Rice pudding is one of my childhood favorites and this low fat vegan rice pudding is as delicious as I remember it to be. This version is made with a short grain brown rice and it is sweetened with dried apricots which get totally soft and sweet. I like to use my slow cooker for these kind of jobs because I don’t have to keep an eye on it like you have to when cooking this on a stove top.
It is of course doable as I have always done it before I purchased this crock pot. Just laziness ….
I always rinse my rice really well, soak and rinse until the water is clear. I precook the rice in water, I find that it gets softer this way. Then half way through I add in the soy milk or milk of your choice. Soy makes it creamier but you should go for the taste you prefer.
The dried apricots will get plum and soft and make the rice sweet and delicious. You can add in coconut sugar or maple syrup, I prefer to do this at the end when serving the rice pudding instead of during the cooking.
Cooked for 3 and 1/2 hours on low it turns into this sweet creamy pudding. The nice thing about healthy desserts is that they can also be a guilt free breakfast or snack.
To make this low fat vegan rice pudding even creamier and to add in some nutrients I made a quick blueberry jam to scoop on top. I used frozen blueberries and heated them with some orange juice and thickened it with a little tapioca flour.
See how gooey and good this looks!? I could eat this as is with a spoon … I added a drop of stevia to balance out the flavor, this could also be maple syrup or honey.
A pudding is also an easy meal to take along to work or school. Fill up a jar and you are good to go. Layers with jam, fresh fruit and walnuts make it even more delicious and nutrient rich. The combination of the apricots, vanilla, berries and cinnamon works great but you can of course use other flavorings like cacao powder or coconut … all good!
More pudding and porridge …. Chocolate Chia Pudding, Superfood Overnight Oats and a Chia Buckwheat Pudding, we can’t have too much pudding right!?
Tina x
ps. Save the recipe by pinning the picture below to your Pinterest board,
Low Fat Vegan Rice Pudding
Ingredients
- 1 cup short grain rice, I used brown
- 2 cups water
- 2 cups plant based milk of choice, i used soy
- 1/2 cup chopped dried apricots
- 1 tsp. vanilla essence or powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 cup blueberries, frozen
- 1/4 cup orange juice
- 1 tbsp tapioca flour plus 3 Tbsp water
- cinnamon, fresh fruit and walnuts to serve
Instructions
- Wash the rice really well. Add the water, salt and clean rice to your slow cooker and set it on 1 and 1/2 hours on low. The water should be absorbed by then. If you make it on a stove top add water, salt and rice to a pan, bring to a boil and cook for 20 minutes with a lid on on low heat.
- I like to heat the milk I use before adding it in with the rice to my slow cooker. Cold milk slows the process down too much. Add in milk, vanilla and chopped dried apricots or raisins and cook for another 2 hours on low. Same with the stove top version, add in milk, vanilla and dried fruit and bring to a boil. Set on low and cook for another 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add the blueberries and orange juice to a pan and heat it up until it comes to a boil. Add in the tapioca/water mixture, stir until it becomes a bit thicker and turn off heat. You can add some stevia, maple syrup or coconut sugar to your taste.
- Serve the hot rice or cold pudding with the blueberry jam, may be some fresh fruit slices, cinnamon and some chopped walnuts.
