Video: How to make mouth-watering haggis pakora

These delicious pakora prove there’s more than one way to skin a haggis on Burns Night.

Not everyone - myself included - has the stomach for a grand dollop of neeps and tatties, so this delicious starter is ideal for the bard’s birthday supper.

With a little help from the nation’s most loved haggis, Macsween, they only took 20 minutes to cook.

This pakora goes to show there's more than one way to skin a haggis.

Below you’ll find the written recipe to accompany the video above and remember, vegetarian and gluten-free haggises are available so even more people can tuck in on January 25th.

Ingredients - Makes 15

Macsween 454g haggis (vegetarian / gluten-free options available)

150g Gram Flour

This pakora goes to show there's more than one way to skin a haggis.

1 tsp Chilli Powder

1 tbsp Ground Cumin

200ml of Natural Yogurt

1 Juiced Lemon

Cooking Oil

A Pinch of Salt

Instructions

Cook the haggis first.

To oven cook the haggis:

Peel away the paper packaging and wrap the haggis in tinfoil. Place it in an ovenproof dish with 2cm of water in the bottom.

Preheat the oven to 180C (Gas Mark 4) and cook it for around 75 minutes.

To microwave the haggis:

Remove all the packaging and coating and cut the meat into chunks. Place it in a microwavable dish with a lid and put on medium heat for 9 minutes. Take it out after 4mins 30 seconds and stir the meat, then place it back in for the remainder of the time.

Or you can boil it - whatever the case, always read the instructions on the packaging.

While the haggis is warm (not cold), use your hands to roll it into small balls and set aside to cool.

Mixing the batter

Pour the gram flour into a bowl and press out any clumps. Add the cumin, the chilli powder and a pinch of salt and mix the dry ingredients together.

Add the natural yogurt and mix into a thick batter. Squeeze half a lemon juice into the mix and mix again.

Roll your haggis balls around in the batter. If it’s too thick and your haggis balls are breaking up, try mixing through more lemon juice or a splash of water to thin the consistency.

Carefully fry your battered haggis balls in a deep pan of cooking oil (or a fryer, if you have one) until they’re crispy on the outside and golden brown.

Serve with sweet chilli sauce, or your own choice of pakora dip. Enjoy.