Old-Fashioned Rice Pudding With Some New Healthy (and Yummy) Twists

Rice pudding is another of those ancient (what I like to call "indigenous") foods.  Great foods that have stood the test of time are nearly always, in their essence, very simple.  That's certainly the case with rice pudding.  Its essencial components are rice, milk, and sugar.  Everything else (e.g. eggs, fruits, fats, spices, nuts etc.) are simply variations based on personal and regional tastes.

The importance of rice to humans is hard to overstate.  As a cereal grain, rice is the most widely consumed staple food for a large part of the world's human population providing more than one fifth of the total calories consumed worldwide by the human species.  Genetic evidence has shown that rice originates from a single domestication 8,200–13,500 years ago in the Pearl River valley region of China.  From East Asia, rice spread to Southeast and South Asia.  Rice was introduced to Europe through Western Asia, and to the Americas through European colonization.

Rice pudding originated in Asia as rice porridge over time it spread, along with the spread of the grain, to nearly every country of the world.  There are countless variations in Asia, Africa, Europe, North America, and South America.  In the USA many "traditional" rice puddings follow old English pudding recipes where puddings are a staple food.  There are  two basic ways to prepare traditional English rice puddings.  One way is in a saucepan (sometimes a double boiler), and another is to partially cook the ingredients, mix them together, and bake them in an oven.  The resulting pudding is either served hot or cooled to room temperature.  Sometimes the baked varieties are cooled, then sliced like cake and served with cream and jam.

I took a traditional saucepan recipe (it's faster) and made some variations to make it healthier (e.g. brown whole-grain rice versus white rice, dried cranberries instead of raisins, coconut oil instead of butter, replaced some of the milk with kefir etc.).  The result was that same delicious comfort food with supercharged nutrition boost.

Here is how to make this rice pudding

• 2 cups uncooked Brown Rice
• 6 cups Water
• 3 cups Milk
• 1 cup Kefir (or can substitute buttermilk or just plain milk)
• 1 cup Sugar (can substitute the sweetener of your choice)
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt
• 2 Eggs - beaten (an alternative for lighter pudding is to separate the egg-whites, beat them until fluffy and then fold them in at the end)
• 1/2 cup Craisins
• 1/2 cup Walnuts - chopped
• 2 Tbsp Coconut Oil

Place rice and water in a rice cooker, turn it on and let it do its magic.  Alternatively bring the water to a boil in a saucepan, stir in the rice. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer until all the water is absorbed into the rice (about 25 minutes).

In a saucepan, combine 3 cups of cooked rice, the milk, the sugar and the salt. Cook over medium heat until thick and creamy, 15 to 20 minutes. Beat together the kefir and the eggs and stir them into the rice along with the Craisins and walniuts.  Cook for 2 minutes more, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat and stir in the coconut oil and vanilla.

We ate the first round while it was warm (we couldn't wait) and had more of it later when it had cooled (it thickens as it cools).  The Craisins and the kefir give it a bit of a tang and the walnuts add a pleasant crunch.