January 25th marks the annual celebration of Scotland’s national poet Robert Burns. The centrepiece of any good Burns Supper menu is the iconic haggis, or as the bard himself described it, the ‘great chieftain o’ the puddin’-race’. I had friends round for dinner the other night so I thought I’d make a Plant-Based Haggis with Mustard Mash.
Unlike our traditional haggis which is made from the liver, heart, and lungs of a sheep, all chopped and mixed with beef or mutton suet and oatmeal, seasoned with onion, cayenne pepper, and spices, my plant-based haggis is 100% animal free.
Made with oats, carrot, onions, mushrooms and seasoned with black pepper, fresh herbs and yeast extract, it’s very tasty and very filling with an earthy flavour and crumbly texture.
Here, I’ve used the haggis as a stuffing for large Spanish onions then baked them in the oven for 40 minutes. You can of course eat the plant-based haggis in a variety of ways, including as a filling for baked potatoes, or you can eat it on its own with mashed potatoes and turnips.
When I served it to my friends I made some mustard mash – it’s super easy to make. Just add two tablespoons of coarse grain mustard to your regular mashed potatoes and fork through. Remember that we don’t use any milk or butter to make our mash creamy, just leave a little of the cooking liquid in the pot and mash with some black pepper. That should be enough to give it a creamy consistency.
I also served it with mashed turnip (again with just a little of its cooking liquid) and roasted lemon and garlic Brussel sprouts.
If you’d like to find out more about Robert Burns and how we celebrate our national poet here in Scotland, click here to find out more.
Plant-Based Haggis
Ingredients
- 6 large onions
- 50 g organic oats
- 50 g pinhead oatmeal
- 50 g chopped mixed nuts
- 1 onion finely chopped
- 1 carrot finely chopped
- 400 g tin kidney beans drained and rinsed then finely chopped
- 50 g vegetable suet
- 1 teaspoon yeast extract
- 1 teaspoon black pepper Ground
- 2 tablespoons mixed fresh herbs I used rosemary, sage and thyme (finely chopped)
- pinch nutmeg optional (freshly grated)
- 1 lime just the juice
- 100 g mushrooms finely chopped
Instructions
- Take the six big onions and slice a very small slither from the bottom so they can stand on their own. Take a sharp knife and cut a cross in the top to about three quarters of the way down. Keep all the skins own.
- Put the onions in a large pot and cover with fresh cold water, then bring to the boil and then simmer for 15 minutes. Refresh them under cold water and set aside ready to be stuffed with the plant based haggis.
- To make the haggis put the oats, pinhead oatmeal and nuts in a pot over a low heat and toast for about three to four minutes. Keep stirring the mixture to ensure it doesn't burn. Put the mixture in a bowl and set aside. Preheat the oven to 190C/375F.
- In the empty pot add a couple of centimeters of water, add the onion, mushrooms and carrot then cook for about five minutes before adding the toasted oat mixture and all the other ingredients. Mix them all together ready for the mixture to be spooned into the large onions.
- Remove the centers out of the onions leaving three to four outer layers. Set aside the centers and place the onions in a roasting tin. Spoon the haggis equally between the onions and bake for 40 minutes.
- Serve with mustard mash, turnip and roasted lemon and garlic Brussel sprouts.
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