Enjoy this cardamom rice pudding as a cozy, warming family dessert idea! It's so easy to make with pantry staples, fragrant spices and milk of choice on the stovetop and can be topped with sweet fruits or shredded coconut for extra flavor.
If there's one dessert that pleases all the family, it's rice pudding for us! Making this rice pudding with cardamom is very simple, requires just five ingredients and it's a no bake dessert (so no need to turn the oven on!).
Cardamom is a little overlooked I feel in the spice world, despite having such a lovely warming, citrus-like taste. As well as being delicious in this dessert, have a peek at my cardamom milk, cardamom chicken and cardamom chia pudding recipes too!
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Ingredients
All the ingredients and their quantities are set out in the recipe card below.
Some notes on a few of them:
- Rice - just like in my oat milk rice pudding, I use pudding rice to make this recipe. You can also use other starchy types of rice such as arborio rice and jasmine rice.
- Cardamom - we use ground cardamom to make the dessert.
- Nutmeg - you can either use whole nutmeg that you grate, or ground nutmeg.
- Milk - I suggest to use the type that suits you best, whether dairy milk or I use oat milk (note that alternative milks seem quite individual in terms of tolerance if you're low histamine). Use more for a looser texture, if you prefer!
Optional Add-Ins
Honey or maple syrup - drizzle a little over the rice pudding to serve for extra sweetness.
Fruit compotes and coulis - easy recipes such as my mango coulis and apple pear compote are fun toppings!
How to Make Cardamom Rice Pudding
All you need to make this rice pudding is a large pot or Dutch oven, a wooden spoon and your pantry staples. No fancy equipment required!
All the instructions are in the recipe card below, but these step by step photos should help guide you.
Step 1: Combine ingredients
Pour the rice into your pot, then pour in the milk and add the cardamom, nutmeg and brown sugar (image 1).
Step 2: Cook the rice pudding
Bring the rice pudding ingredients to a boil, then reduce the heat to a very light simmer. Stir often, so the rice absorbs the liquid and it thickens. Add more milk, if required, and cook until the rice is tender (image 2).
Recipe Tips and Notes
- Keep stirring! For a creamy rice pudding, make sure to stir often.
- Adjust the amount of milk. The amount of milk required will depend on how loose or thick you like your pudding, as well as the type of rice you are using.
- Have the heat up. On a recipe test, I had the heat far too low and the rice simply wasn't cooking. So have the heat at a very light simmer (not too high though, we don't want burnt rice!).
Frequently Asked Questions
Pudding rice is a good option to make rice pudding, and easy to find in stores in the UK. Arborio rice, jasmine rice and medium grain white rice are all starchy types of rice that give you a creamy rice pudding.
We all like rice pudding in different ways, whether really thick or with a looser consistency. Simply add more milk to thin, and make sure it is cooked so the grains of rice are soft and tender.
While you can allow it to cool and freeze, I do suggest to make it fresh. It thickens a great deal when cooling and the texture can change.
More Desserts
As well as my fun apple rice pudding and blueberry rice pudding recipes, you'll find so many ideas on my desserts page, including these recent recipes:
I'm always in the kitchen, so come join me on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest to be the first to hear of new recipes! And I love to hear from you, so please do leave a star rating and comment if you've tried the recipe!
📖 Recipe
Cardamom Rice Pudding
Equipment
- Dutch oven or large pot
Ingredients
- ½ cup pudding rice or arborio rice or medium grain rice
- 2.25 cups milk dairy milk or non-dairy milk
- 1 teaspoon cardamom
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
Instructions
- Tip the pudding rice into your pot, and add the milk, cardamom, nutmeg and brown sugar. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a very light simmer and cook for 25-30 minutes, stirring often.
- Check the rice is cooked through. It should have a little bite, but not be hard in the center of the grain of rice. Cook for longer, if required, and add more milk to loosen as needed.
Notes
- The texture of rice pudding is always a little individual. This recipe gives a thicker rice pudding, so add a splash more milk if you prefer a looser consistency.
- Do keep stirring! It helps give a creamy rice pudding.
- Nutritional information is auto-generated and should be understood to be an estimate.
- cardamom scores 0, but has a note in French that some varieties may not be well tolerated.
- milk has various scores.
- nutmeg, which scores 1 with a note, 'Small amounts are well tolerated'.
Ruth Smith says
I loved this recipe that my husband kindly made for me for my dinner on a day where I’d had a MCAS flare up and really didn’t fancy anything to eat but was hungry👌.
He used coconut drinking milk instead of oat milk (my preference )and it was lush, but next time I’ve asked for perfection for it to be slightly more runny (more how he cooked it I’m sure).
Claire says
Lovely to hear that you enjoyed the rice pudding Ruth! And yes, perhaps just add a little more milk for a looser consistency if you make it again.