Thanks to this foolproof recipe, you din't have to miss out on the best part of a roast dinner, vegan Yorkshire Puddings! Find out how to make them below.
An essential roast dinner side dish
Now this may come as a shock to a lot of you, but I’ve never been a big fan of roast dinners! (Even when I ate meat) I love the mountains of vegetables and pools of gravy, roast potatoes too. But for some reason it just wasn't my my favourite meal. That's all changing now that I'm cooking my own plant based versions!
But, before we talk about the rest of the roast dinner, let's start by taking a closer look at everyone's favourite side dish: Yorkshire puddings.
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How to make Yorkshire Puddings suitable for a plant based diet
Yorkshire Puddings are an absolutely essential side dish for a roast dinner. They are a baked “pudding” made from a frothy batter of eggs, flour and milk that is cooked in a shallow tin filled with hot fat causing them to rise in the oven.
To make vegan Yorkshire Puddings you have to make substitutions for almost all of the ingredients which is why they are notoriously difficult to master! Let’s do a quick run through of all the ingredients you will need.
Ingredients
Flour and baking powder
Flour is the one ingredient you don’t have to worry about substituting.
The main difference is that you need to use self-raising flour instead of plain flour. Self-raising flour includes raising agents which will help the Yorkshire Puddings rise in the oven.
Despite this, we still add baking powder to give them EVEN MORE lift by creating air bubbles when it reacts with the wet ingredients.
Milk (and water)
In this vegan Yorkshire Pudding recipes milk gets swapped for any plant milk you'd like (so long as its unsweetened)
I prefer using soy milk as it is the closest to cows milk in terms of fat and protein content. Oat milk also works well.
There is lots of debate about whether adding water to the batter creates a crisper Yorkshire Pudding. I can't say I have really noticed a huge difference in crispiness. Instead, I use a combination of milk and sparkling water to create even more bubbles in the batter which helps for a lighter, more well risen vegan Yorkshire Pudding.
Egg
I've talked at length in this blog about how to substitute eggs in vegan baking (there's a whole post on the topic here).
Eggs appear in recipes for a variety of reasons. But, in traditional Yorkshire Pudding recipes the egg is there to help create even more rise! (Can you tell that rise is the name of the game when making Yorkshire puddings of any variety?!)
I don't use an egg replacer for my recipe. I rely on the combination of sparkling water, the raising agent in the self raising flour and the extra baking powder! It's a magical combination.
Hot fat
If you've tried making Yorkshire puddings before you will know that it's important that you add the batter to tins that have a small layer of hot fat in the bottom.
The reason? You guessed it, it helps them rise! If you skip the step of heating the fat you will just have slightly puffy pancakes!
The meat juices from the roast joint are often used. Sometimes it will be beef dripping, at Christmas people might use Goose fat. But, neither of these are good for vegetarians or vegans.
The good news is vegetable oil or sunflower oil works just as well!
Seasoning
Yorkshire Puddings are quite plain if you fail to season them properly. I like to keep things simple by adding a liberal helping or salt and pepper. I also like to finely chop the herbs that appear elsewhere in the meal and add these to the batter. Rosemary, thyme and even tarragon work well!
Step-by-step Instructions
- Pre-heat your oven until it is HOT!
- Pour oil into the bottoms of a muffin tin and place into the oven.
- While the oil is heating, add the flour, baking powder and a large pinch of salt and cracked black pepper to a mixing bowl along with your choice of finely chopped herbs and make a well in the middle.
- Slowly add the milk and mix until you have a smooth batter.
- Whisk in the sparkling water.
- Once the oil is smoking hot pour in the batter into the tins.
- Bake until risen, crisp and golden brown!
Make ahead
These vegan Yorkshire puddings freeze beautifully! You can cook a batch ahead of time and then reheat them in the oven for roughly 10 -15 minutes (straight from the freezer). Once they are hot and crispy they are good to go.
Top Tip
Don't remove the muffin tin from the tray to pour in the batter. Take the batter to the oven and just slide the tray out slightly. This means you will avoid losing too much heat from the oven or the oil in the pan.
FAQ
Possible reasons include not preheating the oil properly, not using enough baking powder, or opening the oven door too soon.
Soy or oat milk tends to work best because of their protein content, which helps with structure.
A high-smoke-point oil like vegetable, sunflower, or rapeseed oil works best.
Vegan Yorkshire Puddings tend to rise evenly and so they don't have that signature dip in the centre. It doesn't affect their taste or texture but I know lots of people like to fill that dip with gravy!
To get the same effect, take them out of the oven just 5 minutes before the end and push the middle down with the back of a teaspoon. Then, put them back in the oven to finish crisping up.
The recipe
Now you know the theory behind making vegan Yorkshire Puddings, let's get cooking.
Vegan Yorkshire Puddings
Equipment
- 1 8 hole muffin tin or two 6 hole muffin tins
Ingredients
- vegetable oil
- 225 g self-raising flour
- 0.5 teaspoon baking powder
- salt and pepper
- 1 tablespoon fresh herbs finely chopped
- 250 ml plant milk e.g. oat milk or soy milk
- 150 ml sparkling water
Instructions
- Pre-heat your oven to 220C / 425 F / gas mark 7.
- Pour oil into the bottoms of a muffin tin (roughly 2-3mm of oil) and place into the oven to get really hot.
- In the meantime, add the flour, baking powder and a large pinch of salt and cracked black pepper to a mixing bowl along with your choice of finely chopped herbs and make a well in the middle.
- Slowly add the milk and mix until a smooth batter is formed.
- Finally whisk in the sparkling water.
- Once the oil is smoking hot pour in the batter evenly between the tins (there should be a nice sizzle as the batter hits the oil).
- Return the tins to the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes until risen, crisp and golden brown!
Nutrition
More roast dinner recipes
Feeling festive?
If you're making these for Christmas dinner, why not check out my post all about cooking The Ultimate Vegan Christmas Dinner from starters, to mains, sides and puddings!
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