Lemon & Ginger Mincemeat: A Spicy Festive Treat
Warming and refreshing, this homemade lemon & ginger mincemeat is easy to make and can be used in many different ways. Pot it into pretty jars to make a nice festive gift.
I’ve been making mincemeat for several years now. Once you’ve made your own it’s hard to go back to shop bought. But ding dong merrily on high, it’s fun to ring the changes by creating variations on a theme. This year I’ve opted for something slightly different.
Lemon & Ginger Mincemeat
This lemon & ginger mincemeat is super easy to make. It’s just a case of gathering, weighing and then mixing the ingredients together. The longer you can leave it before eating the better, but it works pretty well as instant mincemeat if you’re desperate, like I frequently am.
Only hours after stirring this batch together, I was making chocolate mincemeat flapjacks with it. Alternatively, pot it into pretty jars and this lemon & ginger mincemeat makes a very nice stand alone gift; it also does very well as part of a Christmas food hamper.
My mincemeat always has to contain chocolate. It started when I was blogging for Chocolate Log Blog when I made my first batch. It’s so good, I’ve continued with that particular ingredient ever since.
I’ve used whisky, rum, brandy and Amaretto in the past. They all work very well. This time I fancied something both warming and refreshing, so lemon & ginger mincemeat it was. I’m a bit dubious about vegetarian suet, so sometimes I add it, sometimes I use butter instead and sometimes I just leave it out. This time I’ve included it, but you can omit it if you have similar concerns.
Merry Christmas
Before giving you the recipe for my lemon & ginger mincemeat, I’d like to say thank you to all my readers for visiting Tin and Thyme, reading my posts and making my recipes. All your interaction is hugely appreciated. I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas with lots of chocolate and time to enjoy with family and friends.
Other Mincemeat Recipes You Might Like
- Beetroot & hazelnut mincemeat via The Veg Space
- Boozy gin mincemeat via Foodie Quine
- Chilli chocolate mincemeat via Tin and Thyme
- Fat-free mincemeat via Tin and Thyme
- Kiddush wine mincemeat via Family, Friends, Food
- Slow cooker mincemeat with ginger via Farmersgirl Kitchen
And if you’re looking for recipes in which to use your mincemeat, I have a whole post dedicated to just that. It contains over thirty mincemeat recipes.
Keep in Touch
Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make this lemon & ginger mincemeat, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. And do please rate the recipe. Have you any top tips? Do share photos on social media too and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.
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If you’d like more Christmas recipes, follow the link and you’ll find I have quite a lot of them. All delicious and nutritious, of course.
Choclette x
Lemon & Ginger Mincemeat. PIN IT.
Lemon & Ginger Mincemeat
Ingredients
- 150 g dried figs chopped
- 150 g mixed dried fruit raisins, sultanas & currents
- 75 g dried fruit of your choice (I used pineapple & jackfruit this time)
- 100 g dark muscovado sugar
- 100 g blanched almonds chopped (I used 70%)
- 150 g dark chocolate chopped
- 80 g vegetarian suet
- 1 large cooking apple peeled, cored and diced
- 1 organic lemon zest and juice
- 10 tbsp ginger wine
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground allspice
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- ¼ tsp grated nutmeg
Instructions
- Place all the ingredients into a large bowl, give a good stir and cover.
- Leave for as long as you can, stirring once a day. I usually do mine for five days.
- If not using immediately, pot into sterilised jars and cover with waxed discs and sterilised lids. The mincemeat should keep well for a year.
Notes
Nutrition Estimate
Linkies
This recipe for lemon & ginger mincemeat with the all essential chocolate is my entry into this month’s #WeShouldCocoa. There’s still time to join in the chocolate fun.
I’m also sharing it with Recipes Made Easy for #CookBlogShare.
Silly me thought there’s gonna be meat
Thanks Choclette for this recipe. This is new for me
Hi Keisha. Mincemeat is a very British thing. And it’s definitely sweet with no meat, although it might have started out with meat way back when. We mostly use it for mince pies at Christmas.
This sounds lovely and something a little different for our mince pies next year. I will pin it to my Christmas board.
Thanks Dannii. It does make those mince pies just a little bit extra special.
Sounds delicious and so warming.
Delicious and warming is just what we all need at this time of year. Happy New Year to you.
This is just lovely and adding a bit of dark chocolate to mincemeat is such a brilliant idea! Pinned! Happy New Year:)
Thanks Monika. Chocolate gives extra richness and depth and I love it 🙂 Wishing you a Happy New Year too.
If I was to make this now would it keep until next year? If not I will have to pin it for later. It looks delicious
Homemade mincemeat is at it’s best made the previous year I reckon. It will certainly last until next Christmas if sealed well in a sterilised jar.
Do you know, for all the jam, chutney, pickles and ketchups I’ve made I’ve never actually made homemade mincemeat and I really must. This one looks so good, I love the emphasis on lemon and ginger.
It took me a while to get around to too, but I’m so glad I started. Lemon & ginger seemed like the right ingredients for the time of year. Sadly they didn’t stop me getting flu 🙁
Loving the flavours in this mincemeat. Home made is so much nicer than store bought, and it’s so easy to make too – and lasts for ages! I’ve been using some that I made at least 2 or 3 years ago & it still tastes great.
Thanks for including a link to my recipe 🙂
Agree totally. I haven’t managed to make mine last three years, but I’ve had a couple of two year old jars which were absolutely fine.
That looks really gooood. I am SO making this for the family new year.
Thanks Diane. Do give it a go, it’s scrumptious and so useful. Let me now how it goes if you do make it.
I love that you always have chocolate in your mincemeat – I don’t but I add chocolate to my mince pies. I wasn’t going to make it this year and then I was told it was tradition but a small child who will not eat it so I made a small batch tonight – I am only ever organised enough for the instant variety but I don’t think I have bought mincemeat for years. Hope you have a great Christmas and all the best for 2018
Thanks Johanna. We were away down in Cornwall, so I’m just starting to catch up. I hope you have a lovely festive time of it. I don’t think I liked mincemeat when I was a wee thing, but I grew into it. Glad you managed to make some, however small the batch 😀
Lemon and ginger sound like ideal ingredients to add to Mincemeat. I’m also a fan of adding chocolate to Mincemeat, it definitely give it an extra richness.
Yes, rich and chocolatey certainly does it for me Janice 😀
I love the simplicity of this mincemeat recipe and have all the ingredients except suet…maybe coconut fat can be used instead here?
Yes, coconut fat would work well I reckon Angie. Alternatively, you could just leave it out. I’ve done that in the past. It’s different but still good.