The Creamiest Vegan Rice Pudding (8 Flavor Variations!)

This is the creamiest vegan rice pudding you can make. This easy vegan recipe is using aromatic jasmine rice cooked in a mix of dairy-free milk (almond milk and canned coconut milk). Served with a swirl of homemade cinnamon berry sauce. It is an absolutely delicious breakfast or dessert!

If you love rice pudding as much as we do, you’ll these creamy pudding-like desserts as well. Check out the creamiest vegan panna cotta (way better than with agar-agar!) or our vegan tapioca pudding with strawberry sauce or our vegan custard tart or our vegan chocolate pudding using sweet potato puree or our overnight chia pudding.

Why is this the best rice pudding?

It seems like almost every nation around the world has a variation of rice pudding. How many combinations can it be if the main ingredients are rice and milk? Well, a lot.

• Some recipes add eggs or even butter, and some don’t.
• Different recipes use different types of milk (from dairy to non-dairy from full-fat to thin).
• Recipes differ in terms of spices used (cardamon, nutmeg, cinnamon, anise, saffron, and so on) and flavors added (vanilla, chocolate, nuts, rose water, caramel, lemon, orange, and so on).
• Some recipes need baking, some are cooked on the stove-top or in an Instant Pot.

So what can you expect from this dairy-free recipe? It is the best vegan rice pudding with a super creamy texture ever that you can top with whatever flavor you like.

You would think that you make it by dropping a handful of rice into a pot of milk will do the trick. It won’t. It is super easy to make it ultra-creamy if you know my mom’s trick.

For as long as I remember my mom has been making the creamiest rice pudding ever. She used dairy milk back then, but this little trick she used is still applicable if you want to make the creamiest dairy-free rice pudding.

My mom’s trick is to start with water! Not only make it cheaper as you can spare 1 cup of milk, but the water softens the rice easier and faster so it will absorb the milk and the “heavy cream” easier as well.

Ingredients

The best rice to choose

So the main ingredient is obviously rice, but which rice? You can choose between short-grain and long-grain rice.

We recommend jasmine rice (long-grain white rice) since the resulting rice pudding will be creamy, not mushy or chewy at all. We have 3 reasons for you:

• It is easy to cook soft.
• It is quite light and aromatic.
• It absorbs the liquid better than short-grain rice.

Other popular choices for rice are these, but we will tell you why you should still choose jasmine rice. We definitely don’t recommend instant rice, par-boiled rice, and wild rice.

• Arborio (short-grain) – We prefer to make vegan mushroom risotto using Arborio rice because they are high in starch. It means that the starch that leaves the rice will thicken the veggie broth to a creamy consistency. However, this rice tends to absorb less liquid so it takes a long time to get them completely soft and they may still remain chewy.
• Sushi rice (short-grain) – While we love sushi rice to make these sweet potato sushi rolls or these rice paper sushi, if you choose this type to make rice pudding you will end up with a quite sticky, mushy texture.
• Basmati (long-grain) – We prefer using basmati rice for sides. If we need to cook rice for this chickpea mushroom curry, we would definitely choose basmati rice or brown rice. It is fluffy and dry which is great for curry, but not so much for rice pudding.

The best dairy-free milk to use

We recommend using a combination of almond milk and full-fat canned coconut milk. Here is why:

• Almond milk is great dairy-free milk with a not too strong nutty flavor, but with a quite creamy consistency. I also love using our homemade cashew milk for the same reasons. I find other non-dairy milks to have more characteristic taste like oat milk, coconut milk, or soy milk. They are harder to overpower especially if I am making a dessert that needs to be “vanilla flavored”.
• Canned coconut milk (full-fat or light, but not the one in the carton) is something you need a little bit from if you want the creamiest vegan rice pudding ever. I tried making rice pudding with just heavy cream, which was a disaster. It became too fatty and the rice could not soften. I made rice pudding with just milk and it lacked that creaminess I wanted. So the combination was the perfect solution.

How to make vegan rice pudding?

1. Take a saucepan and add ½ cup jasmine rice with 1 cup lukewarm water in it. Heat it on medium heat to simmer and bubble a bit, but not boiling (see below picture). You will need approx. 5 minutes for the rice to absorb the water. If you draw a line with your spatula, the rice sticks together (see the below picture).
2. Add 1 cup of almond milk (room temperature). Still heat it on medium heat to simmer and bubble a bit, but not boiling. You need approx. 10 minutes for the rice to absorb the milk. If you draw a line with your spatula, the rice sticks together (see the below picture).
3. Add ½ cup full-fat coconut milk (shaken, at room temperature), ¼ cup sugar, and 1 tsp vanilla extract. Leave it on medium heat and bring to boil. Then cover it with a lid and take it off the stove. Leave it covered for 15 minutes! Then enjoy the creamiest non-dairy rice pudding ever. Serve it with your favorite topping.

8 flavor variations

Can you eat a creamy vegan rice pudding cold? Absolutely. Here are 5 toppings you can serve it with, may it be cold or warm:

1. Mixed Berries Sauce (see in the below photo) – This is one of our variations. Whatever berry you have: blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, and a combination of these, you can top it with them or make a sauce just like in the photos. Follow the directions in this recipe to make a quick cinnamon berry sauce.
2. Cinnamon & Raisins – Sprinkle the top with some cinnamon and add a handful of raisins (even pre-soaked in rum) or other dried fruits if you like them. It will be super delicious just like Mexican Arroz Con Leche especially if you serve it with some orange zest as well.
3. Chocolate & Banana – You can easily turn this vegan rice pudding recipe into a chocolate and banana pudding. In step 3 instead of vanilla extract add 2 Tbsp cocoa powder. Mix well and continue with the instructions. Top it with sliced banana or mash 1 banana with a fork and mix it well with the rice pudding.
4. Peanut Butter & Jelly – Talk about classics. How about a swirl of peanut butter and jelly? Just a swirl though for topping. 🙂
5. Strawberry & Mint – If you want a refreshing summer flavor, add this homemade strawberry sauce mixed with some fresh mint leaves. Amazing with a capital A!
6. Coconut – If you want to up the coconut flavor, leave the vanilla extract out and add ¼ cup shredded coconut flakes. Top it with some toasted coconut chips if you have any. And do you know what is perfect to complement the coconut flavor? Chocolate chips! Just like the combination in Bounty chocolate bar.
7. Salted Caramel – I don’t know about you, but I love salted caramel desserts. You make a quick vegan caramel by melting ½ cup (35g) coconut sugar and one 14-oz (400g) full-fat coconut milk in a saucepan. Make sure you have sea salt flakes (fleur de sel) not regular salt to make this delicious sauce. Add ½ tsp and check for taste.
8. Baileys – Well, this one is quite unique. You may have heard of a cheesecake, a frosting, or a brownie recipe that used Baileys as an ingredient, but you can spike this vegan rice pudding up by switching ¼ cup of vegan baileys for dairy-free milk. Add it as the last step if you don’t want to evaporate the alcohol content.

How to make quick berry sauce?

It is really quick even if you made it with fresh or frozen fruit. You don’t even need to add lemon juice since the mix of sweet and tangy berries will bring out each other’s flavors even without it. You can skip cinnamon, but we recommend it wholeheartedly. It makes this berry sauce quite unique.

1. Take a saucepan and add 2 cups of mixed berries (blackberries, raspberries, red currant, black current).
2. Add ½ cup water and ½ cup coconut sugar. Bring it to boil.
3. When the berries are soft, use an immersion blender to blend it to a sauce. (If the berries were frozen, they will soften even quicker.)
4. Finally, add cinnamon and cornstarch and bring it to boil to activate the starch. It will thicken to a slow-flowing sauce that is perfect to top your rice pudding. It took me approx. 10 minutes.

FAQs and substitutions

When can you eat rice pudding?

You can serve warm right after it is ready or wait for it to be cold. It keeps in the fridge well for approx. 3 days. Never lasted longer in my household. The longer you keep it though, the less creamy it will be. The rice will keep absorbing the liquid until it is mushy and dry. You can eat it as a dessert or as a breakfast just like our blueberry millet porridge, or our vegan apple cinnamon oatmeal.

What kind of dairy-free milk can you use?

We recommend unsweetened almond milk or cashew milk (here is our homemade cashew milk recipe). If you use other kinds of nut milk, the nutty flavor may come across. The same is true for oat milk and soy milk, as they are too characteristic. Coconut milk (light) and the full-fat coconut cream together will take rice pudding in a very coconutty direction. If you like a hint of coconut, it is perfect then. If you’re not, try choosing another alternative.

Can I use other fruits for the sauce?

Absolutely, whatever berry you have: blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, and a combination of these. You can absolutely use frozen fruit as well. No need to thaw them, just add it to the pot.

Can I use other sweeteners?

Sure you can, although I only tested this recipe with white sugar. I usually use coconut sugar, cane sugar, or maple syrup, but I really wanted a white rice pudding. Any brown sweetener would alter that color too much. I am not familiar with the measurements for other low-carb sweeteners like stevia or erythritol. If you do, please let us know in the comments.

This Rice Pudding recipe is vegan, so dairy-free, and egg-free. It is also suitable for vegetarian, soy-free, and gluten-free diets. It is not WFPB-friendly (whole foods, plant-based) as white sugar is not compliant. You can change to date sugar or maple syrup but that will turn your pudding more brown than white.

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UPDATED: This recipe was originally posted in February 2021. Step photos, more tips, and flavor variations were added and it was republished in May 2022.