[RECIPE] The healthy (and delicious!) rice pudding we can’t stop eating

We get it: You can’t help being tempted to taste something sweet, whether it’s bags full of bite-sized chocolates or buffets of beautiful desserts. Thankfully, there’s no reason you have to feel deprived.

Exploring healthy desserts — like this made-over recipe for rice pudding — will have you delighting in sweets again.

This healthy treat is ideal for:

• Anyone who has not yet fully committed to Body Ecology but wants to choose healthier dessert options.
• Anyone with a healthy inner ecosystem, who has started to add foods back into their diet.

While this rice pudding recipe is not suggested for anyone in the initial stage of Body Ecology (before your inner ecosystem is restored or while you still have unwanted symptoms), we recognize that sometimes you just want a healthy treat, and this one is much better than any processed foods you might resort to.

Ingredients:

Serves: 6 to 8

• 1 lemon ginger teabag
• ¼ tsp. fine grind Celtic sea salt
• 1-2 tsp. BE Sweet (or to taste)
• 1 cup white basmati rice
• 2 cups Amasake (plain flavor is our favorite)
• 1½ cups pure organic cream
• 2-3 tsp. organic vanilla extract (alcohol-free preferred)
• Dash of cinnamon or nutmeg (optional but tasty)

About amasake: Amasake is made by fermenting rice with a starter called koji. Since rice is sweet, it ferments well. After fermentation, the rice becomes even sweeter, but now the grain has been broken down and is easy to digest.

Amasake is an excellent sweetener to use in a baked product where rice or rice flour is the key ingredient. Basically, you’re using rice with a fermented rice sweetener, and they are very compatible together. When mixed into other ingredients, the amasake is not that sweet, but it does make foods have a nice texture and even makes muffins and cakes rise higher.

You can get amasake at your health food store, online, or in an Asian market.

Instructions:

1. Bring 3 cups of water to a boil in a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan (at least 3-quart capacity). Drop in teabag and let steep for 15 to 20 minutes. Remove teabag and bring water to boil again.

2. Stir in the salt, BE Sweet, and rice. Reduce heat and simmer over low heat, stirring once or twice, about 20 minutes.

3. Add the amasake and continue to simmer uncovered, stirring frequently, for 15 minutes more.

4. Remove the pot from the heat and stir in the cream, cinnamon or nutmeg, and the vanilla.

5. Pour into a baking dish and bake at 350°F for about 20 minutes or until brown on top and firm. Serve warm, room temperature, or chilled.

Note: Soak rice for 8 to 12 hours to remove the enzyme inhibitors. And better yet, add a spoonful of young coconut kefir or InnergyBiotic to the soaking water to help “pre-digest” the grain/rice, making it even more digestible.