Rice Pudding With Cooked Rice - Creamy!

Recipe: Rice Pudding With Cooked Rice Recipe »

Got leftover rice? Make this easy rice pudding recipe with cooked rice! Creamy, comforting and ready in 20 minutes and made with milk, vanilla and sugar. This is an affordable and no waste dessert that's perfect served warm or cold.

About This Rice Pudding Recipe

Rice pudding is a comforting, classic dessert and is made with made with rice, milk, sugar and vanilla. It is a delicious, cost effective dessert made in 20 minutes and this version uses already cooked rice.

Why You'll Love This Rice Pudding

It's relatively quick - half an hour and the occasional stir is all you need!

This uses up leftover rice - even if you've got just 90g or 3ozs of cooked rice you can make a delicious rice pudding for two!

Using already cooked rice means that your rice will never be undercooked.

This is a simple rice pudding - we don't use eggs and we mostly use milk with a touch of cream at the end. If you want a richer and more interesting rice pudding try this one which is a Mexican rice pudding made from scratch with raw rice.

This rice pudding is done entirely on the stovetop. If you want a hands off rice pudding try tergoule, an oven baked French rice pudding. Or try this rice pudding made in a pressure cooker.

Video How To Make Cooked Rice Pudding

Video: Rice Pudding With Cooked Rice recipe

Ingredients For Rice Pudding

Cooked rice - Use already cooked short grain rice like sushi rice or calrose rice. Don't use jasmine or basmati rice. Arborio rice also works but this tends to be used in risotto with savoury flavours.

Milk - Full cream or whole milk.

Sugar - White, caster or superfine sugar.

Vanilla - Vanilla bean paste provides the best flavour but extract and essence also work.

Cream - Thickened cream or double cream.

Tips For Making Rice Pudding Using Cooked Rice

1 - Keep the temperature low to low medium otherwise the rice will stick to the bottom of the pan and the milk will burn especially towards the end. You want a gentle simmer, otherwise the milk may also curdle.

2 - Use the right type of rice - short grain rices like sushi rice work perfectly. Long grain rices like basmati or jasmine don't have enough starches in them and the end result won't be creamy enough.

3 - Add in the sugar in the last 5 minutes so that it doesn't burn or catch on the bottom of the pan. This also allows the rice to absorb the liquid better (sugar causes the rice grains to seal off and not absorb the liquid as well). It sometimes makes the rice pudding grainy.

4 - Each country has a rice pudding and there are no wrong ways to cook it. This one has a creamy, velvety texture but does not set hard. It still retains a creaminess to it.

5 - Rice pudding can be made with reconstituted milk powder. I ran out of milk during one test and used this and it worked very well.

6 - I prefer cooking rice pudding in a glazed cast iron pot like a Le Creuset as it seems to stick less than my aluminium copper pots. However you will have to soak any pot with hot water.

7 - Mr NQN likes his rice pudding sweet while I like it a little less sweet so you go with your personal taste.

Rice Pudding With Cooked Rice Recipe

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Recipe Overview

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 20 minutes plus 10 minutes cooling

Serves: 4

Ingredients Needed

• 180g/6oz cooked short grain rice
• 800ml/28fl oz milk
• Pinch salt
• 90g-100g/3-3.5oz white sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste
• 1/4 cup/60ml/2 fl oz cream

Step-By-Step Instructions

Step 1 RICE - Place the cooked rice, milk and salt in a medium to large pot and bring to a simmer. Turn heat down to low - low medium and stir occasionally making sure that it doesn't catch. Simmer for 15 minutes. By that time the rice grains should be plump and there should still be enough liquid in the pot to create a creamy sauce.

Step 2 FINISH - Add the sugar and vanilla and stir to dissolve. Simmer for 2 minutes. Then add the cream and simmer for 2 minutes allowing the sauce to become creamier and glossy. Remove from heat and cool for 10 minutes. The rice pudding will thicken upon cooling.

Personal Note

I've got a confession: my template for this rice pudding was the rice pudding from Aldi. It's my favourite rice pudding as it is creamy but not too heavy and has just the right amount of sweetness and vanilla. I love the challenge of recreating food and often study labels to see if I can get close to the original.

I think this is a pretty good dupe which means that I don't have to buy it any more!

So tell me Dear Reader, do you ever try to reverse engineer a dish just so you don't have to buy it any more?