Creamy Coconut Rice Pudding – Vegan and Tropical. Ready in 35 mins
- Updated on Mar 14, 2017
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All throughout my childhood I had to eat rice pudding. I never liked it. It wasn’t coconut rice pudding, but still, I really didn’t like it. Actually I hated it.
I’m not sure if my dear mother still reads these posts of ours, but if she does…sorry mum. They just weren’t my thing.
You can imagine my natural suspicion when this recipe landed at my feet. ‘Coconut rice pudding?’ I thought to myself. Oh man, must I…?
That said, I’m no stranger to trying new things (unless they involve mushrooms, don’t even think about it Hauke and Kat), so I bravely ventured forth and collected the much-needed necessities from the list.
It’s a very simple recipe, so I chucked the items in the pot and let the heat do its work. Sure enough, the rice started to thicken and the coconut did its stuff.
Giving it a quick stir every now then I wondered off and left it simmering gently away for half an hour, and did whatever else it is that bloggers do for half an hour while they’re waiting for their rice puddings to cook themselves.
Short-grain rice is extremely important here – it turns really creamy. Super creamy. I’m not sure if I’ve ever eaten such wonderfully, creamy, soft rice as I did today.
Soon enough it came to taste test time – I’d made three portions, one for each of the family.
This is when you decide if you’re a piece or puree person. If you like your pineapple in chunks, top the pudding off with them. If you like a sauce, blend the pieces to make a beautiful, sweet sauce.
And now, I take it all back. THIS IS AMAZING. How good is coconut rice pudding?? How had I never tried this before?? I am totally, absolutely and completely convinced.
We now have a favourite new dessert at our place. If you’ve never tried rice pudding before, or never liked it, and just want some inspiration, this is the recipe to try. Now!
Coconut Rice Pudding – A dense dish
While it’s cooking, this dish looks like it will just make small portions. And it will. There’s a reason for that. Coconut rice pudding is pretty calorie dense – so it’s best not to overdo it.
We all need calories of course, they’re what keep us going, we couldn’t live without them – but too many isn’t good either!
The rice and it’s starch provide plenty of calories, as does the coconut milk (though you can buy ‘light’ versions of course).
So unless you’re exceptionally active, training hard or have particular reasons for needing to up your calorie intake, it’s best to keep these portions small. They’re filling enough – you’ll see 😉
Coconut Rice Pudding – A word to the wise
This dish is best eaten fresh and hot! After a couple of hours being cold it’ll go hard – you’ll need to reheat it with a little water to get that fresh, creamy taste and texture back.
Ingredients
- 1 can coconut milk
- ¼ cup short grain white rice
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp sugar (alternatively 1 small pack “vanilla sugar” per tbsp sugar)
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 star anise
- ½ cup pineapple chunks (canned or fresh is fine)
Optional
- ½ banana
Instructions
- Pour the coconut milk in a pot. Give it some heat – medium.
- Stir in the rice once the milk just starts to boil. Reduce the heat to low quickly. Seriously! If the coconut milk is too hot the fat will separate from the rest and it wont smooth and creamy.
- Flavour things up with vanilla extract, sugar, anise star and salt.
- Optional: mash the banana and stir it in.
- Stir occasionally and let it simmer on low heat for about 30 minutes until things get well creamy. Cover the pot with a lid.
- If you use canned pineapple: add 3-4 tbsp of pineapple juice to the rice mix to give it a fruity kick.
- Serve with diced pineapple chunks.
- Optional: Blend the pineapple and layer the puree on top of your serving of rice pudding.
- Sweet!
NOTES
Nutrition
Comments
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19 comments
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My mom is a big fan of rice pudding! I’ve only made it a few times myself, though!
Tried this tonight with a tbsp of raw sugar, without the Star Anise & with peaches in mango juice on top. Definitely creamy & extremely tasty. Does look like a really tiny amount when you measure out the rice but is really filling (& I have a sweet tooth!).
Haha yes, soooo filling! It still surprsises us. Glad to hear you enjoyed it, the peaches and mango sounds lovely!!
I love coconut, so I just know I’m going to love this rice pudding. Great advice about the portion size. 🙂
Yum! My daughters favorite dessert:) she is always prefer to eat rice pudding rather than rice and curry. I will make her happy with this recipe
So, I made this tonight and had an issue with the oil separating out of the pudding. I literally had to drain the oil out of the pot that surrounded the rice – and the rice pudding isn’t creamy. Just oily. It tastes ok but damn. Not the results I was hoping for. Any ideas why this happened?
Rice pudding is so delicious. I love the texture of the rice and the velvety pudding. This sounds incredible!
Well, the only thing I used was a can of organic coconut milk, two anise pods, a tsp of vanilla and a tsp of turbinado sugar. It looked fine and creamy right until the last five minutes when it separated…it was like making a hollandaise sauce that goes wrong, separates and there’s no getting it back to creamy. There’s coconut oil I suppose in the cream that sits at the top of the can? I poured out at least 1/4c of coconut oil that just rung itself around the outside of the pudding. It was coconut oil for sure 🙂 and it solidified back into firm oil like coconut oil does when it cooled.
Hi Mary! It’s the fat that separated from the rest of the coconut milk. It usually happens if it’s too hot for too long, just like it happens with a chowder that boils for too long. There are two things you can do to avoid this:
– use a non-organic coconut milk with emulsifiers. You can tell it has them in them because the fat doesnt separate from the water within the tin already
– or really let it simmer on the lowest heat possible until the rice is done. That way it won’t separate either. You can add another tbsp of sugar, that’ll also help.
Great – thanks for the suggestions! I’ll give it another try – and it did get too hot I think. I’m having an issue with the regulators for my stove elements, not keeping temps low when going from a higher temp to a simmer. Anyhow – thanks again for the reply!! Sounds like that will do the fix!
I think so too 🙂
Just made it again using organic coconut milk and focusing on the heat. Worked out very well.
I’m a huge fan haha.
Oh well, I guess we’d all like to write our own reviews 😉
Good luck with your second try and thanks for giving it a second chance, Mary!
Hmm. Thanks for the warning. I think I’ll add a little lecithin to the mix — and use a waterbath. Our oven isn’t the steadiest.
great idea, Ginny!
This totally reminds me of a traditional indian dessert i had growing up! I need to try this recipe!
I was the opposite of you, growing up, I loved rice pudding and couldnt have enough of it 😀 I love the pineapple topping on this. I really need some tropical mode in my life right now!
Hahaha well that’s good to hear – you would’ve been very welcome in my house :D. Hope you enjoy this one then!
I looove rice pudding and yours looks soo creamy! Hope all is well with you, Hauke!
I love rice pudding & ususally add cardamom to mine. I have never used star anise and not familiar with the flavor.
My question is can I use basmati rice to make this pudding?
Star anise is great imo, a little like aniseed. Good question with the basmati rice – I don’t think it would work. I think once it takes on enough liquid it’ll just go too mushy. I have used sushi rice several times and it works well if that helps!