Zesty Lemon and Cardamom Rice Pudding Recipe

Rice is a kitchen staple, cooked and enjoyed around the world in a wide variety of dishes. From sushi to paella, this versatile grain can do no wrong in the culinary world. While rice is most often considered and served as a savory dish, it also makes a wonderfully creamy and decadent dessert, in the form of rice pudding. It’s hard to beat plain rice pudding with a pinch of cinnamon on top, but there are plenty of ways to get creative with flavors and come up with new rice pudding variations.

This zesty lemon and cardamom rice pudding recipe, from the kitchen of recipe developer Jennine Rye, is simple to assemble and cook, and deeply satisfying to eat. There are few puddings as comforting as a warm bowl of well-cooked rice pudding. In fact, lemon rice pudding was one of President Ulysses S. Grant’s favorite desserts. This recipe takes it a step further by complementing the bright, zesty flavor of lemon with warm, earthy, floral notes of cardamom. The result is a deeply flavorful and deliciously creamy dessert that perfectly concludes any meal.

Read more: 36 delicious ways to use leftover rice

Gather the ingredients for this lemon and cardamom rice pudding recipe

Lemon Cardamom Rice Pudding Ingredients – Jennine Rye/Tasting Table

To make this lemon and cardamom rice pudding recipe, you will need whole milk, heavy cream, granulated sugar, zest of a lemon, a vanilla pod, a cardamom pod , short grain white rice and butter.

Step 1: Mix the milk and flavorings

milk and flavorings in a saucepan – Jennine Rye/Tasting table

Add the milk, cream, sugar, lemon zest, vanilla bean and cardamom pod to a large saucepan over medium heat.

Step 2: Let it simmer

milk and flavorings in a pan – Jennine Rye/Tasting table

Heat the mixture until it simmers.

Step 3: add the rice

pour rice into a saucepan – Jennine Rye/Tasting table

Add the rice to the pan.

Step 4: Simmer until the rice is cooked

rice pudding simmered in a saucepan – Jennine Rye/Tasting table

Gently simmer the mixture over low heat for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the rice is cooked through.

Step 5: Stir in the butter

add butter to rice pudding – Jennine Rye/Tasting Table

Remove the rice pudding from the heat and add the butter.

Step 6: Serve

Zesty lemon and cardamom rice pudding – Jennine Rye/Tasting Table

Serve warm or cold.

Zesty Lemon and Cardamom Rice Pudding Recipe

Zesty lemon and cardamom rice pudding – Jennine Rye/Tasting Table

What other flavors can I add to this rice pudding?

Zesty lemon and cardamom rice pudding – Jennine Rye/Tasting Table

The flavors of lemon and cardamom work particularly well because of their slightly contrasting qualities, resulting in a spicy pudding that’s bright and tangy, yet warm and earthy, sweet and so satisfying. If you’re looking for different flavor combinations or upgrades to rice pudding, you’ll be happy to know that the sky’s pretty much the limit when it comes to such a pristine dessert. If cardamom isn’t exactly your thing, the cardamom pod can be replaced with a cinnamon stick or a spoonful of ground cinnamon to provide a similar spicy finish. Alternatively, pumpkin spice makes a delicious addition, or you can make a spicy lemon chai rice pudding using a chai spice blend or mixing your own spice blend at home.

Instead of lemon, other citrus fruits work just as well. Lime zest will add a slightly more tropical quality to the dessert and can be complemented with diced mango or pineapple and coconut flakes to really fit the theme. Replacing the lemon zest with orange zest will also work well, and the orange flavor will pair wonderfully with the spices. Moving away from citrus, berries make a great substitute for this dish and can simply be stirred into the finished rice pudding, or served underneath as a compote, or on top as a colorful, fruity garnish. Finally, adding a square of two of dark chocolate once the rice pudding has been removed from the heat will give you a deliciously decadent chocolate pudding.

Can I use other types of rice in this rice pudding recipe?

Zesty lemon and cardamom rice pudding – Jennine Rye/Tasting Table

Choosing the right type of rice for your recipes can be a bit mind-boggling if you don’t know the individual properties of different rice varieties and how they change the resulting dishes. Fortunately, both long-grain and short-grain varieties can work well for rice pudding, each adding their own unique qualities. This lemon cardamom rice pudding recipe uses short-grain rice, more specifically a particular variety of rice that is commonly used for another creamy rice dish: risotto. Arborio or carnaroli are two types of short-grain rice that are revered in Italian recipes for good reason; their high starch content is released when cooked, creating a wonderfully thick and creamy texture, while the rice grains themselves do not disintegrate into mush. Perfect for a sweet dish like rice pudding.

Alternatively, long grain rice can also be a great option when making rice pudding. Although it doesn’t create the same wonderfully creamy texture as risotto rice, its special properties mean that the grains hold their shape well when cooked in the milk and cream mixture, giving you a deliciously nostalgic dessert instead of a bowl of slop. We particularly recommend Basmati Rice and Jasmine Rice as excellent long-grain varieties for this dish.

Read the original article on the tasting table.