• 2 medium onions fine diced
• 1 carrot fine diced
• 1 leek fine diced
• 3 garlic cloves crushed
• 250g chestnut mushrooms finely diced
• Fresh thyme
• 3 tbsp Worcester sauce
• 1 tbsp yeast extract
• 1 tsp ground mace
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 cup cooked lentils
• 1 cup pearl barely
• ½ cup oats
• 500ml veg stock

So, Burns Night is upon us (traditional Scottish celebration) and that means one thing: Haggis. Lungs, heart and liver all boiled in a sheep’s stomach? Not exactly what vegan dreams are made of is it. If you can get past the old disgusting tradition and smash out our vegan haggis it will open up a whole new world of flavour combinations. From toasties, to fry ups, or even Asian dishes haggis and its rich peppery taste lends itself beautifully to almost anything you can think of. Trust us on this one, its all awesome no innards, no guts all glory. It ain’t pretty but its dirt cheap, delicious and bound to trick your meat eating mates that it’s the real thing, minus the stomach.

Let’s get cracking, get an oven safe pan with a lid on the heat, we use a big casserole dish or Dutch oven. On a medium heat, with a good glug of oil, add your onion, carrot and leek. Give it a couple minutes until they are just brown then chuck in the garlic and mushrooms. Cook this down, stirring regularly for about 5 minutes when you can add the cooked lentils, a couple sprigs of fresh thyme, the Worcester Sauce, yeast extract (marmite, delicious marmite), mace and nutmeg. Turn the heat up to high and stir like mad for 3 or 4 mins. You aren’t looking to burn it here but to caramelise and char the sugars in the veg and reduce the Worcester Sauce and yeast extract. Afterwards, turn the heat down to medium and mix through your pearl barley and oats for 2 mins before adding the stock. Give it a good stir, lid on and throw it in a warm oven (160C) for about 45 mins.

Take the big pot of delicious out the oven and leave it with the lid on to cool. At this point it’s perfect to serve up alongside some smashed neaps, tatties and a wee dram of whisky. If you want to make it a little more tradition grab some thick foil, heap your haggis into the middle and ball it up nice and tight. Warm it through in the oven, break it open at the table and drizzle a little whisky sauce on that bad lad. But honestly let your imagination go, think of the craziest haggis flavour combination you can think of and just give it a go, you will be surprised how incredible it will be. Mix it with a little mash potato, bread crumb and deep-fry it for some amazing haggis croquets, throw it in a pan with some ketchup for a killer sloppy joe, crumble it onto your favourite pizza, just go nuts. We mixed it with some soy sauce, ginger and fresh scotch bonnets to make fiery Korean haggis dumplings, they were incredible. Embrace the haggis (can you tell we love haggis).

Enjoy

GP