Does Rice Pudding sound like a dairy nightmare for folks with IBS? Well it doesn’t have to be! I found this recipe for creamy slow cooker rice pudding that uses lactose free milk and Arborio rice. Could it be that all my failed rice pudding recipes had to do with the rice I used? Yes it did! Using Arborio rice and lactose free milk, I made the creamiest, dreamiest rice pudding of my life. It also lasted a week in my fridge, just as creamy and dreamy on the last day as on the first.
Why Do I Have to Use Arborio Rice?
Growing up, my mother and grandmother used Arborio rice, a short fat rice kernel from Italy, to make Italian risotto. However, my mom used regular rice for rice pudding. I never knew that Arborio rice made a fabulous, creamy rice pudding until I ordered a rice pudding dessert from a local Greek diner. Apparently the Greeks are famous for their creamy, dreamy rice pudding, which they make exclusively with Arborio rice.
I googled Greek rice pudding and up came a slew of rice pudding recipes, but I looked for one with a picture that showed off the fat Arborio rice kernels sitting in a velvety looking creamy custard. That was the kind I wanted to make.
Of course I can NEVER just make the recipe. No, I have to make the recipe low fodmap and IBS safe. Well, no one is putting a gun to my head, but I know that if I don’t adapt this rice pudding to my tummy needs, it will mean disaster after I eat it. So I played around with the recipe, changing the fat content, the milk type and anything else I could think of that would protect me and therefore, also you, from an IBS trigger. I was hoping that these changes wouldn’t eliminate the creamy, dreamy quality of the original recipe, and I don’t think that it did.
In fact, this recipe is every bit as rich, creamy and delicious as the one I had in my local Greek diner. I kind of can’t believe it because I tried so many other times with regular rice, but never achieved the results I wanted. No matter how many times I poured on almond/coconut milk, or add-ins like cinnamon, nuts, chips, whatever, to make the rice pudding taste better, it never had that elevated creaminess. It took a trip to my local diner to find the wonderful secret to truly creamy rice pudding – Arborio rice!
INGREDIENTS
4 cups Almond Breeze almond coconut milk (you can use lactose free milk if you can tolerate it)
2/3 cup Arborio rice (do not substitute)
2/3 cups sugar
1 Tbsp. pure vanilla extract
1 strip of lemon rind (added after the pudding is cooked.)
1/2 cup raisins or cranberries, soaked in warm water before adding (optional)
Note: You can probably add in raisins or cranberries to the pudding mixture before starting to cook it in the slow cooker, which I have not tried to do. A safe fodmap amount for either of those is no more than 1 tbsp. to a serving.
Note: Do not add eggs to this recipe. Eggs curdle in the slow cooker, making the pudding extremely unappetizing to look at and you don’t need eggs for the pudding to thicken.
DIRECTIONS
Assemble your ingredients: the milk, sugar, rice and vanilla.
Pour the milk into your slow cooker.
Stir in the sugar, rice and vanilla.
Set the slow cooker to 3 hours on low.
At the end of the three hours, stir the pudding and place it in a bowl. Let cool a bit until you think it’s cool enough to go into the fridge. Stir in the strip of lemon rind and then refrigerate covered with plastic wrap until ready to serve. The pudding thickens nicely in the fridge. You may dust the top with cinnamon before serving, if you wish.
Low Fodmap Rice Pudding
Equipment
- Slow Cooker
Ingredients
- 4 cups milk (almond coconut, or rice, or lactose free milk
- 2/3 cup Arborio rice
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 strip lemon peel
- 1/2 cup raisins or cranberries (optional) 1 Tbsp of either one is fodmap safe
- 1 pinch sea salt
Instructions
- Place the milk, rice, sugar, and vanilla in a 4 quart slow cooker. Stir the ingredients well. Turn on the slow cooker and set it on low for 3 hours.After 3 hours, turn off the slow cooker and pour the pudding into a bowl. Add the optional strip of lemon peel and stir the pudding well. Let the bowl of pudding cool for 15 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge. It will keep a few days and is delicious hot or cold.
