Stir-up Sunday happened to fall on my birthday this year, so I prepared my vegetarian Christmas pudding on the following Monday instead.

I’m a bit of a fussy eater, so I often prefer to prepare my own food – like the mincemeat for mince pies and Christmas pudding. That way, I know that it’s made using vegetarian suet and contains no orange or lemon zest/juice, no candied peel and no whisky – none of which I like.

I had various packets of dried fruit and nuts already in my store cupboard so made a mixture containing raisins, sultanas, dates, dried apricots, almonds and pecans. Any dried fruit & nut combo will work – there’s no right way or wrong way. Also, I had a bottle of dark rum gifted to me by my sister last year; but brandy, sherry, Calvados or Armagnac would also be fine alternatives to the more traditional whisky and stout.

The pudding needs to be tightly sealed using a layer of parchment paper and pleated tin foil (to allow for expansion) and secured using string. A nifty little string handle is optional, but very useful for extricating the hot pudding. You can see how it’s done here.

I have a useful vintage aluminium pudding basin that has hinged fasteners and a handle incorporated into its design.

If you don’t have a steamer, put an upturned (heat-proof) saucer in the bottom of a saucepan, sit your pudding on top of it, fill the saucepan with hot water to about halfway up the sides of the basin and cover the saucepan with a lid. As the pan will be simmering away gently on the stove for about 5 hours, lift the lid every so often to check and see if the water level needs topping up.

Once cooked, the pudding should be stored away somewhere cool and dark until the big day. Some people prepare their puddings a year in advance; i.e. the one they prepared on this year’s Stir-up Sunday will be put away until Christmas Day 2020. They swear by the superior flavour that develops from giving the longer resting time.

There are as many preferred accompaniments to Christmas pudding as there are Christmas pudding recipe variations; brandy butter, pouring cream, clotted cream, custard or ice cream. Lots of people comment about having leftover pudding on Boxing Day, fried in butter, with bacon or with cheese (a Northern thing, apparently).

Save my Christmas pudding recipe to Pinterest by clicking here

Vegetarian Christmas pudding

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Course Dessert

Cuisine English

Servings 6 portions

Ingredients

  

SOAK FOR 1-7 DAYS

• 75 g/2⅔oz raisins
• 75 g/2⅔oz sultanas
• 200 g/7oz dates finely chopped
• 50 g/1¾oz dried apricots finely chopped
• 50 g/1¾oz almonds chopped
• 50 g/1¾oz pecans chopped
• 150 ml/5¼fl oz dark rum

CREAM TOGETHER

• 2 eggs
• 75 g/2⅔oz muscovado sugar
• 50 g/1¾oz butter
• 1 lime zest & juice

SIFT TOGETHER

• 50 g/1¾oz self-raising flour
• ½ tsp mixed spice
• a little fresh grated nutmeg

COMBINE ALL OF THE ABOVE THEN ADD

• 25 g/¾oz vegetarian suet
• 100 g/3½oz wholemeal breadcrumbs
• small cooking apple peeled & grated

Instructions

 

• Generously grease a 1.5 pint pudding basin with a little butter. Cut out a small disc of parchment paper an lay it on the bottom of the basin
• Spoon the mixture into the pudding basin, pressing the contents down firmly with the back of the spoon
• Lay a circle of parchment paper over the top of the filled pudding bowl so that there’s a 2cm overhang
• Cover the parchment paper with a pleated layer of tin foil, also with a 2cm overhang
• Secure the parchment/tin foil overhang with string tied around the circumference of the pudding bowl, under the lip
• Attach another piece of string to act as a lifting handle
• Simmer the pudding in a steamer (or lidded saucepan with a trivet/upturned saucer and hot water that reaches halfway up the sides of the bowl) for 5 hours topping up the water level when necessary
• When cooked, allow to cool completely, remove the parchment & tin foil cover and string and replace with new. Store in a cool dry place, ready for reheating on Christmas day. Reheating will take about 90 minutes, steaming using the same method
• Once reheated, invert on to a serving plate and remove the disc of parchment paper. Just before serving, pour over a couple of tablespoons of rum that has been warmed in a little saucepan. Carefully set it alight

Serve with thick cream, rum or brandy butter, custard or vanilla ice cream

Keyword Christmas, dried fruit, pudding, vegetarian