Nettle Haggis

Nettle Haggis is perhaps one of the cheapest recipes I’ve ever made (especially if you leave out the bacon) and one of the first to feature on Self-Sufficientish back when the site started in 2004.  It’s particularly good in the Spring with fresh new nettle along with a good handful of wild garlic leaves.

Ingredients

• 4 Medium sized leeks and/or 1 – 3 onions
• 1-6 Cloves of garlic depending on preference or a good handful of wild garlic leaves.
• About a two dozen nettle tops or young nettles (or more) pureed (partially cooked for about 5-10 mins and chopped)
• A large bowl of partially cooked oatmeal – This will determine the size of the haggis
• Sage, Thyme, Black-pepper to taste
• Chopped Fried bacon

Mix all the ingredients together and pack into a muslin bag or clean tea towel and tie the ends. Boil for about an hour and serve with gravy. This recipe is adapted from Richard Mabey’s, ‘food for free’. I have cooked this without the bacon using a tea towel. The end result was slightly sloppy but after placing in the fridge overnight it became a lot more solid and was very tasty (before and after). If you’re going to omit the bacon you may want to add some butter or margarine, or even some fried aubergine .