Food & Drink

Easy Rice Pudding Recipe

From the Leanne Brown, author of Good and Cheap:

Rice pudding is so simple to make—it’s almost as easy as cooking plain rice. It’s a wonderful make-ahead dessert if you have guests, and it can easily be dressed up with berries, nuts, or Caramelized Bananas….please do experiment: Milk, rice, and sugar are a great canvas. Try switching out the sugar for honey, or stirring in a spoonful of cocoa powder, peanut butter, or coconut flakes.

Basic (Vanilla) Pudding

Serves 4
$0.35 / serving, $1.40 total

INGREDIENTS

½ cup long-grain rice
2 cups milk
½ cup sugar
⅛ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract or ½ vanilla bean, seeds scraped

INSTRUCTIONS

Place a pot over medium heat and add the rice, milk, sugar, and salt. Stir until the sugar is dissolved and then bring to a boil. Once the milk is just boiling, turn the heat down to low and simmer for 20 minutes. Place a lid slightly askew on the pot so the steam can escape.
Remove a grain of rice and taste it to see whether it’s cooked. If it is soft and chewy all the way through, then it’s done. If not, let it cook for a few more minutes. Once the rice is cooked, add the vanilla, and stir.
Remove the pudding from the heat and let it cool to room temperature. Let it chill in the fridge for 2 hours before serving. You can also eat it hot, but if you wait, the pudding will thicken in the fridge and have a more pleasing texture.

Good and Cheap
by Leanne Brown

A cookbook filled with delicious, healthful recipes created for everyone on a tight budget—and with a strong charitable component: With every copy of Good and Cheap purchased, a second copy will be given to a person or family in need.

Along with amazing recipes, Ms. Brown gives tips on shopping; on creating pantry basics; on mastering certain staples—pizza dough, flour tortillas—and saucy extras that make everything taste better, like spice oil and tzatziki; and how to make fundamentally smart, healthful food choices that will change lives for the better.