Some dishes just brings warmth to your soul… this red currant rice pudding is one of those dishes. It brings back good memories of being at my grandparents house as a child. When the weather was cold, the kitchen was warm, in more ways than one.
So much love in one bowl of food is such a beautiful thing! This rice pudding is a comfort food for me because of those memories and feelings. I hope it will give you the same comfort it does me.
There are a million ways to make rice pudding and this is my version. Naturally, you can adjust the ingredients to suit yourself. This year the birds left me some red currants! I was so happy, because it is not often I can pick a big bowl of them. The birds always beat me to it, the little buggers. (But i don’t really mind too much, they have to eat too). So when I saw there was still a nice amount left, I rushed outside to pick them & included a lot in this recipe.
You can swap out the currants for whatever fruit you fancy (raspberries or figs are yummy too), or leave them out altogether. This red currant rice pudding is very versatile, so is easy to adjust to your own preferences. Just take the basic recipe and go from there.
You can eat this dish as a dessert or as a breakfast, or use it as a pie filling. If using it as a pie filling, you only need to stir in some more coconut oil and santen (coconut butter) so it will set a little more firm. This recipe for red currant rice pudding is vegan, glutenfree and refined sugar free. If you prefer cows milk, just substitute that for the coconut milk.
You can eat it warm, straight off the stove, or cold. Both are very good. Try it and see what you like better.
Leftovers will keep in the fridge for about a week or can be frozen for up to 3 months.
Now let’s get into the kitchen and make this soul-warming red currant rice pudding!
Go into the garden and pick a big bowl ful of red currants and gather the rest of the ingredients
Add everything to the pan except red currants and cook until the rice is soft and you have a thick pudding
A beautiful bowl of soul-warming red currant rice pudding
Red Currant Rice Pudding
Equipment
- Big cooking pan
- Measuring spoons
- Food processor (fitted with the S blade) optional; for grinding down the dates into a paste, if you prefer
Ingredients
- 250 grams dessert rice
- 1 big splash amaretto
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 4 small handfuls sultana raisins
- 25 large dates, pits removed (grind them into a paste, together with some water, in a food processor)
- 1 small pinch salt
- 1 can coconut milk
- 8-10 tbsp agave syrup or honey
- 100 grams santen (coconut butter) (for a pie filling, add in 200 grams of santen)
- 1 big bowl red currants, stems removed
- ¼ tsp cinnamon powder (Optional)
Instructions
- First remove the pits from the dates, add them together with a splash of water to a foodprocessor fitted with the s blade and grind them into a paste. (you can skip this step and add in the pitted dates whole, if you don't mind small pieces of date skins still left in the pudding)
- Add everything, except the red currants and cinnamon, to a big cooking pan. If the rice is not covered with liquid, add some water until it is covered with about 3cm of liquid.(Don't worry about the alcohol for the little ones. It will evaporate during cooking and everyone, big or small, can enjoy this rice pudding)
- Cook everything until the rice is nice and soft and the pudding is thick. Stir every few minutes when the pudding is thickening as not to burn it
- Meanwhile remove as many of the stems of the red currants as you can, and add them to the pudding in the last minute. When the pudding is as good as done. Stir them in and watch the colour turn very light pink
- The last step is to stir in the cinnamon and scoop the pudding into a bowl and top with some more red currants. Enjoy!
