A Vegan Burns Supper (Includes Cock-a-Leekie Soup, Vegan Haggis & Clootie Dumpling)

As I’m Scottish and Burns Night is just a couple of days away (25th Jan) I thought I’d share recipes I’ve penned for our home-made Burns Supper.

Traditionally a Burns Supper is a bit of an offal fest and a fair number of meat eaters prefer a veggie or vegan option to the traditional Scottish Fayre. I created these recipes with that in mind. The meal consists of:

• Starter: Cock-a-leekie Soup
• Main: Haggis Neeps & Tatties
• Dessert: Clootie Dumpling

Sweet Corn & Potato Chowder

I love sweet corn, roasted, fried, raw, in soup, to my pallet it borders on the divine. Needless to say chowder is a personal favourite, particularly in late summer / early autumn as corn is in season. This recipe works best with fresh, in season, sweet corn kernels, though these can be substituted for frozen or tinned, if easier to obtain.

Ingredients

Makes: 4 small or 2 large servings

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 medium green pepper, chopped
• 1 medium carrot, peeled and diced
• 1 small green peppers, seeded and chopped
• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• Ground black pepper
• 1 & 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 250ml vegetable stock
• 3 cups fresh corn kernels (from about 5 ears of corn)
• 300g new potatoes, peeled or unpeeled and cut into chunks
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
• 75ml plain soy milk
• 1 tablespoon dark brown sugar

Method

1. In a medium soup or stock pot heat the olive oil add the onion, bell pepper, carrot and chillies in and cook over a medium heat. Cook, stirring frequently, until onion becomes translucent (5 – 6 minutes). Add rosemary, thyme, black pepper and 1 teaspoon of salt and cook for a further 2 minutes.
2. Add sweet corn, potatoes and cayenne and mix though, then add the vegetable stock. Cover and bring to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 25 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender to the tip of a knife.
3. Remove half of the mixture and set aside for 5 minutes to allow it to cool, when cooled puree in a blender until smooth, then add back to the pot.
4. Add the soy milk and brown sugar, and remaining salt (to taste) & simmer for 10 – 15 minutes.
5. Cool for 5 minutes before serving.

 

A Sunday Breakfast w/Potato Scones & Veggie Sausage

Waking up early on a Sunday is a rare occurrence, especially for me, I celebrated this morning’s early rise by making a variation of a  full Scottish breakfast with Potato Scones & Veggie Sausage made from scratch, oooh check me! I left veggie bacon out of this one, but plan to try making this from scratch at some point.

Was listening to Tom Waits’ Rain Dogs while I cooked & Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen as we ate. I share in case you care.

Here’s my method:

A Sunday Breakfast

Serves 2

Potato Scones

Ingredients

• 350g Mashed Potato
• 150g Plain Flour (white or wholemeal)
• 25g Vegan/Soy Margarine
• 4 Tablespoons of Cooking Oil
• Salt

1. Mix flour, Margarine & Potato in a large bowl, try to ensure mix doesn’t become too dry
2. Empty mixture onto a flat surface and roll flat (to a height of no more than 0.5cm) cut into triangles (if mixture is particularly sticky pop scones into a medium hot oven for 5-10 mins)
3. Cook Scones in a frying pan or on a griddle, around 2 minutes each side, or until golden.
4. Serve

TVP 'Sausages'

Ingredients

• 125g TVP (Textured Vegetable Protein, you can make this yourself or buy dried at health food shops)
• To make TVP from scratch you’ll need Soy Beans or Chickpeas (dried, not from cans) which weigh 125g when cooked + 15g plain flour & 1/4 tablespoon Tumeric
• 1/2 tablespoon thyme
• Cold water
• Cooking Oil

Method

1. If making TVP from scratch soak beans overnight ready to cook. When cooked, drain & cool then preheat the oven to a medium/low heat. Process the beans until smooth, but still with little chucks. Spread the mixture over the baking trays and put in the middle of the oven. Every 15 minutes remove from the oven & mix up the mixture & spread back out to toast evenly. It may take 30-45 mins but remove from oven when fairly toasted all over. To use let cool and add enough cold water to make the mix sticky then add flour & tumeric.
2. If using shop bought TVP regenerate as per instructions (normally 1 cup water to 1 cup TVP)
3. Add thyme to TVP
4. Shape into Sausage shapes
5. Fry in cooking oil (alternatively coat in a little oil and grill).
6. Serve

Cherry Tomato & Mushroom mix

Tomato, Mushroom Mix

Ingredients

• 6 Cherry Tomatoes, halved
• 6 Medium closed cup Mushrooms, quartered
• 1 small White Onion
• 1/2 teaspoon mixed Herbs
• Salt (pinch)
• 1/2 teaspoon soy Margarine
• Cooking Oil

1. Cook onions in oil until partially cooked (not quite translucent).
2. Add all other ingredients and cook until mushrooms (stirring constantly) are soft & edible.
3. Serve

We had all of this with canned baked beans, which were the only thing not homemade. One day I’ll attempt the 1hr it takes to create your own,  a day when I’ve too much time to kill, for now the 30p for a can was no biggie.

Chick Pea and Potato Curried Stew

Chickpea and Potato curried stew w/Mrs Unis' Chapati

2 posts in one day, I must have time on my hands. This evening’s dinner was another with a middle-eastern flavour and was thrown together from what we had hanging around the cupboards. I was listening to some bastard pop mash ups courtesy of Go Home Productions‘ Mark Viddler while I cooked, if you’re interested.

This is a hearty stew and is equally good reheated, keep a close eye while cooking and keep the heat low as the stew can burn to the bottom of the pot, I had a close call with this one. Otherwise this is an easy dish to prepare & one you can have with either a light bread or rice + a big glass of water to catch the burn from the hot pepper.

Chick Pea & Potato Curried Stew

Serves 2 – 4

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups Vegetable Stock
• 2 tablespoons cooking oil
• 2 tins cooked chickpeas
• 1 can chopped tomatoes,
• 1 large green bell pepper
• 1/2 minced jalapeño pepper,
• 5 medium sized potatoes diced (peeled or unpeeled)
• 1 medium chopped white onion
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• Salt
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon mixed herbs

Method

1. Cook onion in oil in a large saucepan until translucent
2. Combine all other ingredients and add to the pot, pouring Vegetable Stock on last & keeping back 1/4 of the mixed herbs
3. Cook over a medium heat stirring to mix
4. Take 1/5 of the broth of the stew as it cooks, leave it to cool & give a few pulses in a blender to thicken then and add back to the pot (if you are very careful you could use a hand blender in the pot as the stew cooks, but I’m far too clumsy for such activities)
5. Simmer on a med to low heat for 35 minutes or until potato is cooked through (keep a regular check to ensure the mixture doesn’t burn to the pan.
6. Serve, sprinkling remaining herbs as garnish, eat with rice or bread (we had shop bought Chapatis)

This has a bit of a spice to it, but the Jalapeño can be excluded, if preferred. Keep an eye during cooking as chick peas can burn to the pan.

Mrs Unis Chapatis, Vegan & made in Edinburgh

Stew in the pot