The Tragintyres—who have adopted the customs of their home country the Netherlands—taught us this one this summer: Cut up a few potatoes and similar vegetables (tonight we used carrots and cauliflower, but you could use beets or turnips or parsnips or cabbage, of course) and boil them to tender. Meanwhile, saute bacon, then onions, and then finely chopped greens (we used kale that had been blanched). Mash the boiled vegetables with cream, butter, salt and pepper; then add the sauteed part and mix it up. Serve.
This is meat-as-garnish, kid-friendly, hearty, simple, and delicious.
The dish we made for you and you described in the post is called "hutspot", from the more general class of "stamppot" recipes. Stamppot is any mashed-potatoes-with-vegetables dish, of which there are many varieties: "hutspot" is specifically potatoes + onions + carrots; "stamppot met andijvie" is potatoes+curly kale+ham blocks (usually); "stamppot met zuurkool" is potatoes+sauerkraut; "hete bliksem" (literally "hot lightning") is potatoes and apples (or sometimes pears). Most of these are eaten with a smoked sausage on the side, often with grainy mustard. There are many, many more... There's a rather incomplete English Wikipedia page on stamppot, but the Dutch page is much more (lovingly, even) complete.
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