Phil Vickery's vegetarian haggis

Friday 25 January at 2:06pm

It’s traditionally a night for haggis - but if you’d rather go meat-free this Burns Night, Phil Vickery is in the kitchen with his perfect vegetarian version.

Vegetarian haggis

Serves: 4

Preparation time: 25-35 minutes

Cooking time: 1 hour approximately

Ingredients

50g pearl barley, soaked overnight

1 medium carrot, VERY finely diced, or in a food processor

100g wild rice, ideally soaked overnight, minimum 4 hours

75g unsalted butter

2 small onions, VERY finely chopped, or in a food processor

400g chestnut mushrooms, VERY finely chopped, or in a food processor

2 pinches ground allspice

300mls boiling water

1 x 10g vegetable stock cube

100g pinhead oatmeal

2 heaped tbsp brown miso paste

2 heaped tbsp tomato paste

1 tbsp black treacle

Salt optional, may not need as the miso and stock cube are quite salty

Plenty of ground black pepper to taste

2 medium eggs

Method

Place the soaked pearl barley, carrot and wild rice into a pan and cover with cold water and bring to the boil
Simmer for 15 minutes or so until swelled and soft (don’t worry if you slightly overcook, this helps the end texture). Drain well.
Heat the butter and add the onions, mushrooms, allspice, miso, tomato paste and treacle in a large open pan (this will evaporate the moisture quicker) and cook over a high heat to drive off all the water from the mushrooms and get a really nice brown colour.
Add the water, stock cube and oatmeal, and simmer gently until the mix is nice and thick, probably 15-20 minutes (the mix will stay apart when a spoon is drawn through it)
Season well with lots of pepper, salt if needed
Add the cooked rice, barley and carrot the mix will really thicken now, and then spread onto a large clean tray to cool quickly
Pre-heat the oven to 200C gas 6
Once cooled add the eggs mix really well
Place a large piece of tin foil onto your top, and oil well
Place the cooled mix down one side, not too thin as you want a nice size/thick roll
Roll up and twist the ends in nice and tight, want about 6cm diameter or larger
Place the roll onto a scrunched up piece of foil in a baking tray, so the roll does not touch the tray
Cook in the pre heated oven for 20-25 minutes to warm through and set the egg
Unwrap, slice and serve with neeps, tatties and sauce
Once cooked and cooled can be wrapped in film and chilled, then sliced and microwaved to reheat.