Arroz Doce, Portuguese Rice Pudding
Arroz doce is the rice pudding that ends nearly every Portuguese celebration, always finished with a dusting of cinnamon, often piped into a pattern across the top. The traditional pot is built on white rice, whole milk, sugar, and egg yolks. Rebuilt with whole short-grain brown rice and soy milk, it keeps the comfort and trades the refined starch for an intact grain, while blended dates carry the sweetness and the soy milk adds enough protein to make it more than empty. The two flavors that make it unmistakably Portuguese, lemon peel and cinnamon, cost almost nothing and do all the work. Make it the day before if you can, since it sets and improves overnight.
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup short grain brown rice
- 3 cups Unsweetened soy milk
- 5 wholes Medjool dates, pitted
- 1 Lemon, peel in wide strips
- 1 tsp Ceylon cinnamon
Method
- Simmer the rice in 2 cups (480 ml) water with the strips of lemon peel until the water is nearly gone and the grains are tender, about 30 minutes. Brown short-grain rice needs this head start in plain water because it takes far longer to soften than the white rice arroz doce usually uses, and cooking the peel in from the start perfumes the whole pot.
- While the rice cooks, blend the pitted dates with about half a cup (120 ml) of the soy milk until completely smooth. Sweetening through a date puree, rather than stirring in sugar at the end, spreads the sweetness evenly through a pudding that has none of its own.
- Add the date milk, the rest of the soy milk, and half the cinnamon to the tender rice. Simmer gently, stirring often, for 15 to 20 minutes until it thickens and the rice is soft and creamy. Keep stirring near the end, since a milk pudding scorches on the bottom the moment you stop.
- Fish out the lemon peel. The pudding should still look a touch loose, because it firms up as it cools and would turn stiff if you cooked it to the texture you want in the bowl.
- Spoon it into shallow dishes and dust the tops with the remaining cinnamon, the traditional lattice pattern if you have the patience. Serve warm or cold; a night in the fridge sets it into something spoonable and deepens the lemon and cinnamon.
Nutrition
Estimated per serving: 210 calories, 6 g protein, 3 g fiber, 45 mg sodium. Computed from USDA FoodData Central reference values for the main ingredients. This is an approximation, not a laboratory measurement. How these are computed.
Cost per serving is estimated from US national-average retail prices for cheap staple forms, using BLS dried-bean prices and USDA produce prices. Prices vary by store and season, so treat it as a guide, not a receipt. How this is computed.
