Martin and Sophie's Christmas Pudding
Photo: Sophie
This recipe is based on one from a series of dishes by Martin Shaw, available through Viva! Not only is Martin a great actor, he's also a dab hand at vegan cooking, and his Christmas pud recipe is the best ever.
I have changed the recipe a bit for my own tastes, considerably reducing the amount of sugar and increasing the spices, dried fruit and nuts, so if you like a really sweet one, go to the original recipe, or just double up on agave syrup or sugar on this one to go half way.
Martin says: 'One of my favourites! Don’t let the ingredients or cooking time put you off making this pudding - the effort is minimal and the end result is light and delicious!'
Keeps you arms fit too!
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Ingredients
- 600g (24oz) plain flour
- 450g (1lb) currants
- 100g (4oz) brown sugar or agave syrup
- 450g (1lb) potato, cooked, mashed and cooled
- 450g (1lb) carrots, grated
- 225g (8oz) apples, cored and chopped
- 100g (4oz) unsulphured dried apricots, chopped
- 300g (12oz) pitted prunes, chopped
- 250g (10oz) nuts, chopped
- 1-2 cm fresh ginger, finely chopped, minced or grated
- 2 tsp grated nutmeg
- 3 tsp (heaped) mixed spice
- 500g (1lb) tub vegetable margarine, melted
- sprinkle of ground black pepper
Method
- Thoroughly mix all of the ingredients together in a very large mixing bowl.
- Put the mixture into a large greased pudding basin (approx. 4 pint or larger) – it should come two thirds of the way up the height of the basin.
- If the basin has its own lid (many plastic ones do) put it on. If not cover with greaseproof paper and tie with string, put some foil on top and tie that with string too to ensure no water gets in. This is really important, otherwise the pudding could turn into a soup.
- Ordinary boil: Place in a very large saucepan of water (water should come up to two thirds of basin), cover and boil for six hours. To ensure the water level doesn’t drop too much keep topping up with boiling water at least once an hour.
- Pressure Cooker: 2pt (960g) – 20min steam in 1.5l water, 2:10hr cook; 1pt (525g) – 15min steam in 1.25l water, 1:20hr cook; ½pt (290g) – 12min steam in 1l water, 1:05hr cook
- Serve with dairy-free cream (e.g. Alpro or Granose) or dairy-free ice cream (e.g. Swedish Glace, Tofutti, B'Nice or Booja Booja).
Notes
Variation: you can split the mixture in to several smaller pudding basins. If you make it in advance re-boil it for 2 hours or microwave for a few minutes to ensure that it is reheated thoroughly. It also tastes wonderful eaten cold.
Using a pressure cooker will considerably reduce cooking time. Follow the instructions on Christmas pudding cooking that come with your pressure cooker or as above. You can cook several puddings of the same size at once if they fit.
This recipe makes 1x2pt, 4x1pt plus 4x½pt puddings.
Christmas puddings keep well in the fridge and can also be frozen to last even longer. They taste just as nice in warmer weather!
About
- Difficulty: Easy
- Preparation: Steam
- Provides: 24 servings
- Yields: one 5pt pudding or several small
- Vegginess:: Vegan
Type
Timings
- Preparation: 30 minutes
- Cooking:
- Total:
Allergy details
Author
This recipe was reproduced with the kind permission of .
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