Recipe: Vegan Riced Carrot Pudding (Made Without Rice and Refined Sugar)

When I gave up eating grains, I also gave up eating rice. This isn't because rice contains gluten like grains do, but because rice is a carbohydrate which converts fairly quickly into sugar.

I make a concerted effort not to eat more sugar than my body actually needs.

This is so that my body, along with the multitude of good bacteria (which call my gut their home) can flourish and maintain balance and good working order.

Free of deficiencies.

It reads logically on paper.

However, that doesn't do much to quench the longing that one feels for a favourite food that's been identified as a one way ticket to metabolic disorder.

Creamy rice pudding (complete with) plump, juicy raisins was a favourite food of mine. It was a dessert also favoured by my great-grandparents and it was often served at their homestead. (Although, my great grandmother would make hers with rice, eggs, sugar and cream.) It was a comfort food.

I literally have not eaten it for over a decade.

It wasn't until I was handling some raw carrot pulp the other day, that I had a culinary epiphany.

(Carrot pulp is the dry pulp that's left-over after you juice carrots.)

Armed with 3 cups of carrot pulp, I set out to try my hand at making a creamy, vanilla flavoured, pudding that mimics that taste and texture of rice pudding...but without using rice, cream or refined sugar to sweeten it.

Holy Snap! I Didn't Think I Could Do It Either, Yet Here We Are

To make this, you'll need a food processor.

(Sorry. Even the best blenders get bogged down by the thick density of creamed coconut, cashews and carrot pulp. If you try this in a blender you will over heat the motor and risk burning it out. This is one kitchen task that requires the appropriate tools, sized for the job. )

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups of cashews soaked for 4 hours in room temperature water
• 3 cups of carrot pulp
• 2 1/2, (400 ml or 14 fl/0z) cans of the highest fat coconut cream that you can find (preferably over 15% fat)
• 141 grams of pure creamed coconut
• 2/3 cup of maple syrup or agave nectar
• 1/4 cup of chia seeds
• 1/4 cup of raisins (optional)
• 1/8 cup of finely chopped walnuts (optional for garnish)
• 8 cherries (optional for garnish)
• 2 tbsp of ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp of nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp of cardamon

Directions:

Soak the cashews in enough room temperature water so that all the cashews are evenly covered. Soaking the cashews allows for the removal of phytic acid from the nuts. This makes it easier to digest them and absorb the nutrients contained inside them. When you ingest nuts that aren't soaked you aren't getting all the nutrients that you could be.

These cashews have been soaking for 4 hours. You'll notice a oily film sitting on the surface of the water. Drain the nuts and rinse them well to remove any residual phytic acid.

In the photo below, there is a cashew (on the left) that hasn't been soaked and a cashew (on the right) that has been soaked. Cashews swell in size, once they have been soaked.

Taking the time to soak the cashews is critical to the success of this pudding so I do not recommend skipping that step or you won't be able to achieve a creamy consistency within the pudding.

Add the soaked cashews, the pure creamed coconut and 2 full cans of coconut cream to the blending bowl of a food processor and blend well for 3 minutes. The creamed coconut is a dense solid and it needs a few minutes of blending time to meld with the cream and the cashews.

Add the maple syrup, vanilla extract, cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamon. Blend well for 30 seconds.

Add the chia seeds and blend again for another 30 seconds.

Add the carrot pulp and blend for 2 minutes to makes sure that all the pulp is evenly blended through the mixture. (You could use the food processor to grate the carrot if you don't have a juicer. You just need to make sure that you squeeze all the excess juice that you can out of the carrots after they are grated or your pudding will be too wet.)

Add the raisins last and just "pulse" them into the mixture. This will ensure that the raisins will blend into the pudding, whole and remain intact as opposed to becoming minced and unrecognizable.

Refrigerate the pudding for an hour. This will let the chia seeds absorb moisture and expand in volume. This will add additional thickness to the mixture.

Place pudding into a serving bowl and top with 2 tbsp of coconut cream and finely chopped walnuts...add a cherry on top.

This recipe will yield 10 servings.

I welcome your comments and I invite you to follow on my journey...who knew you could use carrots to duplicate rice in a dessert? I'm still shocked. ;)

 

~ Rebecca Ryan