Friday, November 21, 2008

Pumpkin Rice Pudding

Inspired by those Tuesdays with Dorrie girls who have inundated the Internet with their chocolate and vanilla rice puddings, I have made some Pumpkin Rice Pudding. It's really good. Comforting and homey. It makes the snow that nailed us again last night seem not too bad. This rice pudding also isn't nutritionally defunct. There's pumpkin and that adds some really good vitamins. It is a vegetable after all. I made it with 1% milk instead of whole milk and there's no butter in it. I'm not sure if there's usually butter in rice pudding, but anytime I don't cook with butter it could be seen as a lighter meal.

And now there's some leftover pumpkin puree in the fridge. Which will always remind me of the time my sister M. came home after work and reached for the pumpkin in the fridge thinking it was leftover sweet potatoes. The next morning she told us that the sweet potatoes we made for dinner were really bland. We laughed pretty hard once we figured out what she was talking about. We had baked sweet potatoes with dinner. So now every time I put pumpkin in a container in the fridge I giggle and think of M.

Pumpkin Rice Pudding

5 cups 1% milk
1/2 cup arborio rice
1/2 cup canned unsweetened pumpkin
1/3 cup sugar
1 cinnamon stick
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla

Heat the milk, rice, pumpkin, sugar, cinnamon stick, and salt in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until tiny bubbles form around the edge of the pan and steam rises.

Reduce heat to low and gently cook, uncovered, for about an hour and rice is tender and pudding is thick. Stir frequently (with a wooden spoon with a flat bottom if you have one.)

Beat the egg with a fork in a small bowl. Spoon some of the pudding into the egg. Slowly add this egg mixture to the pudding, stirring constantly and keeping the heat low. Cook for 1 to 2 more minutes, or until the pudding thickens some more.

Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla. Cool slightly before chilling completely.

12 comments:

Mike of Mike's Table said...

I love rice pudding and never had pumpkin rice pudding before. It looks great in the photo and sounds delicious. And I'm with you on the health aspect--I mean, hey, its got beta-carotene so its PRACTICALLY health food. ;-)

Amanda said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Amanda said...

Mmm... rice pudding! That looks fantastic--yum!

Also, you've been tagged here: http://mrswskitchen.blogspot.com/2008/11/thanksgiving-meme.html

Cynthia said...

I love rice pudding and you have given me a great idea here with the pumpkin - thanks!

Johanna GGG said...

what a great variation on rice pudding - especially for that cosy feel when the snow is at the door!

Unknown said...

I'll bet that was delicious. I love rice pudding but have never had it flavored with pumpkin. And it's healthy you say? Sounds like my kind of breakfast. ;)

Megan said...

Oops, that last comment was from me! I didn't relize I was signed under my daughters account. :)

glamah16 said...

I like! Rice pudding is so underated and comforting.

grace said...

i'll bet pumpkin does wonderful things to a rice pudding. it definitely improves the color and overall appearance--it's lovely. :)

Anonymous said...

Pumpkin rice pudding sounds awesome! It'll be next on the list.

Deborah said...

I don't even really like rice pudding, but for some reason, this is really calling my name right now!!

Mrs. White said...

I know it's not the season for this anymore, but I meant to tell you when you first posted this how delicious it looks. I would have never thought to put pumpkin and rice pudding together, but it sounds like it would made sense!