Veggie haggis bean burgers

When I first made these I had never attempted making a veggie burger before but when I eventually plucked up the courage to give them a try, I was so impressed I now make these regularly and always have a supply in my freezer.

The good thing about these is that if you can get a vegetarian haggis from your supermarket the rest of the ingredients are store cupboard ones.

Ingredients/potential substitutes

1 large onion or 2 small ones, or 2 shallots/1 leek/4-5 spring onions

1 tbsp olive oil or 1 tbsp any flavourless cooking oil

1 or 2 garlic cloves or 1-2 tsp garlic granules/1-2 tsp preminced garlic

1 225g vegetarian haggis

1 heaped tsp Cajun spice. Or you can create your own spice mix from whatever you have of the following: paprika/smoked paprika, garlic powder, pepper, onion powder, dried oregano, cayenne pepper

½ teaspoon ground cumin

2 x 400g tins of kidney beans in chilli sauce. Or any tinned bean in chilli sauce or tinned beans in salted water with 2 tbsp sirracha/bottled chilli sauce added

3 heaped tablespoons of breadcrumbs or dried or fresh breadcrumbs of any type

Method

1) Take the haggis out of its casing and cut it into about 6 slices. Put the haggis into a microwaveable tub and microwaves for 2 minutes to soften it. Line a baking tray with cling film if you are planning on freezing some of the burgers.

2) Peel and chop onion(s) and put in a large saucepan with the oil and some salt and pepper. Turn on a low heat and stir occasionally until they are softened (about 10 minutes). Peel and finely chop the garlic. Add the chopped garlic and stir in. Cook for another minute, once the smell of garlic hits you, it is cooked enough.

3) Add the haggis and spices and stir into the onions until the haggis crumbles into the mixture and soaks up all the juices (about 2 minutes). Now tip in the cans of beans (no need to drain them) and the breadcrumbs and start stirring.

4) Keep stirring. Initially the mixture will be more like a thick soup but as the breadcrumbs soak up some of the moisture and the stirring breaks open some of the beans the mixture will gradually become very thick (this takes between 10 and 15 minutes). Once it’s nice and thick, leave it to cool until it can be handled.

5) Now roll out your burgers with your hands like play dough (I found an ice cream scoop really useful here for getting equal sizes) and put on the cling filmed tray. If you are eating some straight away preheat the oven to 200C and then put them onto a nonlined baking tray and give them about 20 minutes before checking (they will take at least 10 minutes longer if cooking from frozen). I got a batch of 13 mini burgers out of this quantity so you’d probably get six large ones if you prefer.

Note: If you are making these to freeze they are best frozen on the cling filmed tray in the freezer and once frozen you can put them into a freezer bag or Tupperware.