Vegan Christmas Pudding Energy Balls
All the flavours of a classic Christmas pudding in a quick and easy vegan energy ball recipe.
If you find Christmas pudding a bit more effort than you’re willing to expend during the holiday period, have I got a recipe for you!
Before we dive into the recipe, I must ask: have you tried Christmas pudding?!
For the first 23 years of my life I existed without knowing the richness of dried fruit and Christmas spices. I experienced my first Christmas pudding five years ago during my first British Christmas in London. I was staying with a family from church for the holiday, and after a delicious Christmas lunch they brought a big dense fruit cake to the table. Then to my shock and delight, they set it on fire! It was a dazzling short display of blue flames, and an absolutely delicious ending to our Christmas meal. Ever since I have been a fan of fruit cake and Christmas pudding.
The Recipe
Confession time: I trialed three different recipes and wrote up two different blog posts that I scrapped before this Christmas recipe post finally came together.
Yeah, I think it’s safe to say it took a bit of extra effort to get this recipe right. Coming home for Christmas has been lovely. But it’s also meant I’ve been adjusting to foreign-feeling food shops and brands of food, a different kitchen, and a new photography set-up than what I’m used to back in London. Fortunately after some trial and error, this recipe came out as a success!
Going into Christmas I had put together an ambitious (if I do say so myself) vegan menu to share with my (non-vegan) family. I soon realised it might be a bit much to do everything. So I decided to stream-line some recipes. This included changing my ambition to make and steam my own first vegan Christmas pudding (I still plan to someday take on this challenge). Instead I thought I’d find a way of putting all of those Christmas flavours into a recipe that would be super simple to whip up (in my brand new food processor!).
These Christmas Pudding Energy Balls were so easy to make – which I greatly appreciated in the midst of many more complicated recipes that we tackled for Christmas. Now that Christmas is over, I personally think these Christmas Pudding Energy Balls can and should still be enjoyed all year round.
I hope you try out this recipe. If you do, let me know! Take a photo and tag me on Instagram @bitesbybekah. I’d love to connect with you and it always makes me so happy to see your creations!
Fast Five Reasons to Try: Vegan Christmas Pudding Energy Balls
- Much faster to make than a traditional Christmas pudding.
- Easy and fun to make too!
- Filled with Christmas flavours and just the right amount of sweetness.
- Freeze and save for easy Christmas prep.
- Enjoy after Christmas to prolong the festivities.
Vegan Christmas Pudding Energy Balls
Ingredients
- 7 medjool dates
- 1/4 cup cranberries
- 1/4 cup mixed dried fruit
- 1.5 cups almonds
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ginger
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1 pinch ground cloves
- 1/2 tsp zest of an orange
- 1/2 tsp zest of a lemon
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
-
Add all ingredients into a food processor.
-
Pulse and blend until all ingredients are well incorporated. You’ll need to pause occasionally and push down the sides of the mixture in the food processor, to make sure everything gets evenly blended.
-
Roll into small balls. If desired, top with desiccated coconut. Store in an air-tight container for 4-5 days, or freeze to keep longer. Enjoy!
1 thought on “Vegan Christmas Pudding Energy Balls”