Kind to Pigs, Perfect for Breakfast: Vegan Black Pudding

Black pudding is something that sounds disgusting to a lot of people who eat meat. But nevertheless, it’s eaten in the millions in the UK and Ireland as part of a full English fried breakfast. It’s a mix of pork or beef blood, fat (suet or lard) and cereal grains like oatmeal or barley, seasoned with marjoram and mint.

Originating in the Lancashire town of Bury and Stornoway (in the Scottish Hebrides), it’s not that dissimilar to Scottish haggis, and designed to use up parts of animal slaughtered for its meat, for more profit.

This vegan black pudding recipe is quite simple, though it does have quite a lot of ingredients (including black beans, oats, barley and chesnut mushrooms). It uses activated charcoal powder for ‘inky blackness’ but you could leave it out. Once cooked and slices, fry up to serve alongside potatoes and juicy tomatoes. Or as part of a vegan full English breakfast! Vegan Sandra also offers a simple recipe.

Keep vegan black pudding away from pets due to unsafe ingredients like mushrooms, onion, garlic, nutmeg. 

Unless you have a food waste bin (made into biogas), just bin acidic or spicy produce scraps like peppers, onion/garlic/shallot/leeks/chives, to avoid harm to earthworms and other compost creatures.

For tinned ingredients, rinse/remove lids (or pop ring-pulls over holes) then step on the can to pinch the inner rims together, to avoid wildlife getting trapped at recycling points.

Buy vegan black pudding (no palm oil)

If you want to try a vegan version of ‘blood sausage’, you can buy a version now from The Bury Black Pudding Company. Just slice and grill (keep leftovers chilled and use within a few days).

This brand has created a plant-based version using a mix of oats, barley and black beans, and susbtitutes blood with beetroot (far better!)

Suitable for freezing, but defrost before cooking and do not re-freeze. Recycle packaging at supermarket bag bins, if your kerbside does not recycle.