I would like to make this recipe for Plum Pudding but want to make it suitable for a vegetarian. Would it make a difference to the outcome if i used vegetarian suet rather than beef suet?
It will be absolutely fine to replace the suet. Suet is after all just fat, some people replace it with butter in their Christmas puds. I use veg suet in dumplings and they are always light and delicious. This recipe will be perfect with the replacement. Happy vegetarian Christmas!
About seven years ago we had two vegetarian family members join us for Christmas so we swapped veggie suet for beef suet in the Christmas pud recipe that we'd used for twenty years. It made no difference whatsoever, the puds looked and tasted exactly the same as they always had.
I have used the Atora light, vegetable suet to make dumplings and jam roly poly nothing wrong with it. The only difference is that it is not as heavy on the stomach as the traditional beef suet.
Shivvy, that same Christmas I bought veggie bacon and sausages, and a ready made veggie roast thing from the supermarket. The bacon was difficult to wrap round the sausages as it wasn't very flexible, and cracked a bit, but they went down well with our two veggie relatives.
The roast thing was really tasty, there are lots of special ones to choose from around Christmas if you don't want to make one yourself.
The rest of the meal was the same as everyone else, really easy and no faff at all.
As a vegetarian myself I'm not keen on meat replacement products so don't worry too much about offering the veggie alternative to all the trimmings. We are mostly accomodating and hugely grateful to anyone who will be kind enough to offer us an appropraite Christmas dinner! Serve a traditioal nut roast or vegetable bake with potatoes and parnsips that haven't been cooked in meat fat, some sprouts and carrots and an instant veggie gravy. Pass the cranberry sauce!