
By CINDA CHAVICH
Looking for something cheap and cheerful to serve your vegan friends — or to stretch your dwindling January food dollars?
The Scots, who wasted nothing, devised a recipe for haggis, essentially a big sausage stuffed into a sheep's stomach, to use up all of the lesser cuts and offal from butchering an animal.
It became the symbol for poet Robbie Burns — who also authored the Address to a Haggis that's famously recited at every Burns Dinner around the world, celebrating the bard's birthday on January 25th.
My vegetarian version has all of the old fashioned flavour without the awful offal!
VEGETARIAN HAGGIS
I created this recipe after tasting a vegetarian haggis in a restaurant in Edinburgh. Like the popular MacSween products found in supermarkets across Scotland, it’s a kind of vegetarian loaf made with beans, shredded vegetables, chopped nuts and the requisite steel-cut (pinhead) oats. The caramelized onion gravy I made to serve alongside is good on this veg haggis or on meaty haggis, sourced from the local butcher, too.

1 tablespoon butter
2/3 cup steel cut oats
2/3 cup rolled oats
2/3 cup chopped nuts (mix of almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, etc.)
Melt the butter in a large sauté pan over medium high heat. Add the oats and nuts and toast together for 5-10 minutes, stirring often, until starting to brown. Dump into a bowl and set aside.
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 medium carrots, shredded
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
8 mushrooms, chopped
650-750 ml vegetable or chicken stock (or water), divided
1/3 cup red lentils
½ cup kidney or romano beans (canned/cooked), mashed
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
½ teaspoon dried savoury
¼ teaspoon celery salt
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
½ teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

In the sauté pan, heat the remaining butter and oil over medium heat. Saute the onion until softened and starting to colour. Add the carrots, garlic and mushrooms and sauté 5 minutes longer. Stir in the lentils and 1 cup (250 ml) of the stock. Bring to a boil.
Mix another 250 ml of stock with the mashed beans and soy sauce, and add to the pan. Cover and simmer 10 minutes.
Stir in the toasted oats and nuts and seasonings, bring to a boil, then return the lid to the pan and simmer on low for 15 minutes.
Add another 100-200 ml of broth or water as necessary. This mixture should be moist, but not soupy.
Stir in the lemon juice. Taste and adjust seasoning. It may need salt, depending on what kind of broth you’ve used. Turn into a buttered loaf pan and bake at 375 F for 30 minutes. Served with mashed potatoes and turnips. Serves 6.
ONION GRAVY
A nice caramelized onion gravy like this works well alongside this vegetarian haggis or a traditional haggis from the local butcher, too.

3 large onions, peeled and slivered
4 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 large cloves garlic, minced
¼ cup white wine
2 tablespoons flour
3 cups water or broth
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon Worcestershire
salt and pepper
In a sauté pan, heat the butter and oil over medium low heat and cook the onions, stirring often, until brown and caramelized.
Add the garlic and cook for 5 minutes.
Deglaze the pan with wine, stirring up any browned bits, then stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute. Gradually add the water or broth and bring to a simmer. Cook 1-2 minutes then add the soy sauce, Worcestershire and season to taste with salt and pepper.
Cool slightly. Use a hand held blender (or food processor) to whiz up the sauce, leaving it a little chunky. Reheat and thin to preferred consistency with a splash of water or ale. Makes 4 cups.
©CindaChavich
Comentarios