Vegetarian Haggis Recipe
The other night I made a vegetarian version of the traditional Scottish dish, haggis, of which Wikipedia has the following to say:
There are many recipes, most of which have in common the following ingredients: sheep’s ‘pluck’ (heart, liver and lungs), minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally boiled in the animal’s stomach for approximately three hours.
Here’s my version, which lacks onions, but which still reminded me strongly of my youthful experiences with the original version, and which I offer as a service to humanity.
4oz of unsalted, roasted peanuts
4oz of raw shelled sunflower seeds
8oz of pinhead/steel-cut/coarse-cut oats (the name varies)
1 teaspoon of black pepper
1 teaspoon of white pepper
1 tablespoon of mixed herbs
2 teaspoons nutmeg
2 teaspoons thyme
5 tablespoons soy sauce
8 tablespoons safflower or sunflower oil
12oz TVP or two packets (24 oz) of Yves Meatless Ground
Finely grind the peanuts and sunflower seeds in a blender, then dry roast them with the oats, herbs, and spices in a thick-bottomed frying pan.
Remove from the heat and add the TVP (Textured Vegetable Protein) or Meatless Ground.
Add the vegetable oil to the mixture. Add about 18oz water (if using Yves Meatless Ground, which is already moist) or 24oz water if using dry TVP, and mix well. The mixture should be slightly sloppy.
Pour into baking tin or casserole, cover tightly with tinfoil, and bake in the oven at a medium – high heat (gas mark 5, or 400°F) for 45 minutes, uncovering for the last 20 minutes.
This will feed approximately eight people. Serve with mashed potatoes (“tatties”) and “neeps” which is mashed turnip (Scotland), swede (England) or rutabaga (US).
If you’re not familiar with cooking turnip/swede/rutabaga, it takes about 10 to 15 minutes longer than boiling potatoes. Cut the vegetable into chunks and cook in a covered pot with a small amount of water, checking regularly to make sure it doesn’t boil dry. Mash with a potato masher and season with marge/butter, salt, and pepper.
The tastes of haggis, neeps, and tatties complement each other wonderfully.
As far as the nutmeg goes, don’t make the mistake I once made and misread your own handwriting, confusing teaspoons with tablespoons. Nutmeg is psychoactive and I was tripping for days!
3 Responses to “Vegetarian Haggis Recipe”
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Published: Feb 23 2008
[...] a vegetarian haggis recipe just like my Uncle Angus used to make: The other night I made a vegetarian version of the [...]
I shall keep that recipe as I usually cheat and buy the store-bought veggie haggis…
Don’t know what Yves Meatless Ground is, but perhaps in the UK, Quorn mince is a suitable alternative and isn’t so harsh on the digestive track as TVP is.
Hi Animisha,
This is an adaptation of a recipe devised by Nayaka. Unfortunately his original recipe contained rice, which can dry out completely during the baking. I broke a tooth because of that!
Yves Meatless Ground is a US brand of precooked “mince” as you would call it (it’s “ground beef” here). I think quorn would do very well. Believe it or not quorn has only recently become available here in the “land of the free” because of opposition by the meat industry.