A very typical kind of
Dutch food and a very good example of the level of sophistication of Dutch cooking is stamppot. Stamppot consists of
potatoes plus a
vegetable, which are cooked, mashed together and served with gravy , cubed
bacon and (smoked)
sausage;
mustard can be added for festive occasions.
Favourite vegetables to use in stamppot are
carrots and
onions (the stamppot is then called
hutspot), curly
kale,
endive and
sauerkraut.
Mind you, one should only use
one vegetable at a time! Only in the case of
hutspot is it allowed to use two kinds of vegetable. Under no circumstances should you add herbs or other spices than salt and pepper.
Stamppot looks horrible, but tastes better (if you prefer
bland food, that is). For
vegetarians the sausage and bacon can be replaced by
cubes of
Goudse. They worsen the looks of the dish, however.
Seriously, though. Stamppot is winter food. It's not exactly the most delicate of foods, but it's cheap, easy and filling. You can make it with almost any vegetable and you can jazz it up a bit with more exciting ingredients (chili pepper, cashew nuts, blue cheese) if just potato and vegetable is a bit too bland for you.
Stamppot is also eaten in Belgium, where they call it stoemp.