultural storytelling, and the editorial depth that makes cooking meaningful.
Discover Culinary ExplorerMore from Stamppot & One-Pot Winter Mains
Browse the full collection
Chef Joost
Boerenkoolstamppot met Rookworst
The name means farmer's cabbage mash, and there it is: winter kale, floury potatoes, smoked sausage, and the Dutch talent for making severity generous.
Chef Joost
Friese Sipelstamp
The name says it plainly: sipel is Frisian for onion, stamp is the mash, and together they make the northern weeknight dish a beppe knew by heart.
Chef Joost
Hete Bliksem (Dutch Potato, Apple, and Pear Mash)
The name warns you before the spoon does: Hete Bliksem is potato mashed with apple and pear, a humble Dutch supper that hides its heat like a family secret.