You Don't Need A Recipe To Make Rice Pudding With Leftover Rice

It can take years for novice home cooks to be comfortable enough in the kitchen to forego recipes and begin creating dishes on the fly. Recipes give a certain level of comfort and structure and generally promise success and consistency with their precise measurements and ingredient combinations. But not every dish necessarily needs precision to be delicious and memorable. Take rice pudding, for example. If ever a dessert warranted "a little of this and a little of that" mentality, it's this one, particularly if you're making it with leftover rice. You can cook plain rice any way you want (the Instant Pot makes great rice) and turn the leftovers into a tasty dessert.

Because the rice is already cooked, all you really need to concern yourself with is flavoring it and creating that rich, creamy texture rice pudding is known for. You only need some sort of milk and a sweetener, in no specific amounts; just add a bit at a time until you achieve a flavor you love. As with any impromptu recipe, start small and build; while you can always add ingredients, taking them away is not possible.

The only potential issue with throwing a rice pudding together without a recipe is that if you create something absolutely perfect, it might be difficult to recreate it on your next go-round. In the meantime, just dig in and enjoy.

Let's face it: No matter how much we adjust, we always end up with leftover rice. These are the perfect occasions to turn what might otherwise end up in the garbage into a luscious dessert (if you don't freeze your leftover rice for fried rice later). Whether it's white, brown, or even wild rice, you can turn it into sensational rice pudding. To turn your leftover starchy side dish into dessert, place it in a saucepan and add enough of your preferred milk (whole, skim, oat, almond, half and half, etc.) to just cover the rice. Heat the mixture over medium heat on the stovetop and once it begins to boil, lower the heat to a simmer and add a sweetener. Granulated sugar, maple syrup, and honey all work well, but artificial sweeteners, agave syrup, and fruit jams work, too.

Gently cook everything until the texture is thick and creamy. You can add more liquid if the pudding looks like it's getting too thick. Taste as you add your ingredients and add more as you see fit. Once the texture of the pudding is right, add any additional ingredients like nuts, dried fruit, dried coconut flakes, candies, sweet sauces, spices such as cinnamon, cardamom, or nutmeg, or anything else that sounds good.

Since plain rice is so neutral in flavor, you can doctor it up in rice pudding in countless ways. Think of plain milk and granulated sugar as a safe and basic combination that will result in a solid rice pudding. But don't be afraid to play with your food here because this dish can handle it. With leftover basmati rice, try coconut milk as your liquid and flavor it with cardamom, orange zest, toasted pistachios, and perhaps even a drop of rose water.

Make a standard rice pudding with milk and sugar but then add cocoa powder to make a chocolate rice pudding, which you can top with everything from crumbled cookies to toasted almonds to fresh summer berries. Dulce de leche will make a caramel-flavored pudding, and flavored extracts like rum, almond, and vanilla give you a universe of flavor options at your fingertips.

Bananas, mango, and pineapple make great mix-ins if you want a tropical flair, and flavored cream cheeses (like strawberry or pineapple) will give your pudding a cheesecake character. Like the "recipe" itself, there's no limit to how much flavoring you want to add so long as you start with a little and adjust accordingly. And if someone asks you for your recipe, you can genuinely impress them by saying the dish is something you just threw together.