Roopa Gulati's vegetarian Christmas pudding

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In Roopa Gulati's suet-free Christmas pudding, vegetarians get to enjoy all the highlights of Christmas without compromising on any of the taste.

Ingredients

For the pudding:

For the brandy butter

For the flaming:

Serving:

When you're ready to serve the puddings, return them to the pudding bowls and cover once more with greaseproof paper and secure with foil. Steam for about 45 minutes-1 hour, or until they have heated through.

Sieve the flour and spices into a bowl and stir in the breadcrumbs and add the sugar.
Rub the butter into this mixture until it resembles a rough breadcrumb texture.
Stir in the sultanas, raisins, peel, grated apple and chopped dates.
Lightly whisk together the golden syrup, lemon rind and juice, eggs and brandy. Pour into the fruit mixture and stir well to combine everything together.
Lightly grease 2 x 500ml pudding basins and spoon in the Christmas pudding mixture. Fill to within about 1 cm from the top of the bowls.
Cover each pudding with a disc of greaseproof paper and secure with a double layer of foil, tied in place with string.
Steam each pudding for 2-3 hours, until they have darkened and are firm to the touch. To save time you can cook them in a pressure cooker for about 30 mins.
Leave to cool slightly before turning out.
When completely cool, wrap each pudding in greaseproof paper and store in an airtight tin. This pudding tastes even better if given a month or so to mature after steaming.

By Roopa Gulati