Vegetarian Haggis

[Guest guest]

Recipe for two haggis loaves:

 

2 Tablespoons olive oil

1 Tablespoon butter

2 stalks celery, with leaves

2 medium-sized or 1 large carrots

2 medium onions

8 ounces mushrooms

2 teaspoons dry thyme

½ teaspoons each salt and pepper

 

1 cup old-fashioned oats

1 cup oat bran

1 ½ cups hot water

2 teaspoons vegetable broth base

 

8 ounces roasted and unsalted mixed nuts

2 eggs

 

2 12†lengths of parchment paper

 

1. Chop the veggies and mushrooms medium fine. Heat the oil in a large skillet

over medium heat; add butter and celery, carrots and the onions all at the same

time. Sautee for 10 or 15 minutes until onion is opaque. Add the mushroom, thyme

and salt and pepper and cook for a further 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let

cool to room temperature.

2. Meanwhile, combine vegetable broth base and hot water in a large mixing bowl,

and stir in the oats and oat bran. Let sit for about ½ hour.

3. Put the nuts into a food processor and pulse until the nutmeal is the

consistency of coarse sand. If it sticks a little in the corners, that’s fine,

but you don’t want to make nut butter. When done, scrape nuts out onto the oat

mixture.

4. Puree all but 1 cup of the veggies in the food processor until mostly smooth.

5. Add the chopped veggies, the pureed veggies and the eggs to the oats and

nuts; mix with a wooden spoon to incorporate.

6. Center the parchment paper over 2 pyrex loaf pans and mark the inside corners

at the top of the pans with a pencil. With scissors, make a cut from the corners

of the paper to the mark. Slip these liners into the loaf pans.

7. Pour half of the oatmeal-like dough into each lined pan, smoothing the

parchment paper in the corners so that no dough comes into contact with the

glass. Weigh the loaves to make sure they’re equal, and then smooth the tops.

Trim the parchment paper even with the rims.

8. Put 4 cups boiling water into a large glass or ceramic lasagna pan. Set the

glass loaf pans into the water and steam the loaves for 45 minutes at 350º, let

cool on a rack, and then turn bottom-side up onto a lightly greased cookie sheet

and bake at 375º for 30 minutes, or longer if they’ve been left for awhile.

9. Slice into ½†pieces and serve topped with onion sauce.

 

Note: These loaves keep for more than a week if wrapped tightly in two layers of

plastic wrap. Slice off pieces to reheat on a cookie sheet with a little oil in

a 375º oven for 15 minutes, turning once.

 

Copyright 2009 by Don Hogeland