Greek Rice Pudding (Risoyalo)
Becca Crawford
Always a favourite dessert of mine growing up, I have fond memories of my mother frequently whipping up rice pudding dusted with cinnamon powder. I took her age-old recipe and made the necessary wholefood modifications to it and, after a few reiterations, I feel that I have nailed it and it’s ready to be shared. My kids can’t get enough of this one and have been taking it for morning tea to school. Just a warning, for anyone who loves a creamy comfort food, this is highly addictive!
Risoyalo is delicious served warm or, to take advantage of the resistant starch properties of cooked and cooled white rice, serve at room temperature or cold from the fridge. I recently wrote a blog post on benefits of resistant starch which you can read here. So this is yet another way to incorporate it into your diet. I know, what a hardship.
Ingredients:
1 cup (200g) med grain white rice, soaked in 2 cups of water overnight on bench
2 cups water (additional to the above)
the rind from ½ a lemon (slice off with a knife)
2 cups full fat milk
1/2 tablespoon (2 tsps) vanilla essence
¼ cup raw honey (or a combination of honey and maple syrup. I like using half and half)
cinnamon powder for dusting
4 egg yolks (optional), for extra nutrient-density
Directions:
Strain soaked rice and rinse in water.
Add 2 cups of water, rice and lemon rind to a saucepan. Cover and bring to a boil (should only take a few minutes). Lower heat, stir then recover and allow to gently simmer until rice is cooked and all of the water has been absorbed, stirring occasionally (approx 8 mins). Remove lemon rind with tongs.
Add milk, honey and vanilla. Stir occasionally, uncovered, on a gentle simmer until mixture thickens and most of the milk has been absorbed (approx 20 mins). Turn off heat and stir in egg yolks until well mixed.
Pour into individual ramekins or vessels and dust with cinnamon powder.
Keeps in refrigerator for several days.
Makes approx 10-12 x 100g servings.
You can not taste the addition of the egg yolks (something that was not in my mum’s traditional recipe). If anything, the texture is more rich and creamy with the yolks. They do give the pudding a yellow tinge instead of its usual white though!
Although I haven’t tried it, for a dairy-freeversion I suggest using 2 cups of coconut milk instead of cows milk. If you try this coconut milk version let me know and next time I will make it with coconut milk and report back.
