Whoever said there's no such thing as a tasty non-alcoholic red wine, hasn't tried this recipe! This Christmas mulled wine tipple will get them queuing up for more! It's not only tasty, it's also SUPER EASY to make and it smells divine too!
What wine to use?
I had bought a couple of alcohol free red wines the week before. I'd been missing a glass of red with my steak so wanted to try a couple of non alcoholic red wines to see how they fared. There's no other way to say it really, they were bloomin' awful! I almost tipped them down the sink, but not one for being wasteful, I put the cap back instead and left them sitting on the shelf.
I put a shout out asking friends if they could recommend any red wines that actually tasted 'okay'. No-one came up with any suggestions for reds but one friend did say she'd tried a nice non-alcoholic mulled wine. Boom...! That was my moment that I thought I could try making my own mulled wine using up the alcohol free red wines I had sitting around.
So... in answer to 'what wine to use?'... you can literally use anything you have lying around or buy the cheapest on the shelf at the supermarket!
The two red wines I used were Eisberg and Lindemans. And yes, I mixed them!
I have to say that I was really surprised that the mulled wine tasted so good. Surprised because I'd done a little research about cooking with non-alcoholic wines and had read that it's the alcohol content in wine that makes it good for cooking as the alcohol locks in the flavours of the food. So I wasn't holding out too much hope on my attempt at a mulled wine with no alcohol content.... but it couldn't have tasted better!
Secret Ingredient
Who knew making mulled wine could be so easy? I say it's easy because I discovered a secret ingredient.... Who needs to go shopping around for all those spices and go to the trouble of measuring and weighing when Marks & Spencers have done it for you?! Yep, good old M&S came up trumps. I squealed in the aisle when I saw they'd put together little packs of 'Mulled Spices', absolutely perfect for the non-alcoholic Christmas tipples I had in mind. At £2.30 per pack, it's a little bag of dried fruit and spice Christmas magic!
Recipe
1 or 2 bottles of alcohol free red wine
80g demerara sugar
1 x good glug of orange juice
1 x Mulled spices mix pack (M&S)
Method
Put all the ingredients into your slow cooker on a low heat for around 2.5 hours. Yep, it's that easy!! And you can keep it in the slow cooker to keep warm too.
If you don't have a slow cooker you can just use a saucepan on a very low heat and reduce the cooking time to about 1 hour. I checked the taste about half way through and added a little more demerara sugar, so you might want to do the same. When it's ready, simply ladle the mulled wine into glasses or mugs to serve. Add a couple of fresh sliced oranges and a cinnamon stick for extra wow if you're entertaining 👍 I didn't bother with the extra decorations... I drank it all to myself! And oooohhhh... that smell. So delicious! I'm going to make it again on Christmas morning and fill the house with the smell of Christmas 🎄
Mulled Wine Fruit & Spice Mix Ingredients
If you can't get to M&S for the Christmas mulled spice pack or if they've sold out (which wouldn't surprise me) here's the fruit and spices that are included in the fruit and spice mix:
Cinnamon (2 small sticks)
Dried oranges (2 slices)
Dried cranberries (tbsp)
Dried ginger (tsp)
Mace (1/2 tsp)
Allspice (1/2 tsp)
Cloves (approx 4)
Cardamom (approx 4 pods)
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