These puddings pass all the ‘stodgy’ exams, yet are far healthier. They are all made with wholesome plant ingredients and are free from palm oil. And if you make them yourself, that means no plastic packaging. Use vegan butters with no palm oil. Use a reusable silicone baking liner or unbleached parchment paper (in compostable packaging). Keep recipes away from pets, due to toxic ingredients.
This stodgy vegan bread & butter pudding (The Veg Space) is a wonderful way to use up day-old bread, it’s mixed with dried fruit (optionally soaked in sherry, brandy or fruit juice) and covered in vegan custard before being baked in the oven, topped with sugar. Zesty Bread & Butter Pudding (Katy Beskow) is a warming pud, and the vanilla marmalade custard absorbs the bread, so there’s no need to use butter or vegan butter. Don’t give stale or crusty bread to birds, it can choke them. Also never give buttered bread to birds, as the oil can affect waterproofing/insulation of feathers. For safe foods to occasionally feed, see how to help our garden birds.
This Easy Vegan Bread Pudding (Heartful Table) is a lovely recipe to update one of England’s favourite desserts. The recipe creator lives in Australia, but grew up in Eastern Europe, so she knows her stodgy puddings! Really easy to make, this pudding adds a little rum to the raisins, for adults. The rum-soaked raisins are scattered over the buttered bread, and poured into the custard, and baked for around 45 minutes. Once made, leave the pudding to set for 30 minutes, then serve with vegan custard or ice-cream. Leftovers keep for 3 days in the fridge.
Vegan Semolina with Tangerine Sauce (Eat This) is a German recipe, right-click to translate. Semolina is not the yukky school pudding you may have remembered, it’s actually a healthy grain often used in Italian cuisine and to make conventional pasta. This recipe is very simple to make. The semolina is cooked with oat milk and boiled, then left to sit after stirring. Add the fruity sauce, and you have an instant healthy pudding.
Vegan Self-Saucing Pudding (Rainbow Nourishments) only has 7 ingredients, and takes just 30 minutes to make and bake. Using everyday ingredients, it’s served with a lovely blackcurrant sauce.
This banana, cinnamon & caramel pudding (Full of Plants) is not just plant-based and delicious, but self-saucing too! Made with oat and almond flour alongside plant milk, coconut oil and mashed bananas, this is a naturally sweet dish. The ‘sauce’ is made by floating a mix of water and coconut sugar on top, which floats up as the cake bakes, forming a sauce on the bottom. Try to buy bananas from farm shops, then you can get Fair Trade and plastic-free a the same time (supermarkets tend to sell them separately, to avoid contamination with other produce). Most farm shop bananas are also sea-freighted, over air.
