Vegetarian mincemeat recipe - an easy recipe for delicious home-made Christmas mincemeat made using butter, vegan butter or coconut oil so it is suitable for vegetarians and vegans.
It never feels like Christmas is close for me until I've had my first mince pie; they are an absolute essential in making me feel festive and I love them.
While I enjoy most mince pies, shop bought or otherwise, as with most things you just can't beat homemade ones, and if you do make your own then you get the bonus of festive baking, which always helps to put me in a Christmassy mood.
If you are going to go through the effort of making your own (and they really aren't that much effort at all), then you might as well make your own mincemeat too - again, homemade is so much better than shop bought.
Mincemeat is incredibly quick and easy to make yourself, and you get to choose what fruits and alcohol you include - don't like mixed peel? Substitute with chopped dried apricots. Not a fan of brandy? Use rum, port or sherry instead.
Feel free to chop and change the recipe below to suit you, just keep the same basic quantities of everything (ie. swap an ingredient out for the same weight of another) and it will work out just fine.
Mincemeat traditionally contains suet (a throwback to the disturbing days when it contained actual meat...), which means that it isn't exactly vegetarian friendly. Vegetable suet is available but it doesn't taste very nice, the good news is that mincemeat can be made with butter, which tastes far superior.
Suet based mincemeat is made by simply stirring all of the ingredients together then ladling into sterilised jars, to use butter you need to go through the extra step of heating the ingredients together in a pan, but it's not like that is difficult or time-consuming so this version is still really quick and easy to make.
Once jarred, the mincemeat will keep for six months, possibly even a year; and it does taste best if given a month or so to mature before using. That said, it does taste great freshly made as well, which is good seeing as there is only less than two weeks, TWO WEEKS!! until Christmas (I wasn't organised enough to make it any earlier...).
Make It Vegan:
This vegetarian mincemeat can easily be made vegan by swapping the butter for dairy free margarine or coconut oil. If you use coconut oil do bear in mind that the mixture may set a little firmer in cold conditions.
Ways To Use Vegetarian Mincemeat:
Put your vegetarian mincemeat to good use with these recipes:
Mincemeat, marzipan and apple bread wreath
Mincemeat and marzipan cinnamon buns
Apple and mincemeat filo wreath
Vegetarian Mincemeat
Ingredients
- 175 g currants
- 175 g raisins
- 175 g sultanas
- 175 g dried cranberries
- 100 g mixed peel
- 120 g butter, vegan butter or coconut oil cubed
- 220 g light brown soft sugar
- 50 g almonds chopped
- 1 large bramley apple peeled, cored and grated
- 1 Β½ teaspoon mixed spice
- Β½ teaspoon cinnamon
- Β½ teaspoon ground ginger
- β teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 orange finely grated zest and juice
- 200 ml ruby port
Instructions
- Sterilise 4 370g jars and lids (or 5 slightly smaller ones) by washing in hot soapy water, rinsing well then placing them in a low oven until dry.
- Place all of the ingredients apart from the port into a large pan, heat gently, stirring, until the butter has melted then simmer very gently, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes.
- Remove from the heat and leave to cool until just warm then stir in the port. Divide the mincemeat between the sterilised jars, seal, and store in a cool place for up to six months.
Notes
iain maciver
strawberry jam love it
Dee Dmonte
I grow my own chillis, have over 30 plants and would love to try my hand at making chilli jam!
kelly wheelhouse
I would make some raspberry jam π
Susan Smith
Homemade Raspberry Jam, never done it before, so this would be my first go
jennifer hull
tomato and onion chutney...yummmy
Jennifer
Raspberry jam, we always have some surplus berries and that would use them up nicely
lucy higgins
i would make some chutney
Lyla
Some jam - maybe strawberry
A S,Edinburgh
Raspberry jam, I think. This recipe looks brilliant! Perfect for the season.
Graham Ross
Strawberry jam
Elinor aka Beachhutcook
Love the sound of making mincemeat without suet which never really does it for me. Butter is always good! Elinor x
Richard Eldred Hawes
I would make some chutney
Ruth Harwood
Strawberry Jam xx
Jennifer Haden
I'd love to make a blueberry jam, my favourite π
Ray Dodds
Strawberry jam
Tracey Peach
Pickled Cabbage I love it π x
Sarah Mackay
I would make plum jam
Tracy K Nixon
I would make some chutney to go with some cheese and crackers!
bobbie minthull
have to try your mincemeat
ValB
I would make some marmalade in January when the Seville oranges are available