Upgraded Protein Rice Pudding

Here’s a really tasty recipe for rice pudding with an added protein punch for you. I’ve given this an added step of leaving the rice overnight, with the aim being to increase the amount of resistant starch, and the addition of the coconut oil is to increase levels further still. The theory behind this is when you cook coconut oil and rice together, the oil binds to the digestible starch in the rice (that’s the starch that converts to glucose). Once bound with the oil, the digestible starch begins to crystallize, creating another form of starch: the resistant variety. Our bodies convert digestible starch into glucose, which raises blood sugar levels. Humans don’t digest resistant starch, so it doesn’t raise blood glucose at all. So a bit more resistant and a little less digestible starch is a good thing to aim for. If you just want a quick bowl of protein rice pudding you can leave out the cooling stage of course, I wouldn’t blame you :-)

1. You can also add rose water, cardamom pods or tonka beans to your pudding. We all are trying to be super healthy here, but I have to say a bit of brandy added to the berry sauce just tastes awesome!

1. Prepare the night before in a saucepan: melt the coconut oil, add rice and just enough water to cover the rice 1 cm above. Occasionally stirring, cook for about 15 minutes until the rice grains are soft. Let it cool and then transfer into a bowl and leave it in the fridge overnight.
2. The next day: blend the rice milk with a scoop of whey protein, pour it into the pot, add the vanilla bean (scrape out the seeds but also put the peel in the milk) and set to a medium heat.
3. Take the rice out of the fridge, add it to the milk and occasionally stir (you can stir continuously to speed up the process a bit). Cook for 15-20 minutes or until the milk has reduced to the desired pudding consistency.
4. Make the berry sauce: blend fresh or frozen berries with honey to taste.
5. Pour the sauce into serving bowls before adding the rice pudding, then enjoy :-)