10 Irish Breakfast Recipes - Easy Ideas - Traditional St Patrick's Day Food (2024)
10 Irish Breakfast Recipes – Easy ideas for a traditional and authentic full St Patrick’s Day Breakfast Feast to celebrate the food of Ireland.
Irish Breakfast Recipes
These Irish Breakfast Recipes are easy ideas for traditional foods and ideas to celebrate the best of Ireland.
I’ve been lucky enough to have lived here in Ireland for over 4 years and am always amazed at the incredible quality of the produce available here from creamy Irish butter and potatoes to local Irish beef and lamb.(For my inspiration, here’s my full guide to what to eat in Dublin.)
1. Traditional Full Irish Breakfast
If you want to enjoy a feast on St. Patrick’s Day then you can’t go past a traditional full Irish breakfast which usually includes a sunny side fried or poached egg, Irish black pudding, blood pudding or blood sausage, white pudding, Irish bacon, Irish sausages such as pork sausages, button mushrooms, hash browns and baked beans.
As if that isn’t enough of a huge breakfast, serve it all with a slice or two of Irish brown bread with with butter and a cup of tea or orange juice to wash it all down with.
You can include any (or all) of the above main ingredients, cooking them one at a time or in groups of foods in a large frying pan or two.
2. Irish Scrambled Eggs
If you don’t quite feel like a huge breakfast of all the Irish foods, then go for creamy Irish scrambled eggs instead that’s cooked slowly over a low to medium heat on the stove top.
You can enjoy the eggs as a simple gluten free/bread free meal or enjoyed with a slice or two of your Irish bread of choice such as brown soda bread or even Irish soda bread muffins and a little knob of Irish butter.
Potatoes find their way into a number of Irish breakfasts from potato farls and Irish potato bread to these easy potato pancakes that’s the perfect comfort food breakfast. These are often found on an Ulster Fry, which is a traditional breakfast of Northern Ireland.
You could even make green pancakes by infusing the pancakes with spinach or a drop of green food coloring.
4. Breakfast Fritters
A low carb version of potato pancakes are these keto cauliflower fritters that are loaded with Irish corned beef and cooked in a little oil in a frying pan.
Serve as part of a traditional Irish breakfast or simply with Irish bangers or sausage links as a smaller version of a full breakfast.
5. Corned Beef Hash
Another corned beef breakfast is this corned beef hash which includes chopped fried leftover corned beef and chopped cauliflower in a flavorful hearty meal that’s particularly welcome on a cold winter morning.
You could also stick leftover corned beef into a breakfast roll, along with some brown sauce and Irish rashers or slices of bacon for a quick morning meal.
6. Irish Raisin Bread
This Irish Raisin Bread is my version of a traditional homemade Irish Barmbrack loaf that’s full of raisins with every mouthful and perfect when slathered with Irish butter.
If you’re wanting to show Irish love with a hearty green full breakfast cooked in one large skillet in a little butter or olive oil, then you can’t go past this green shakshuka, loaded with loads of gorgeous green vegetables.
8. Green Smoothie
A healthy green breakfast option is this nourishing green smoothie that’s packed full of nutrients and is gloriously green.
9. Irish Oatmeal
I hadn’t really had oatmeal much for breakfast before moving to Ireland. Now, there’s always a pack or two in my pantry so I can make a hearty breakfast like the above pictured chocolate banana oatmeal.
Another oatmeal favorite is this heavenly apple and cinnamon oatmeal that’s loaded with Irish apples and sweet maple syrup or you could use brown sugar instead.
10. Granola Bars
A make ahead recipe with oats are these 4 ingredient granola bars that you can enjoy on the go with a cup of Irish Coffee.
More Traditional Irish Food Ideas
On my travel blog I’ve shared a post with more ideas of what to eat in Ireland to help you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with traditional ingredients.
There’s also a video you can watch below which outlines some of the popular dishes I’ve enjoyed over the past few years of living in Ireland. Hit play below or click here to watch on YouTube.
A traditional full Irish breakfast comprises bacon, sausage, eggs, potatoes, beans, soda bread or toast, tomatoes, mushrooms, and white or black pudding. For those wondering, black pudding coagulates the pig's blood into a sausage form. The white pudding is simply a pork sausage, usually flat.
But a full Irish breakfast usually means a hot meal with a particular set of ingredients. Expect a fully belly and at least one piece of bacon, a sausage and an egg (or three). Toast and butter are also a must. Mushrooms, tomatos, baked beans, hash browns and other regional variations are all optional.
Irish breakfast is a traditional meal consisting of fried eggs, vegetables, potatoes, and meats such as bacon, sausages, and both black and white puddings. The large meal is almost always served with Irish soda or brown bread, a cup of tea, and a glass of orange juice on the side.
Featuring Irish sausages, bacon, black and white pudding, eggs, Irish soda bread, and more additions depending on where you are in the country, full Irish breakfasts are easily the most popular breakfast anywhere in Ireland. Originally published in March 2021, updated in June 2023.
Black pudding is a distinct regional type of blood sausage originating in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is made from pork or occasionally beef blood, with pork fat or beef suet, and a cereal, usually oatmeal, oat groats, or barley groats.
Irish bacon is traditionally made from the back of the pig as opposed to the pork belly commonly used in American bacon. In this sense it is more similar to Canadian bacon; both Canadian and Irish bacon are referred to as back bacon but the Irish variety has more fat and often cut into a round shape.
Irish breakfast tea is a blend of several black teas, most often a combination of Assam teas and Ceylon teas. Irish tea brands, notably Barry's, Bewley's, Lyons and Robert Roberts in the Republic and Nambarrie's and Thompson's Punjana in Northern Ireland are heavily weighted towards Assam.
The basics - egg, bacon, sausage, perhaps mushrooms or baked beans or tomato - are the same. The Irish breakfast is more likely to include pudding (black or white) and potatoes in some form (often fried), though neither of those are completely unheard-of in an English breakfast either.
As a result, bacon and cabbage is technically the more traditional Irish dish; corned beef and cabbage is the Irish-American variant. Irish soda bread is a quick bread made without yeast. It rises, because, when combined, baking soda and buttermilk act as a leavening agent.
In common parlance, an Irish exit (or "Irish goodbye") refers to someone leaving a social gathering without notifying the host. “An 'Irish exit' is another name for slipping out the back (or front) door seemingly unnoticed by the host,” national etiquette expert Diane Gottsman tells TODAY.com.
The Irish created the fry-up as a way to prepare for farmers' heavy-duty workdays on cold, winter mornings; the meal was prepared with local produce and homemade items, all of which were combined together and “fried up” on the pan with a pad of Irish butter.
In the past, Irish wakes involved serving food and drinks, especially alcohol, over several days. Visitors would pay their respects, join in song, and share stories of the departed with each other, celebrating their life in the process. That tradition survives in modern Irish wakes, though in cut-down form.
Oats go back much further. Based on references to oatmeal found in the Great Code of Civil Law, the Irish have been cultivating oats since around 438 A.D. There is evidence that even before this date, porridge was recognized in Europe as a characteristically Irish food.
Introduction: My name is Van Hayes, I am a thankful, friendly, smiling, calm, powerful, fine, enthusiastic person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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