Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with vegetarian and recipe

Hoots mon, I'm awa tae hunt the meatless haggis.

anadem — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 11:18:54 -0800

I'm planning a haggis-centric party and will make semi-traditional haggis from this recipe. I also need to make a vegetarian version, so what would be a tasty veggie substitute for the meat (preferably using the same recipe)? The meats to replace are "chopped cooked liver and chopped cooked heart (Or stew beef, or filet mignon)" and ground lamb. I'm in California, in case that makes a difference about ingredient availability. Full recipe below, in case Geocities has closed. Here's Lloyd Bogart's West Mosby Volunteers' Haggis. I hope Mr Bogart won't mind me copying it out, but the Geocities web is due to disappear tomorrow.

WEST MOSBY VOLUNTEERS' HAGGIS - Courtesy of Lloyd Bogart .

Haggis "is typically served on Burns Night,January 25, when Scotland celebrates the birth of its greatest poet, Robert Burns, who was born in Ayrshire on that date in 1759. During the celebration, Burns poems are read, and the haggis is addressed by a member of the party, ceremonially, in the form of verses from Burns' poem, 'Address to a Haggis.' A typical meal for Burns Night would include Cock-a-Leekie, Haggis with Tattie-an'-neeps, Roastit Beef, Tipsy Laird, and Dunlop Cheese."

Oh, and did I mention that whisky is also served?

Disclaimer: If you jam 5 dowels into a haggis it kinda resembles a bagpipe, but only if you jam 5 single malts into yourself first. There, that makes this article "bagpipe related".

Here's a tried-and-true recipe for haggis -- entered in the international competition a few years back. It sounds more complex than it is -- it's really no more than equal amounts of meat mixture, oats, onions, and stock, with appropriate spices. Good Eating!

The following recipe is for a traditional sized (3-lb?) haggis. We prepare up to 12 times this amount, in double recipe batches, for our Annual Regimental Mess and Robert Burns Supper. It freezes well, and can be "revived" in a microwave.

1. Advanced preparation.

Find a source of ONLY Steel cut oats OR (if available) Scottish pin oats. Rolled oats will NOT provide the traditional texture, which is something like that of rice. Steel cut oats can be had, or can be ordered, from food stores specializing in organic foods, etc. You'll need 2 Cups of Oats, but if you have to order them, get extra "for next time".

Once you've found proper oats, you're ready to proceed. You'll need:

1 Cup of chopped cooked liver
1 Cup of chopped cooked heart (Or stew beef, or filet mignon)
2-3 Cups stock
Use Lamb if available, otherwise beef will work fine.

Cover the raw meat with salted COLD water, bring to a boil (gently, and covered) for about 1 hour. Drain, (keep the stock) Cool the meat, and remove any gristle, membranes, large vessels, then chop or grind the meat (coarse, as for hash). Refrigerate the stock, and discard any fat later, after it chills.

Mix the ground up heart and liver in equal proportions. You'll need about 2 cups of this meat mixture for each haggis, but it can be prepared in larger quantities, then refrigerated or frozen for later use. For final assembly, the haggis can be completed when convenient.

2. Additional Ingredients:

1 Lb. ground lamb (for "authentic" flavor -- replaces "other stuff")
2 Cups medium to coarse-chopped onions
1 Cup vegetable oil (replaces suet)
3 Tbsp. lemon juice
2 Oz. single malt whisky (Balvenie is quite acceptable)
2 tsp. salt or beef bouillon powder
2 Tbsp. ground black pepper
1 tsp. grated nutmeg

Optional: (but recommended for a "special occasion" haggis)
1 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. ground coriander
1 tsp. ground mace
2 Tbsp. Parsley Flakes
1/4 Cup currants

Casing: Reynold's Oven Cooking Bag. These are Nylon roasting bags that are available in most any grocery store. The traditional sheep's stomach or a large sausage casing may be used for a "show" haggis, but they are "old-tech". Boiling in oven cooking bags is far more convenient, if you're preparing large quantities, especially, and this process "reassures" your dinner guests.

3. Preparation

Put 2 cups of the thawed meat mixture in the oven cooking bag. Add 2 cups of (coarse) chopped onions, 2 cups of oats, and the other dry ingredients and mix well. Set the mixture aside until it is at room temperature.

In a covered saucepan or skillet, warm 2 Cups or so of the stock (Be sure any fat has been removed. -- If more liquid is needed, here or later, use bouillon or beef stock.)

Break up the ground lamb into the warmed stock; bring to a slow boil (covered) for 5 minutes or so. Remove from heat, allow to cool briefly, and be sure the lamb is in small pieces.

Add the lemon juice and vegetable oil to the lamb & stock mixture. Then combine the lamb/liquid mixture with the other ingredients in the cooking bag, and mix well.

This should produce a moist, soft mixture that will still hold together when pinched. (If it's too dry, add a small amount of stock or bouillon.)

Boil the mixture IN the cooking bag:

Close off the bag using a nylon tie, but allow room below the tie for expansion during boiling. Trim off the bag 3" above the tie, and pierce the top of the bag, below the tie, but well above the mixture, to allow steam to escape.

Use a 4 Qt. (or larger) pot with a rack at the bottom. The water around the haggis should nearly cover the bag of mixture. Periodically adjust the heat to maintain a slow boil for at least 1 1/2 hours. Add HOT water to the pot if needed.

Add 2 Oz. single malt whisky to the cook. (He/She deserves it!)

The cooking bag can be placed on a shallow pan and transferred to a preheated oven

(325 degrees F) for the last half-hour. This doesn't affect the flavor, but does add a bit of color, if desired.

The proof:

This recipe has gotten rave reviews from visiting Scots. Talk about a tough room -- Whew! I hope you'll enjoy it.

The strategy for preparing rather largish amounts is just a bit different; if you need advice on this, please contact me personally. Today I purchased 10 pounds of oats, if you catch my drift....

Cheers
Lloyd Bogart

(If anyone wants the email address which is included on Mr Bogart's web page, please mefi-mail me, though it could be inactive.)

What shall I feed the playful masses?

itesser — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 18:45:32 -0800

I need more ideas for "game night" food! I've done curry and chili in the past, and am tossing around lasagna and gumbo as possibilities in the future, but want more options. Since every cooking question is special, there is Every so often there happens to be a gathering of 5-7 people in the house I'm living in. Not every one shows up at the same time, or eats at the same time, so it's not quite a dinner where I can expect every one to sit down and focus 20 or 30 minutes on "meal time".

Curry and chili were smashing successes because I could spend an hour hanging around the kitchen, adding more ingredients, tasting and spicing. I stuck the bread in the oven (naan and corn, respectively), and when it was done whoever was hungry grabbed a bowl and served themselves.

I experiment and improvise a lot when I cook. The curry was based on several recipes and vague memories of how my husband does it. The chili was based on several recipes and what sounded good.

basic criteria:
- flexible, forgiving, scalable.
- reheats well/makes good leftovers
- doesn't rely on meat* or exotic ingredients (the spice selection is limited)
- doesn't need side dishes (bread/rice/basic pasta are fine)
- don't need food-processor/blender or electric mixer/kitchenaid

* sometimes a vegetarian shows up, sometimes not. I can use TVP in place of ground beef, and chicken when she's not around, but want to avoid recipes where each person gets their own steak/chicken breast/piece of fish

Bonus points:
- doesn't need constant attention
- includes garlic

Store-bought-style baked tofu at home

acridrabbit — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 15:22:57 -0800

Store-bought-style baked tofu at home: how? I love tofu and cook it frequently, usually in stir-frys. I always freeze my tofu to improve the texture, then press it for long enough to get excess moisture out. I'm pretty happy with my typical methods, but I would love to be able to make baked tofu similar to the store-bought kind. My previous efforts have yielded tasty results, but nothing like the soft, yet very firm texture of a packaged baked tofu (like White Wave or SoyBoy). Those store-bought tofus are pretty expensive - can I mimic that style at home? (Note: I am interested in mimicking the texture, not necessarily the flavor) My googling is turning up nothing.

Peas help us find a missing cookbook

fijiwriter — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 09:39:15 -0800

Peas help me find a vegetarian cookbook my daughter loves that has been sold and can't be remembered. Here we are with a "please help me find a certain book" question, but this might be off the wall.

Here's the story: our little 22-month-old Toddler Writer loves to shop with us at local book store. With her granddad in-tow, she always finds this small vegetarian cookbook with peas on the cover. "Peas ... book," she says. She's enamored because she loves peas, mushy, but they are peas.

So, this goes on for a few weeks; she finds the book without problems. But jump to this past weekend: the book has been sold! Oh, no! Cue my daughter saying, "No....book...no book." We look around and can't find it. Sadly, the book store won't help much without us remembering the name of the book or the author.

And that's where you come in, dear MetaFilter users. Please help us find this book she loves!

The details:

1. Vegetarian cook book
2. Peas on the cover, but in a close-up/macro way, like peering into a pea pod.
3. It might have read something like XXX number of vegetarian recipes.
4. Size-wise, its more tall than wide. I'd say 10 inches tall by 5 inches wide.
5. Length, its not too long. Figure 100 pages or so.
6. The copy we've seen is hardbound with a glossy-like cover.
7. No author details that we can remember.

And if you think this is too hard to help with, just imagine saying no when a little girl like this asks for a cookbook she loves.

Vegetarian Meals for a Steak-and-Potatoes kind of guy?

Alabaster — Mon, 19 May 2008 16:28:57 -0800

Vegetarian meals for a meat-and-potatoes kind of guy? I'm an unabashed carnivore but--for philosophical and nutritional reasons--I'd like to eventually go vegetarian (or at least to make meat much less prominent in my diet). I'm looking for vegetarian meals and snacks that can be as filling and savory (and proteinlicious) as a steak dinner or burger...

Meat substitutes are ok (I actually like some of the Gardenburger and Boca brands), but I'm more interested in "legit" vegetarian meals that don't involve tricking myself into thinking I'm eating meat.

P.S. I hate mushrooms with a passion and I have already dismissed the "try a portabello mushroom, it's almost like steak" suggestion, so feel free to skip over that one.

Salad? Shoot me.

cdadog — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 06:34:51 -0800

This salad so incredible that I considered becoming a vegetarian. Unfortunately, I can barely remember what was in it. A few years ago I attended a cookout where a vegetarian guest brought a chilled salad with a ton of ingredients, served from a trifle dish. I remember it included:

- glassine thread noodles
- strips of tofu
- there may have been broccoli tips
- black chewy thready stuff I suspect was seaweed
- baby carrot slivers
- dressing I can only describe as sour/savory (not hot, spicy or especially sweet)

You know how sometimes a bunch of stuff in a bowl is just that, how it’s not bad but the tastes or textures don’t really compliment each other? Not this. The flavors…ohhh…the way they melded was amazing. I ate an embarrassing amount of it, intending to pin down whoever brought it. Naturally, they got away, and the hostess couldn’t remember who brought what.

This has haunted me for years. I want this salad again. I neeeeed it. But I’m not that foodie intuitive, and the results of my forays into recipe experimentation are always disappointing. If anyone out there suspects he/she has made this kickass salad with the above items, would you please share?

Tasty turnips?

mediareport — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 19:17:13 -0800

A crate of homegrown turnips showed up in my life yesterday. I've never cooked with turnips before (hell, I don't recall ever eating them before). Do you have any particularly delicious ways of using turnips? I know I can treat them like mashed potatoes, which sounds good. I checked the small section on turnips (two recipes) in Bittman's How To Cook Everything; it made me hesitate, since he says to only use the ones smaller than two inches in diameter so they aren't "woody." These turnips are all sorts of sizes. Is it really that bad to use the bigger ones? Thanks in advance for helping me not waste this bounty.

Yummy veggie noodle soup

bassjump — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 09:31:14 -0800

Help me make the yummy vegetarian noodle soup that I crave. I love big bowls of clear soup with noodles, tofu, bok choi, bean sprouts broccoli, etc. What is in that broth? It's more flavorful than plain ol' veggie broth, but it's not a bisque or puree or anything. Recipes, suggestions, tips, etc. are all welcome.

prove: the internet is DELICIOUS

rhoticity — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 01:08:54 -0800

Good, preferably vegetarian-inclusive or focused, recipe blogs? Alternatively, one really good recipe magazine in the same category. I live in a college dorm for the time being, and don't really cook while school is in session due to lack of kitchen and overabundance of paid-for meal points. However, my dining hall is a fairly cool place in that, if supplied with a reasonable recipe, they'll try making it. Their vegetarian options could definitely use some spunk; and, besides that, I'd like to ideally begin collecting my own little treasury of "gotta-try-that"s.

I already read 101 Cookbooks, and enjoy the content, but it updates so infrequently that I definitely need some filler.

I'd also be willing to possibly subscribe to a single recipe print format magazine if someone really heartily recommends one.

Food suggestions for a Gods and Goddesses themed party.

Item — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 07:46:06 -0800

A friend is hosting a party tomorrow night with the theme "Night Life of the Gods & Goddesses" where all attendees will be dressing as their favorite god and acting accordingly. I'd like to make an interesting and appropriately themed dish of food to bring. The recipe needs to be vegetarian, savory, and relatively easy to prepare a good deal of. The dish should also be able to withstand sitting out for multiple hours without spoiling/congealing, though I've got a crock pot if you have hot food suggestions.

Vegetarian collard greens

Plutor — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 12:23:53 -0800

I want to make delicious collard greens, but I want them to be healthy and vegetarian (so, no pork fat). I've tried a couple recipes I found online, but the results have been uninspiring (and the greens didn't strike me as nearly tender enough, even after an hour of boiling). Any advice? Any recipes?

What can I cook without any ingredients?

croutonsupafreak — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 11:55:31 -0800

What should I bring to a potluck dinner, when many people attending have food allergies and dietary problems and the list of banned foods is huge? (No meat, dairy, onions, garlic, tomatoes, potatoes, and many, many other things, listed inside.) Recipes needed. I've been invited to a potluck dinner where half of the guests in attendance have dietary restrictions.

The following ingredients are banned:

Seasonings: onions, leeks, scallions, green onions, onion powder, garlic, garlic salt, roasted garlic, garlic powder, cumin , dill , chili pepper, Parsley, nutmeg, MSG, black pepper, vanilla, chocolate, cocoa, savory that lists "spices" or "natural flavors" without details

Fruits: grape juice, orange juice, and very especially apple juice, Lemon and grapefruit, blueberries, watermelon, apples, plum and pineapple

Protein: peanuts, eggs, almonds, walnuts, meats of any kind (fish, fowl, land animals, etc.)

Vegetables: tomateos, eggplant, bell peppers, spicy peppers like jalepeños (anything in the Nightshade family), potatoes, cabbage, broccoli, lima beans, green peas, lentils, other legumes

Dairy: only trace, no yogurt.

Grains: Wheat, oat, barley, (soy sauce is OK)

Additives: phenylethaline tyramine aspartame FD & C Blue #1

---

Right now I'm leaning toward acorn squash stuffed with brown rice, and I'll experiment with different allowed spices to see what works for the rice. I've love other options, too.

She's choppin' broccoli...

rmless — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 13:50:12 -0800

I am about to receive a huge crate of broccoli. Please send me your best vegetarian broccoli recipes! (Preferably those that use a lot of broccoli, not like a stir-fry, for example.)