Vegan Burns Night Part 1: Cock-a-Leekie Soup (Leek & Potato)

Cock-a-leekie soup is the perfect starter to serve as part of a Burns Night Supper along with haggis and clapshot. Robert Burns, is Scotland’s Bard. His works, life, song, poetry and Haggis are celebrated by Scots around the world on his birthday, 25 January. The main culinary event, is the Haggis, something else for which Scotland is famous. See my recipe for a delicious, savoury and  satisfying Haggis. Haggis is coupled with tatties and neeps (potatoes and swedes/turnips) and I typically make Clapshot, a combination of the two with a creamy whisky sauce. 

This is a very satisfying and warming soup, which really verges on being a stew. We had some friends over the other night, one of whom is Scottish. After the meal, he said to me that this soup took him right back to his childhood… One of those madeleine moments.

You can easily prepare this soup well ahead of time. It keeps very well. In fact, you could follow all the recipe steps until adding the prunes (don’t add them), then you could turn off the heat, leave it covered and go about your day. When you return hours later, it has basically cooked. You will just need to follow the rest of the steps, add the final ingredients, bring to a quick boil, simmer for a few minutes and serve.  Serves four (recipe after the photo).

Ingredients

• 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil or 1 Tablespoon coconut oil
• 400g leeks, cleaned, trimmed & finely chopped
• 3 medium carrots, peeled, trimmed & chopped
• 2 medium potatoes, peeled if you want (I don’t), quartered & chopped
• 2 litres of vegetable stock
• 1 Tablespoon tamari or soy sauce
• 2-3 dried shiitake or porcini mushrooms, soaked
• 50g rice or other grain (eg. barley), rinsed, uncooked
• 1 Tablespoon pinhead oatmeal (optional)
• 100g prunes, pitted and halved or quartered (depending on size)
• 1/4 tsp thyme dried, rubbed between your fingers; or one teaspoon fresh, leaves only
• 2 Tablespoons milled linseed
• 1 lemon, juiced (or 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice from a bottle)
• 2-3 Tablespoons parsley, finely chopped

Method

Soak your dried mushrooms in warm water. Set aside while you clean and prepare the vegetables.

In a large soup pot or saucepan heat the oil, then gently sweat the leek until soft – 10-15 minutes.

Add the remaining vegetables to the pot, along with the rice or barley and oats. Continue to sweat the vegetables for a further 10 minutes stirring frequently to stop the grains from sticking.

Pour in stock, mushrooms and their water and the tamari or soy sauce. Bring to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

[At this point you can stop if you need to go about your day. See note in the intro]. Add prunes. Simmer for another 20 minutes.

Sprinkle in thyme and add salt and pepper to taste.

Just before you’re ready to serve, add milled linseed and lemon juice and mix well. Sprinkle some parsley atop each bowl if you fancy.

Being fair means going vegan. Check out The International Vegan Association