Week Two: International Week

If this post is brief, please forgive me. I’m heartsick about the election results here in the USA. Yesterday’s post was pre-scheduled, but I’m writing this on Wednesday night and still feeling pretty raw.

On Tuesday night — election night, before the results came in — I made the final stop on my British Isles food tour. Of course it had to be from Scotland, the only country I hadn’t yet covered. And of course it had to be haggis.

I’ve never had “real” haggis, but during our trip to Scotland a few years ago, Steven and I loved the veggie haggis at the Baked Potato Shop in Edinburgh. I recreated that meal tonight by loading up a baked potato with Maple Spice’s fantastic vegan haggis recipe, which came together surprisingly quickly and with little fuss. Topped with an easy vegan gravy, it was toothsome, wonderfully spiced, and a great meal to fill me up before I became too nauseated to eat anything else for the rest of the night and much of today.

Some tweaks:

• I used steel-cut oats instead of pinhead oats, but it looks like they might be the same thing.
• I soaked my steel-cut oats a bit before adding them, but I would soak them for longer in the future. Their texture was a little too crunchy.
• Lacking veg suet, I added some shortening. Not the same thing, but the fat helped all the ingredients come together.

What’s your take on vegan haggis? Ever tried it?