Healthy Scottish Recipes? Is This A Joke?
This is of course, however, a wide-sweeping generalisation and although a great many people do favour deep fried, greasy food and sugary snacks and drinks, it does not naturally follow that there is an absence of good quality healthy and traditional Scottish recipes to be found, just like the Smoked Haddock Chowder (pictured above) which I had for lunch today, prior to writing this paragraph! I will endeavour on this site to convince you of the worth of that claim...
Healthy Scottish Recipes - A List of Content
Click on any of the links below to go directly to the Healthy Scottish Recipe of your choice
- Haggis, Neeps and Tatties (Haggis, Turnip and Potatoes)
- What is Haggis and How is it Made?
- Rabbie Burns and Haggis
- Healthy Mince and Tatties Recipe
- Traditional Scottish Recipe Cookbooks
- Find Out More About Gordon Hamilton, the Scottish Author of this Page
- Healthy Stovies Recipe
- Alternative Stovies Recipe
- What are you Making for Dinner Tonight?
- Scotland the Brave
- Fantastic Scottish Food on Amazon
- Healthy Scotch Beef, Potato and Parsnip Stew Recipe
- Traditional and Healthy Scottish Recipes
- What's your Favourite Scottish Recipe?
Haggis, Neeps and Tatties (Haggis, Turnip and Potatoes)
Is this what you think of when you think of Scottish food?
There can be little doubt that haggis is the first thing people generally think of when they think about Scotland and food. There seems to be a general concensus of opinion that all Scots eat haggis on a regular basis and that it is some form of staple diet in Scotland. The reality could not be further from the truth.I can honestly say that I have never in my life known anyone who I could say ate haggis on what - by any stretch of the imagination - I could class as being a regular basis. It is of course widely available at all times but in general it is most commonly eaten at events such as Burns' Suppers and St Andrew's Day Celebrations.
What is Haggis and How is it Made?
Rabbie Burns and Haggis
They go together almost like sporrans and kilts
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Rabbie Burns
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Robert "Rabbie" Burns was born on 25th January, 1759 in Alloway, Ayrshire, in a small cottage which has since been established as an official museum. The occasion of his birthday continues to be celebrated around the globe, but most particularly here...
Healthy Mince and Tatties Recipe
That means, Healthy Minced (Ground) Beef and Potatoes recipe!
Mince an' Tatties - or Tatties an' Mince as some may prefer to call it - is a very popular dish in Scotland. Unfortunately, the way in which it is normally prepared is not strictly in keeping with the healthiest of eating regimes. The potatoes are often drowned in an excess of melted, full-fat butter and a horrendous, chemically enhanced dried gravy powder is generally added to the mince. This is my attempt at getting Scots to eat a healthier and much tastier version of a cultural classic.The following recipe is for two people.
Ingredients
1lb minced or ground beef
1lb potatoes
1 small carrot (diced)
1 small white onion (peeled, halved and thinly sliced)
2 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
Pinch of fresh or dried thyme
Method
Put the minced beef in to a large, non-stick pan and bring it gently up to heat, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon. This will allow the natural fats within the beef to provide the only fats necessary to prevent the meat from sticking or burning. Brown the mince all over before adding the onion and garlic. Cook for another couple of minutes, continuing to stir frequently.
Add enough boiling water to the mince to cover it, then add the thyme and carrot. Bring to back to the boil then reduce the heat to achieve a gentle simmer.
Peel the potatoes, cut them in to chunks and place them in to a pan of lightly salted boiling water. Boil gently for twenty-five minutes. Drain well and return them to the pan with a small knob of butter. Mash them carefully and well.
Arrange the mashed potatoes on each plate as shown and then carefully, with a slotted spoon, add the minced beef on top.
This remains a traditional Scottish Mince and Tatties recipe - but with some of the calories and the chemicals removed!
Traditional Scottish Recipe Cookbooks
The recipe(s) you seek must be here somewhere!
Find Out More About Gordon Hamilton, the Scottish Author of this Page
He writes about a lot more than Healthy Scottish Recipes!
Gordon Hamilton's Home Page on the Web is linked to below. On it, you will find a lot more about Scotland, Gordon Hamilton and the subjects he writes about, including: Business of Writing, Business Advertising and Marketing, Food and Drink, Personal Finance and Travel-
Gordon Hamilton - Freelance Writer
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Gordon Hamilton has been a Freelance Writer, writing for - and creating - Web 2.0 sites on the Web since April 2007. The first site which he joined was Helium.com, followed by Squidoo in August 2007 and Hub Pages a month later. Those three sites rema...
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Gordon Hamilton - Internet Marketer
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Gordon Hamilton has been engaged in Internet Marketing from bases in Edinburgh, Greater London and Lanarkshire, respectively. He has acquired a great deal of knowledge and experience from the wide variety of projects he has undertaken in this respect...
Healthy Stovies Recipe
But what is "Stovies??"
Stovies is an ancient Scottish recipe traditionally prepared by the servant classes from the remnants of their masters' meals. The servants would rescue the remnants of the meat - be it beef, mutton or lamb - from the leftovers and stew it with potatoes and onions in the fat of the meat and some stock for their own consumption. My version of the recipe is similar to the traditional but a little more geared towards healthy eating in that I have omitted the fat, or "dripping," of the meat.Ingredients (Per person)
1 lamb chop (de-boned and cubed)
1 large potato (un-peeled and cut in to chunks)
1/2 white onion (thickly sliced)
1/2 pint of fresh chicken stock
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
Partly cook the potato chunks by boiling them in salted water for about ten minutes. To a large pan, add the olive oil and bring up to a gentle heat before adding the lamb to brown. Add the hot chicken stock and season with pepper only. Bring up to the boil then simmer for fifteen minutes before adding the potato and onion. Simmer for a further twenty minutes.
Stovies were often served with oatcakes but I like mine with a bread roll which I use to soak up the delicious stock.
Alternative Stovies Recipe
The way my Gran used to make it
This is a slightly different version of Stovies, made the way my Gran often used to make it. Instead of using the remnants of a roast, Lorne sausages, a type of sausage peculiar to Scotland, are used instead. Water is used instead of stock and a pinch of dried thyme or sage added.The method and ingredients are otherwise precisely the same as above.
What are you Making for Dinner Tonight?
Maybe this food blog's latest posts can provide you with an idea or two?
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byScotland the Brave
A look at the real Scotland and its people
What is your perception of Scotland? How accurate is it?Find out by clicking on the link below...
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Scotland the Brave
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I was born and raised in Scotland and have lived here almost all of my life. I have also been fortunate enough to have travelled fairly extensively within it, from its biggest cities, to its tiniest villages - and a great deal in between....
Fantastic Scottish Food on Amazon
Have the taste of Scotland delivered straight to your door!
Healthy Scotch Beef, Potato and Parsnip Stew Recipe
A rustic combination of fine, fresh produce
This is a simple recipe which one can easily imagine nineteenth century - and even earlier - Scottish women cooking in a big pan on the hearth. It is a simple stew, full of fresh, one hundred percent Scottish ingredients, but it is equally - or perhaps consequently! - delicious.Ingredients
1lb Scotch beef (stewing steak - diced)
2 large Ayrshire potatoes (unpeeled and roughly chopped)
1 large carrot (scraped and chopped)
1 large parsnip (scraped and chopped)
2 pints of fresh beef stock
Salt and freshly ground black pepper (okay - the black pepper's not Scottish!)
Method
Brown the beef in a large stew pan. This should take a couple of minutes. Add the hot stock and bring to a simmer. Continue to simmer for one hour.
Add the vegetables, bring back to a simmer, and cook for a further half hour. Season only at this point and serve steaming hot in bowls.
Add the vegetables
Traditional and Healthy Scottish Recipes
What other ones are available around the Web?
- Country Egg Casserole
- Traditional Scottish Recipes
- Cock a Leekie Soup
- Just like Granny made!
- Pie with Scottish Kale, Lemon & Garlic
- A healthy videographic recipe from the Scottish Television website.
- Baked Brown Trout
- The trout in Scottish waters are unquestionably some of the best in the world...
- Scotch Broth
- A perfect Scottish recipe for Scotch Broth.
What's your Favourite Scottish Recipe?
Did you find it here?
Thank you for your visit to this site. I very much hope that it has helped to give you a greater understanding of Scottish cookery and also what Scotland is truly all about.
I would appreciate it if you have a moment to leave any feedback you may have in the space below.
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Reply
- WordCustard WordCustard Oct 18, 2009 @ 12:23 pm
- Well this is unusual, where oh where are the deep fried Mars bars? Great to see some healthy Scottish food. I've featured this lens in my Discovery Tool on my own Scottish lens.
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Reply
- ChineseKitesforKids ChineseKitesforKids May 3, 2009 @ 12:38 pm
- I bet your niche is "healthy recipes" huh? LOL Great job! I think its nice to have so many healthy choices. Personally I have been on 1600 calorie diet and I'm trying to stay under 40g of fat and recipes encouraging better eating is a nice refreshing change. I bet about 85% of American women are on a diet so you have yourself a good topic of conversation here. Join groups and rate pages and hopefully we'll see a lot more of you.
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Reply
- KimGiancaterino KimGiancaterino Dec 28, 2008 @ 12:23 pm
- The haddock chowder looks pretty good. Welcome to Culinary Favorites From A to Z.
by Gordon_Hamilton
My name is Gordon Hamilton and I live in the United Kingdom. As well as writing on Squidoo, I am the Food and Drink Channel Steward on Helium.com. I a...
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