Rabbie goes Punjabi for Burns Night

CHAPATIS and naan breads might not be traditional Burns Night fare, but this year they are replacing neeps and tatties as the ideal accompaniment to a new healthy haggis dish.

By using an exotic blend of fresh tomatoes, green chilli and garam masala, the women of an Edinburgh community group believe their dish will appeal to Scots looking for a healthy alternative this Burns Night.

Punjabi Haggis is the brainchild of two members of Sikh Sanjog, a community organisation working with the Sikh population in Edinburgh.

They hit upon the idea of curried haggis while trying to come up with ways of making the traditionally high-fat Sikh diet healthier.

And their recipe has impressed bosses at an Edinburgh hotel so much that they have decided to put it on their restaurant menu to tempt diners in the run-up to Burns Night.

Jagdish Kaur, who runs workshops in healthy eating at Sikh Sanjog and helped create the recipe, wanted to make something that would tempt the Asian community to try haggis.

She also thought it would appeal to Scots who enjoyed the traditional dish, which is usually made with lamb offal, onions, nutmeg and black pepper.

Jagdish, 53, who has also made haggis pakora, said: "The recipe we came up with was intended to be as healthy as possible. We used very fresh ingredients as well as things that we would keep in the house.

"I think everyone will like it because everyone loves a curry."

Her cousin Darshna Kaur, 52, who helped to devise the recipe, also thought the dish would have a wide ranging appeal.

She said: "We have tried haggis pakora and haggis curry at parties and so to make a haggis using traditional masala ingredients was the next step. People who like curry will like this."

A traditional Sikh diet is high in fat because food is cooked in liberal amounts of a clarified butter known as ghee. High-fat dairy products like butter, cream and buttermilk are also essential ingredients.

As part of a cooking programme at the Sikh Sanjog group, which is funded by the National Lottery and based on Leith Walk, the women learn how to use healthier ingredients such as olive oil instead of ghee.

Both the women who invented the Punjabi haggis believe they have lost more than two stone since switching to a healthier diet less than a year ago.

Group chairwoman Dalbir Kaur said: "Sikh Sanjog is a place for Sikh women and their families and we do a lot of work to get women who feel isolated out of their homes.

"The cookery workshops show them how to put less salt and less oil into their food so they become healthier and fitter."

Chef John Newton, of the Menzies Belford Hotel in Edinburgh, was so impressed with the haggis, he and his bosses decided to put it on their restaurant menu.

In the run-up to Burns Night, on January 25, customers at the restaurant, which is open to the public, will be able to sample the Punjabi Haggis.

Mr Newton, 44, said: "I really do like it. I think it's a bit spicier than traditional haggis due to the combination of curry spices, lots of cumin, coriander and garlic. Obviously the smell is a bit more exotic than your traditional haggis."