Shamefully as a quarter Scottish I have never celebrated Burns Night before, so when I was asked to put together a Burns Night feast I felt it was time to rectify this terrible omission.

What is Burns Night do I hear you ask? It is a celebration of the life and poetry of Robert Burns a Scottish poet whose birthday was 25th January. And what better way to celebrate than with a feast of Scottish food. If you are in Scotland Travelodge has a list of the best places to celebrate Burns Night.

Any Scottish feast would not be authentic without haggis, the children hadn’t eaten this before but two of them (out of three) enjoyed it! We had it with neeps and tatties (also known as swede and potatoes) cooked the Scottish way of course.

I made a flavoursome cock-a-leekie soup, it’s best started a few hours before you want to eat it but it was rich and ever so tasty. I couldn’t bear the thought of throwing away the vegetables and bacon so kept them in and added some more carrots too. This is not a recipe to hide away just for Burns Night, it will definitely be on our menu frequently now! Also, it is such a great value meal for families on a tight budget.

You cannot have a Burns Night feast without dessert, or whisky, so it had to be the traditional Scottish dessert Cranachan to finish off our celebrations. Fluffy cream whipped with honey and whisky…heavenly and then sharp raspberry puree. So good! Another recipe far too tasty to only have once a year.

We didn’t quite get the bagpipes out, or do the highland fling but we really enjoyed our Scottish Burns Night feast!

Disclosure: I was sent the ingredients to help us celebrate Burns Night