Creamy vegan rice pudding that tastes like a delicious custard! Divine served with a sprinkle of cinnamon either hot or cold.
This vegan rice pudding tastes just like creamy custard!
Seriously, even if the words rice and pudding don’t sound like they should go in the same sentence, you’ll be a convert once you try this.
It’s made with coconut milk for a really rich and delicious pudding. It’s extremely simple, but takes a while to cook as you’re basically turning grains of rice into creamy custard, so it cooks for around an hour in total.
So it’s not super quick, but it is absolutely delicious. You can also serve it hot or cold, so the batch of rice pudding that you make today can be your puddings for the week!
And if you love this vegan rice pudding then you’ll also love our vegan vanilla pudding and vegan chocolate pudding.
Vegan Rice Pudding with Coconut Milk
Coconut milk creates such a rich and delicious rice pudding, I highly recommend it.
You might be a little shocked by the amount of coconut milk that goes into this (4 cans) and the relatively small amount of rice (¾ cup) but it works!
Yes you do have to cook it for a long time, but at the end of it, you have a thick and rich and delicious custardy pudding.
It doesn’t taste like rice in the sense that you don’t taste individual grains of rice, the whole thing is really more like custard than anything else.
How To Make Vegan Rice Pudding
You will find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.
- Add basmati rice, coconut milk, water, white granulated sugar, light brown sugar and salt to a large pot and bring to the boil stirring regularly.
- Turn the heat right down so that it is on a slow simmer, cover the pot and let it cook for around 50 minutes, stirring at regular intervals, until it is the consistency of a thick, creamy custard.
- Add vegan butter and vanilla extract and stir in.
- Your rice pudding is ready to serve.
Chef’s Tips
Use a really big pot. You’re making a big batch of rice pudding here (it serves 6) and you want the volume of your pot to be around double the volume of your pudding when you start cooking it. The initial volume is around 2 liters (half a gallon), so you need your pot to be able to hold around 4 liters (1 gallon).
This is because you’re boiling milk – yes it’s coconut milk, but all milk acts the same way. And you know what happens when you boil milk, that stuff foams up like crazy.
You do need to still keep a close eye on the pot – I pulled up a chair and read my book while this was simmering away – but if your pot is big enough the chances of it boiling over are very small.
Turn the heat right down. Once you’ve brought it to the boil, you need to turn the heat right down, as low as possible that will still keep it simmering. You want to be able to cover the pot and let it simmer without it foaming up too high (even with a big pot, this is still important!).
Stir it at regular intervals. Give it a stir at regular intervals. You’ll know it’s ready when it’s super thick and tastes like custard. From the moment it boils and you turn it down to simmer and cover the pot, it takes about another 50 minutes of simmering to reach the right texture and thickness.
Serve it with a sprinkle of cinnamon. Raisins and fresh fruit are also popular add-on’s. I prefer it quite plain with just a sprinkle of cinnamon and maybe nutmeg, but you can also really fancy it up with some vegan whipped cream or a drizzle of maple syrup.
Storing Tips
This makes around 6 cups of rice pudding. So either enjoy it all right away if you have a big family or divide it into portions, cover, and keep them in the fridge and you have puddings for days!
It will keep in the fridge (covered) for up to 1 week.
More Vegan Pudding Recipes
- Vegan Bread Pudding
- Mango Chia Pudding
- Vegan Peach Cobbler
- Vegan Malva Pudding
- Vegan Sticky Toffee Pudding
- Chocolate Chia Pudding
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan Rice Pudding
Ingredients
- ¾ cup Basmati Rice (150g) Dry Weight
- 6 ⅔ cups Canned Coconut Milk (1600ml, 4 cans) Full Fat, Unsweetened
- 1 cup Water (240ml)
- ¼ cup White Granulated Sugar (50g)
- ¼ cup Light Brown Sugar (50g)
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- ½ teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 2 Tablespoons Vegan Butter (30g)
For Serving:
- Sprinkle of Cinnamon
Instructions
- Add the basmati rice, coconut milk, water, white granulated sugar, light brown sugar and salt to a large pot and bring to the boil stirring regularly.
- Turn the heat right down so that it is on a slow simmer, cover the pot and let it cook for around 50 mins, stirring at regular intervals, until it is the consistency of a thick, creamy custard.
- Stir in the vanilla extract and vegan butter and serve either hot or cold with a sprinkle of ground cinnamon.
Video
Notes
- It’s very important that you use a large pot, so that it doesn’t boil over. Keep the heat very low once you reach the slow simmer point.
- I used full fat coconut milk from the can, but if you wanted to switch for a light coconut milk that should be fine.
- Keep leftovers stored in the fridge (covered) for up to 1 week.
Can I use soy milk instead of coconut milk? By the way, I love your recipes.
Hi Milana, yes you can! It won’t be quite as rich but will definitely still work.
Thank you!!
I have a similar recipe for 3-4 people where I use rice milk. I use 6 tablespoons of Arborio risotto rice, 1 tbsp sugar and almost 2 tbsp of maple syrup, then add 4 cups of rice milk and a tbsp of vegan butter. I also add a stick of cinnamon but I would say that is optional. Cook in the oven at 150 degrees C for about 1 and half hours to 2 hours depending on consistency (and oven) required and stirring 3 or 4 times. Can be a good substitute for those who are not fans of coconut milk. It comes out really creamy still and taste testers in my house loved it 😊
Do you need to rinse the rice before using?
No you don’t. 🙂
can I use some other type of rice instead of Basmati rice?
You possibly can, but we have only tested this with basmati.
I used Jasmine the first time I made it and it was amazing ♥️
I used brown rice for mine and it turned out quite good! I also wound up using a combo of almond milk and coconut cream since my coconut milk split and I didn’t have any more. And even so it was really good and coconutty.
Made this using a mix of almond and coconut milk. Finished it off sprinkle of roasted almonds as well. It tasted good!
Awesome! Thanks Tanya!
I’ve been craving some rice pudding and this recipe was perfect! It came out fantastic and was super easy.
Awesome! Thanks so much Ellen!
Can you sprinkle nutmeg on top instead of cinnamon ?
Sure!
I made this today with a small modification of no vegan butter and just using white sugar(because we didn’t have any brown) and it was delicious!
Can powdered coconut milk (reconstituted with water) sub for 1 of the four cans of coconut milk. I only have 3 cans and can’t find more. Thanks
That should be totally fine! 🙂
I am in the process of making this now. I have decided to throw in a cinnamon stick. Seems easier than the clumping that powdered cinnamon does and I want a cinnamon taste. I’ll keep you posted!
It looks delicious! Has anyone tried it in an Instant Pot?
Also, can you share as to where you purchased the black asianlooking black bowls ?
Hi Mary, I’ve never used an instant pot so I have no idea of the method required. We purchased the bowls at a local shop in South Africa.
Yum scrum. No need for the storage instructions as it didn’t even last long enough to go cold. 🙂
Hahaha, that’s awesome! Thanks for the wonderful review.
I only had 1 carton of full fat unsweetened coconut milk, so I decided to make a half batch. HOWEVER, somehow I forgot to halve everything after I put in the milk. So, basically I made the full recipe with half the milk (insert eye roll at myself here). I have never had rice pudding. I have no idea how this is supposed to taste. BUT, I’m happy to report, it was absolutely delicious!!! The whole pot was eaten right away. I gave everyone a small taste, when I figured out what I had done, encouraging them not to feel bad if they didn’t like it. One at a time everyone went and filled their bowls with seconds. I loved it too! I’m guessing if I had put the correct amount of milk it wouldn’t of been as chunky, but it was great for us because we like some consistency. My daughter wants me to make more tomorrow and put it in Tupperware for her to grab on her way home tomorrow. I’ll make it the same way I did accidentally today and do the recipe correctly later this week. Oh! I forgot I used Jasmine rice because it was all I had. Great recipe! Thank you so much!
So glad it was delicious! Thanks for sharing Amanda! 🙂
Hi! I only have white sugar at the moment, would I be able to use only white sugar, if so, how much? Thank you:)
Hi Catherine, sure, just use 1/2 cup (100g) of white sugar. 🙂
Hi there! What can I substitute for the white and brown sugar? TY!
Hi Kristina, if you don’t want to use sugar then I think you could easily leave it out, or you could use a different sweetener as you like. I don’t think it would have an impact on the cooking process, it would just impact the sweetness of the end result.
How do you think this would work in a slow cooker? Maybe on high?
Sorry no idea at all! I don’t have any experience with slow cookers so quite clueless there. 🙂