Single-Serving Vegan Rice Pudding

When I woke up this morning, all I could hear was the tapping of rain against my window. I pulled down my blinds to see soggy grey clouds and umbrellas shuffling down the street; it made me immediately fall back into bed and pull the sheets over my head. Cold was already kissing at my cheeks. Schoolwork was already causing a tension headache. It felt like nothing could drag me out of bed. And then it donned on me, the comfiest of southern comforts that could revive even the most weather-worn northerners trapped in the south: RICE PUDDING.

The first time I can recall having rice pudding was about nine years ago. I was in North Carolina for a film festival, and one morning, there was a panel with a buffet trimmed in all the southern standards. I had just gone vegetarian a few months before, so the pickings were slim: drippy bacon over here, messy biscuits'n'gravy over there, home fries flecked with putrid pink ham. What was a vegetarian to do? But there, hidden in the corner, were these fluffy, fragrant dishes of gelatinous rice cozied with juicy little raisins that just called to me. Within one bite, I was hooked. My mouth reveled in the harmonies of flavors and textures, hints of cinnamon and cardamom mixed in a sweet cream delicately punctuated with rice grains. Oh, this was southern comfort, at its finest.

Suffice it to say, southern comfort is what makes me feel better about life down south, so rice pudding was definitely in order today. The best part about rice pudding is, it's extraordinarily easy to make. Even better, it's soooo adaptable. I make mine with brown rice and unsweetened soymilk so it's just as much about nutrition as it is about taste - and suitable for breakfast or dessert. I also make it without sugar. This recipe is single-serving because I've been super into single-serving dishes lately; they mean I don't have to worry about mindlessly snacking on leftovers, but more importantly, I can vary the recipe if I want to make it again. Thus, I offer a short list of variations afterward that I encourage you to experiment with. Get bold and come up with your own flavor combinations. (Then come back and tell me about them...)

Happy cooking!


SINGLE-SERVING VEGAN RICE PUDDING (REGULAR & SUGAR-FREE OPTION)

+ 1/2 c water
+ 1/4 c rice*
+ 1/4 c non-dairy milk
+ 1/2 t cornstarch
+ 1 packet Purevia**
+ 1/2 t vanilla

* I recommend short-grain brown rice. While more toothsome than its white counterpart, it has more starch than long-grain, making it more fluffy and sticky while still maintaining the health benefits of brown rice.
** I happened to have some packets lying around from a restaurant and didn't want to futz with figuring how much Stevia. If you want to use good ol' fashioned sugar - or sucanat or agave or maple syrup or whatever - 2 T should be about right.


01. In a pot on high heat, bring the water to a boil. Add the rice, cover, reduce the heat, and let simmer for about fifteen minutes. After fifteen minutes, there should still be a little bit of water but not much - at least, this is the case with brown rice.

02. Whisk together the soymilk and cornstarch before adding them to the pot of rice. Then add your sweetener and vanilla, raise the heat to about medium, and stir constantly as it comes to its second boil. Reduce the heat and return the lid, keeping a watchful eye and stirring occasionally to prevent any burning or clumping.

03. When your pudding looks ever so slightly thinner than your "ideal" pudding texture, pull it from the stove and switch it to the fridge. (It will thicken as it cools.) Be sure to use a wire shelf/remember to put a pot holder beneath your pot! If you want to enjoy your pudding warm, it only needs to sit in the fridge for maybe three minutes. Otherwise, give it at least an hour before savoring most serenely.



VARIATIONS
coconut rice pudding: substitute coconut milk for your usual "milk." Sprinkle with cinnamon and serve with sliced bananas.

chocolate rice pudding: when adding the milk and cornstarch, throw in a tablespoon of cocoa powder, too. For a richer chocolate experience, add 1/4 - 1/2 t almond extract, and for REALLY decadent rice pudding, toss in 1 - 2 T chocolate chips. To make it seasonal, try peppermint extract instead of almond.

berry rice pudding: in the last five for ten minutes, toss in a handful of your favorite frozen berries and maybe 1/2 t lemon juice. Give 'em a gentle stir, and let their flavors BURST onto every rice grain. This would be an excellent way to start the day.

chai rice pudding: add 1/2 t cinnamon, 1/4 t cardamom, and a splash of ginger, clove, pepper, and nutmeg when adding the milk. You might also try mixing chai concentrate with the milk before adding it or cooking the rice in brewed chai tea instead of water.

pumpkin rice pudding: mix together 1/8 c pumpkin puree with 1/8 c soymilk and omit the cornstarch. Use brown sugar as a sweetener and add 1/2 - 1 t pumpkin pie spice. Perhaps substitute (or add!) almond extract for vanilla.

Indian rice pudding: substitute the coconut milk for your usual "milk," and add a handful of raisins in the last five or ten minutes of cooking. Serve with a dash of cardamom and ground pistachios.

lemon rice pudding: add the finely ground zest of one lemon along with the water when cooking the rice. When adding the milk, add 1 - 2 tsp rum/rum extract. To make it a little fruitier, add dried cranberries in the last five or ten minutes of cooking, or serve with fresh raspberries or strawberries.

Italian rice pudding: add a splash of amaretto with the milk (or almond extract and a half t sugar). Then throw in chopped or finely ground hazelnuts (about a handful) five minutes before serving. Enjoy lightly dusted with cocoa and cinnamon with a soy latte on the side.



How do you make your rice pudding?

The Lemon Blueberry Extravaganza!!!

I was supposed to see Kingdom play today, but I couldn't. I've been internet buds with the lead singer Davin for... four years now? but we still have yet to meet. I've said that I'd be at 563489797 of their shows (with treats!), but every time - EVERY TIME - something comes up. Like last month, Kingdom was playing my hometown; and I arranged a place for them to stay and everything, but instead of seeing them play I... moved to Georgia. Yeah, it's absurd shit like that, that keeps me from going. This week, my grandma died.

Now, there's nothing like a death to throw off your week. I had to scramble like a mad woman to get all of my school work done so I could pay my respects. We're talking three days of no sleep that included my seven-hour drive and her Catholic funeral service. "Exhausting" would be an understatement. Then I made the seven-hour drive back to Georgia, which made my neck and back cramp so bad, I arrived in Savannah with my first migraine(!) ready to throw up. I rested a few hours, then started baking in preparation for the show, but the thought of spending another eight hours in the car straight up killed me. I still haven't fully processed what this event (my grandma's passing) means to me; my back and neck are still in pain; and when I sat down to be a responsible adult today (i.e. bill pay, budget, etc), the gas money wasn't in my finances. So I didn't go, and I was stuck with all these rolls. (Campus security guards sure were well-fed today...)

Every time I miss a show, I think I have a very good excuse, but I had sworn - vehemently sworn - I would definitely be there this time. I was very much looking forward to it, in fact! Alas, a flakey-mcflakester again. To make up for my absence, I decided to make them a pretty low-tech tutorial on how to make the dessert I engineered for them. It's at the end of the post.

Before getting to that, though, I wanted to give an update on my goal progress. Even though my eating habits and activity levels have improved, I haven't stuck to my plan perfectly. However, I am temporarily abandoning it for reasons I hope to reveal in about a month. I don't mean to sound cryptic, but it won't make sense until I can elaborate on it... in about a month (if what I'm doing is successful, that is).


Definitely read the instructions, too. They're more precise and accurate. Also, for the record, I don't have a lisp. It's something about how my camera picks up sound.

I-SHOULD-HAVE-BEEN-AT-KINGDOM ROLLS
+ 3/4 c soymilk
+ 1/4 c Earth Balance
+ 1 lemon (just the zest)*
+ 3 1/4 c flour
+ 1 package instant yeast
+ 1/4 c sugar
+ 1/4 c plus 2 T water
+ 2 T cornstarch
+ salt

+ 1/2 c Earth Balance (ROOM TEMPERATURE)
+ 1 - 1 1/2 c frozen blueberries
+ 1/2 c sugar

01. Pour the soymilk into a small saucepan, and bring it to a rolling boil over medium-high heat. Immediately remove the soymilk from the burner (if you don't, it will scald, and that's bad), and add the Earth Balance. Stir it around a little bit so it melts, and then set aside.

02. In a mixing bowl, combine 2 1/4 cup of flour with the lemon zest, yeast, sugar, and salt. Add the soymilk/EB mixture, making sure it's still warm as this is what activates the yeast. Then add the water and cornstarch, and stir until the mixture is just combined. Add another 1/2 cup of flour, stir to combine, and repeat with the final 1/2 cup. Then gently knead the dough for about five minutes. All the ingredients should be well-combined, with a texture that's soft but stretchy with a very smooth quality. Drape your mixing bowl with a damp cloth, and set it aside to rise for ten minutes. It's not going to rise noticeably, but it will rise.

03. When you come back, roll your dough out into a really nice rectangle, roughly 12" x 9". Try as best you can to maintain that rectangle shape because it will make it easier when you make it into a log. Spread the Earth Balance from corner to corner like you're spreading it across a piece of toast, and then sprinkle on your blueberries and sugar.** Gently roll the dough into that log shape as tight as you can get it, being careful not to let any blueberries escape, making a clean seam, and pinching the ends shut. Using your best all-purpose knife, slice up the roll in clean, quick slices. (In the video, I say the slices should be about a half-inch thick, but it's probably more like an inch.) Arrange your rolls in a greased up pan, like a lasagna dish or cake pan. Make sure you leave some space between each roll, as they're going to rise more and will need that space. Then drape them with a wet cloth again, and set them aside someplace warm (but not hot) to rise some more for about thirty minutes.

04. At some point during that thirty minutes, turn your oven to 375˚. When the rolls have finished rising (they should be about doubled in size; if they didn't double, it means you didn't activate your yeast properly, but it's not a big deal. Your rolls won't be quite as fluffy as you might hope/expect, but you can go ahead and bake them anyway), pop them in the oven for twenty minutes. Then remove from the oven, let cool, and enjoy.


* One of my roommates complained that these weren't lemon-y enough. I thought the flavor was fine, especially with how the blueberries made them pop, but to each their own. Here are two ways to deal with this: (1) going in, if you know you want a profound lemon flavor, use the zest of two lemons instead of one; (2) if you make them and decide, yeah, my roommate is right, mix the juice from your zested lemon with some powdered sugar and soymilk to make a lemon-y glaze, then drizzle it all over your rolls. Scrumptious and photogenic.
** I created this recipe just this week, so it still needs some engineering. Obviously, whole blueberries make both eating and assembly difficult, so perhaps mashing them up a little before rolling the dough might be an option. If anyone tries this, let me know.




You can expect roughly twelve to fifteen rolls from this recipe.