Brown Rice Pudding

Rice pudding is my favourite winter dessert, however Tim has never been a fan. Since adding more things to our list of foods we have to avoid, it was something we didn't even consider making. Then one night when I was feeling a bit down, Tim whipped one up using just 4 ingredients! Say what?! Much healthier than the original recipe, and tasty too. Since then I've done some tweaking and found a balance I like and some variations. If brown rice is not your thing, you can substitute for white rice but you will need to adjust cooking time to suit. 

I like to soak my brown rice in water for 12-24 hours before cooking, changing the water part way through. This step is not essential, you can just rinse it really well before you start to cook with it. If you do soak it, your rice will absorb liquid a little better but it's not going to ruin your dish if you don't soak your rice. In fact, I didn't even add that step into the actual recipe. 

After soaking or rinsing the rice, I put it in a medium saucepan with the milk/milk substitute. I give it a quick stir to evenly distribute the rice. Then I bring it to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer covered for about 30 minutes. I know you are not meant to peek at rice as it cooks but as I use milk/milk substitute instead of water, I don't want it to scorch so I do stir it a couple times while it cooks. The length of time varies depending on the rice you use. Even different brands of brown rice have different cooking times and white rice takes significantly less time to cook. I have had some brand take up to an hour to cook and others only 25 minutes. You will know it's ready when almost all the liquid has been absorbed.



Once the rice is cooked, I remove it from the heat, add whichever sweetener we are using (pure maple syrup is most popular in our house), some extra milk if it's a little too dry and some vanilla powder. At this point I return it to the heat for just a minute or two and then it's all done.... unless you want to jazz it up a bit with one of our variations or make your own!

Ingredients

2 cups brown rice (soaked and/or rinsed)

4 cups safe milk (rice, coconut, almond, dairy etc.) plus extra 2 tablespoons (optional)

1/2 cup pure maple syrup, honey or brown rice syrup.

1 teaspoon vanilla bean powder or 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Method

1. Place rice and milk in a medium saucepan. Mix to distribute rice evenly. Place over a high heat and bring to the boil.

2. Reduce heat and cover. Stirring infrequently, simmer for 30-35 minutes, or until almost all liquid has been absorbed. (cooking may take much longer depending on the variety of rice used)

3. Remove from heat, add sweetener and vanilla bean powder. If dry, add a little extra milk.
4. Return to heat for 1 - 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Serve.

Variations

• Blueberry: Add blueberries at step 3. This works best with honey as the sweetener.

• Coconut and Lime: Using coconut milk option, add 2 teaspoons of lime zest at step 3. Top with toasted coconut and a little lime zest. 

• Cinnamon and Honey: Using honey as the sweetener, replace vanilla with 2 teaspoons of cinnamon. Drizzle with honey or sprinkle with cinnamon to serve. 

• Chocolate Rice Pudding: Before beginning add 2-3 tablespoons of cacao powder to a 1/3 of a cup of milk, whisk well. Combine with rice and remaining milk. Follow directions as normal. You may wish to add a little more sweetener to counteract the bitterness of the cacao. 

So what do you think? If you give it a go make sure to let me know how it turns out! I hope everyone is having a wonderful week.

Happy Cooking!
Jasmine x