Brown Rice Pudding with Roasted Oranges and Chocolate
Over the holidays when my kids were home from college, I decided to reinvent the rice pudding they used to beg me to make. My family recipe called for white arborio rice, the kind used for risotto, and plenty of whole milk, cinnamon, and sugar. While the pudding was still warm, I folded in dark chocolate chunks. As the boys dug in with their spoons, they delighted in how the chocolate melted into ribbons as they stirred. Except for the cinnamon sprinkled on top (an anti-inflammatory spice) and the dark chocolate chunks, that rice pudding was not what I’d call brain food.
I got to work in the kitchen to transform this into a dish my family would love and that I’d feel good about serving. My new brown rice version is true to what’s so great about rice pudding: it’s a comforting, satisfying dessert that is easy to make with pantry ingredients.
I wanted to get the saturated fat content, sugar content, and glycemic load of the dish way down, while keeping all the flavors and textures I love. (Glycemic load is a measure of how much a food impacts blood sugar and insulin levels. The higher the load, the more your levels spike, and the less desirable it is for metabolic and brain health.)
Adding brain-friendly fats
Old-school rice pudding contains high amounts of saturated fat from whole milk, heavy cream, and sometimes sweetened condensed milk from a can. The latest brain health science supports keeping saturated fat to less than 10% of the fat in your diet.
First, I swapped in almond milk for the usual heavy cream or whole milk. I was pleasantly surprised to see that when almond milk is reduced slowly over low heat, it becomes creamy enough to coat the rice and create a pudding-like texture. I’ve made this recipe with both homemade almond and cashew milk, as well store-bought almond milk, with excellent results.When purchasing almond milk, avoid any with sweeteners, stabilizers, and added ingredients. (A brand I like is Three Trees, made with just almonds and water.)
Getting rid of most of the sugar
Next, I got to work on reducing the amount of sugar. There’s plenty of white sugar used to sweeten traditional rice pudding, as much as 8 teaspoons per half-cup portion. Current (American Heart Association) guidelines recommend that a woman consume no more than 6 teaspoons of sugar in any one day. I opted to use honey, both for its flavor and its lower glycemic index (meaning it won’t spike insulin levels as much as white sugar does.) Also, because honey has a higher ratio of fructose to glucose than white sugar, it tastes sweeter so you can get away with using a lot less. In this recipe, just 2 tablespoons of honey stands in for the usual cup of white sugar. And honey is a whole food that contains other brain-healthy nutrients: anti-inflammatory flavanols, magnesium, and potassium.
Brown rice and roasted oranges add fiber and flavor
Instead of white rice, I chose to use a fiber-rich short grain brown rice. More fiber means a slower absorption of sugar into the bloodstream, and thus a blunted insulin response. I added even more fiber by including a few roasted oranges, pith and all, to the pudding. This variety of brown rice cooks up chewy and the grains cling to each other making it perfect for rice pudding.
Dark chocolate and cardamom lend anti-inflammatory power
Finally, I kept the dark chocolate to fold into the finished pudding, although a lesser amount than my kids may recall. There’s enough to enjoy chocolate’s complex bitter and sweet flavors, along with its many brain-healthy substances, such as flavanols, theobromines and magnesium. Because cardamom goes so nicely with oranges, I swapped this out for the cinnamon. If you have freshly ground cardamom (made from splitting open a pod and grinding the seeds), you’ll find it adds a complex, peppery flavor to the pudding. Store-bought if fine, too, just be sure to check the expiration date for the freshest product.
Comfort food for your brain!
For me this brain-healthier rice pudding is an upgrade to the kind I used to make—I love the peppery hint of cardamom and caramelized orange flavors, the creamy but not cloying texture, and the improved nutritional profile. And if you should have leftovers, it also makes a nice, not-too-sweet breakfast porridge.
Prep Time | 7 minutes |
Cook Time | 60 minutes |
Passive Time | 40 minutes |
Servings |
servings
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- 3 small oranges
- 4 ½ cups unsweetened almond milk
- 1 cup short-grain brown rice rinsed
- ¼ teaspoon cardamom
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons raw honey
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon orange blossom extract optional
- 2 ounces dark chocolate (65-80% cacao) coarsely chopped, or ¼ cup dark chocolate chips
- Flaky salt for serving
Ingredients
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- Preheat your oven to 400ºF. Scrub the oranges well and wrap them in foil. Roast in the oven for 45 minutes, or until soft and slightly collapsed.
- Bring the almond milk to a simmer in a medium pot, being careful not to let it boil over. Add the rice, salt, and cardamom. Simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally, for about 30 minutes or until the rice is tender and there is very little liquid left in the bottom of the pan. Cover with a tight-fitting lid and set the pan away from the heat to steam for 10 minutes.
- Stir the honey, vanilla extract, and orange blossom water (if using) into the rice pudding.
- When the roasted oranges are cool enough to handle, cut them in half, pick out any seeds, and scoop out the fruit, pith and all. Set the orange peel “cups” aside to stuff later. Coarsely chop the fruit, and fold it into the pudding. Put aside a few teaspoons of chocolate to sprinkle on each serving, and stir the rest into the pudding.
- To serve, fill each hollowed out orange half with a generous half cup of rice pudding and sprinkle with the rest of the chocolate and a few pinches of flaky salt. Serve warm or at room temperature.
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