Dairy Free Quinoa Pudding

One of my favorite treats is pudding. I’m not really particular about the type, but my favorites are tapioca and rice pudding. It’s like vanilla pudding but fancier. Fancier is always a good thing. OK, now I sound like Martha Stewart. 😉

I frequently eat quinoa as one of my side dishes and I’ve also had it with cinnamon and almond milk for breakfast instead of oatmeal. It’s pretty versatile that way. The other day I was hit with an idea. What about rice pudding but using quinoa instead? That could work. It probably happened because I wanted rice pudding but was out of rice. Quinoa was the closest thing I had without a trip to the grocery store.

So, as a result, quinoa pudding was made that day. And it was a good thing…

Dairy Free Quinoa Pudding 

• 3/4 cup (129g) uncooked quinoa
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 whole star anise
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1/2 vanilla bean
• 4 cups unsweetened almond milk
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 3 Tbsp (15g) unsweetened shredded coconut
• 1 (28g) snack sized box of raisins
• 1 large egg, beaten

Combine the quinoa, cinnamon, anise, and water in a large pot with a lid. Split the vanilla bean in half with your fingers or a knife and drop into the pot. Bring to a boil over medium to medium high heat. Once boiling, lower heat to medium low and cover. Simmer for about 15 minutes until most of the water is absorbed.

Stir in the almond milk and sugar, and return to a simmer. Simmer uncovered for 20 minutes, stirring every now and then to prevent the bottom from burning. Add the coconut flakes and raisins, stirring to mix. Simmer another 20 minutes until the pudding is thick and pudding consistency. Remove from heat.

Beat the egg in a small bowl and slowly stir in about 1 cup of the pudding mixture. You want to stir constantly as you add the mixture to the egg so that you blend it in without cooking the egg. If you go too quickly, you’ll end up with scrambled egg and clumps. Stir the egg and pudding mixture into the rest of the pudding and cool slightly. Remove the vanilla bean and star anise before serving.

Makes 6 servings at approximately 180 calories each – 5g protein, 28g carbs, and 6g fat.

Notes

• I used white quinoa for this recipe but you can use other varieties like red or brown if you prefer.
• I had a leftover vanilla bean from my Blackberry Ham with Champagne Glaze. You can leave out the vanilla bean and stir in 1 tsp of vanilla extract at the end with the egg instead.
• The raisins are optional but I like my pudding with raisins. It’s a preference thing like chunky or creamy peanut butter.
• I used almond milk since The Kid has a dairy allergy. You can also use regular milk for this recipe. I have not yet tried making pudding with soy milk so I can’t speak from experience but it should work. If you try this with soy, let me know how it turns out.

You can serve this pudding warm or cold, or both since you’ll have leftovers. I had mine a couple mornings for breakfast after stirring in a scoop of chocolate protein powder. OMG, now that was a good idea. Using quinoa was a nice change from the typical rice pudding and I might experiment with a couple other grains. I wonder if couscous would work. Hmmm.

Are you a raisin person or a no raisin person with your pudding?