Guest Author - Anita Burroughs

Pomegranates and pomegranate juice have become quite popular over the past few years. You can pick up a bottle of pomegranate juice in just about any good sized supermarket these days, and it’s great for use in a lot of recipes.

This rice pudding is super creamy, and the pomegranate syrup adds an extra zing. You can add pomegranate seeds as an optional add-in. The fruit is red in color, with a thick skin. Simply cut the fruit in half crosswise, and scoop out the edible seeds. They are fairly tart in flavor, but I find them to be delicious. They add pizzazz and a nice color to the rice pudding. Fresh pomegranates are usually available in the fall and early Winter in North America.

Here is the recipe:

For the pudding:
3 ½ cups 2% reduced fat milk, divided (do not use non-fat)
½ cup Arborio or other short grain rice
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon butter
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the pomegranate syrup:
One cup pomegranate juice
¼ cup sugar

For mixing into the pudding:
6 tablespoons (or more to taste), optional

First, combine three cups of milk, the rice, 1/3 cup of sugar, and the butter in a medium saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil. Now reduce the heat the simmer the mixture uncovered for about ten minutes, giving it a quick stir occasionally. Take the pan off the heat and stir in the vanilla extract.

Combine the rest of the milk (½ cup) and the egg; stir briskly with a whisk. Take about a cup of the hot milk mixture and whisk it into the egg mixture. Now put the entire rice and milk mixture back into the pot, stirring while you are doing this. Now, cook the rice mixture uncovered for about thirty minutes, or until the rice is tender. Make sure to stir the rice occasionally. If you find you want the rice pudding a bit sweeter, you can add a tablespoon or two of sugar, but remember you will also have the sweetened syrup to accompany the rice pudding. If the rice pudding is too thick for your taste, simply add a bit more milk to thin it down.

Now to make the syrup, combine one cup of pomegranate juice and ¼ cup of sugar in a small pot. Bring the mixture to a boil; then turn down the heat and cook for about twenty minutes, or until the mixture is reduced to about 1/3 cup, stirring frequently.

When the syrup has cooled, you can spoon it over the rice pudding. Add the pomegranate seeds if you wish on top, or mix into the rice pudding.

The pomegranate juice is often sold in different varieties, ie. mango/pomegranate, apple/pomegranate. Any of these mixtures would work well for this recipe, but be sure that the juice is 100% juice without added sugars.