By all means serve traditional haggis, neeps and tatties at your Burn’s Supper but make sure that you buy a little extra haggis to play with. Warm haggis served with soft floury pitta pockets and creamy raita is an unexpected match made in heaven!
Wonderful Scottish food champion Sue Lawrence talks about combining haggis and tzatziki in her book, which is a tasty Greek twist, but on this occasion we’re following Jo MacSween’s recipe taken from her definitive Haggis Bible.
This recipe works because while haggis spice blends remain a closely guarded secrets, the spices at the core – pepper, cloves and nutmeg- are also staples of Indian cookery, making haggis a natural match for raita.
This version of Jo’s dish is made with vegetarian haggis and a raita.
Recipe for haggis pockets and raita
Serves four as a light lunch
Make the raita about an hour in advance for the flavours to develop. We’ve used vegetarian haggis but this will work equally well with meat if you prefer.
- 1 vegetarian haggis, about 454g
- 4 pitta breads, toasted until warm and puffy
- Mixed salad leaves
For the raita
- Half a medium cucumber
- 200ml thick natural yogurt
- large handful of mint, or 1 heaped tsp dried mint, crumbled
- 1 fresh green chilli, de-seeded and finely chopped (optional)
Cut the cucumber in half length ways and run a teaspoon down the middle to remove the seeds. Grate the cucumber and squeeze it out with your hands to get rid of any excess liquid.
Mix the cucumber with the remaining raita ingredients and set aside for an hour.
Heat the haggis according to packet instructions. Split the warm pitta breads, then fill with a couple of spoonfuls of haggis. Top with a couple of spoonfuls of raita.
Serve hot.
