Coconut rice pudding with cardamom spiced honey pears is a creamy decadent dessert. It is made with cooked rice, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger and cardamom poached pears. Fabulous topped with our Air Fryer Roasted Chestnuts for the perfect cozy Autumn and Winter dessert!
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Cozy Warm Desserts
Warm and cozy autumn ginger, cinnamon and cardamom spices make this pear dessert out of this world. We love eating this coconut cream pudding warm and straight from the stove top. (After all, we need to to perform quality assurance testing... wink wink...) However, it can also be eaten at room temperature and is delicious as part of a spleen qi diet.
Healthy Autumn & Winter Treat
You are just going to love our cooked rice pudding with cardamom spiced honey pears. It is gluten-free, warm and cozy like snuggling up in a blanket next to a warm fire and only delicately sweet. This dessert is so healthy that it could actually be eaten as a breakfast. It has, and it was superb.
We made it the day before and then just reheated the next day with a little extra coconut milk or non-dairy creamer and it was out of this world. If you would like to make this vegan coconut rice pudding, you can the exchange butter with coconut oil and the honey with maple syrup and it is really nice.
Warming Spices
Cinnamon, cardamom and ginger are a lovely trio of spices in this dessert. However, the market item that really makes this dessert unique is the addition of lemon. It really brightens the dish up and adds another dimension of flavor. If you can only imagine, your house is going to smell absolutely fantastic while you are preparing your cozy coconut rice pudding with cardamom spiced honey pears.
This recipe only takes about 15 minutes to make both components of the dessert. However, you're on deck for the full 15 minutes. You cannot be distracted as you must stir and monitor both the pudding and the pears. Autumn is that very special time when we crave warming and everything pumpkin spice. If you are looking for another quick and easy fall dessert, be sure to try our Easy Pumpkin Empanadas (Date Sweetened).
Seasonal Pears
Pears are in season now and are so perfectly sweet and juicy. You know these pears are perfectly ripe when you bite into them and the juice runs down your arm and into your sleeve. As you know pears oxidize (turn brown) very quickly after they are peeled, so be sure to squeeze a little lemon juice on them straight away.
You will want to use the perfectly ripe pears like we did with our Asian Spiced Pears and our Chinese Pear Dessert Soup. Do not use unripe green pears in this recipe as they will not be naturally sweet and will take so much longer to poach. The length of time to poach your pears will depend on the ripeness of your pears.
Leftover Rice
Yes, you heard me right! We used left over white rice to make this dish in just 15 speedy minutes. Really how many dishes of Hong Kong Fried Rice can one girl eat!?! Using the left over rice makes this recipe a breeze.
You just add equal amounts of rice, coconut milk and add in your spices and a touch of honey and just slowly simmer for a few minutes...like about 8 and you are done. How easy is that?!
Best Spices for Rice Pudding
As you know, we do not make desserts often and when we do we only like them delicately sweet. Therefore you are going to have to be a judge of how sweet you like your rice pudding. Start out with just a little honey or maple syrup as you can always add more, is our philosophy.
Another word of caution is the use of ground powdered spices in this recipe. Dried ground spices work fantastic in the cozy coconut rice pudding. However, they do not work as well in the Cardamom Spiced Honey Pears unless you wait and just add them right before serving the sauce, as they can clump together.
If you take a closer look at the ingredient list it is not really as long as it looks because you use many of the same spices for both the coconut rice pudding and for the Cardamom Spiced Honey Pears. We just listed the ingredients twice so the recipe is easier to follow.
How to Serve
We love to drink tea with this dessert. Coconut Rice Pudding with Cardamom Spiced Honey Pears would also be fabulous with an espresso, coffee or even a hot mug of Instant Pot Apple Cider. Aged fermented puer cha (tea) works lovely with this dessert as the spices can really stand up to the stronger flavors of the tea. In addition, we also like a rich African Rooibos tea or Hong se (Red) Chinese tea.
This is a rustic pantry peasant dish that is soon to be your favorite dessert.
More Cozy Fall Recipes
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Coconut Rice Pudding with Cardamom Spiced Honey Pears
Ingredients
Coconut Rice Pudding
- 2 cups rice
cooked (leftover) white jasmine - 2 cups coconut milk
(or can exchange with other milk alternatives or even part milk and cream if you are not lactose intolerant) Please just remember you need equal amounts of liquid to cooked rice. - 1 teaspoon cinnamon
ground - ½ teaspoon cardamom
ground - 1 teaspoon ginger
grated fresh (you will also need 1 teaspoon for pears) - 4 honey (add more if you like it sweeter, less if you like) adjust to your taste)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoon vanilla
(1 teaspoon for coconut pudding and 1 teaspoon for cardamon spiced honey pears)
Cardamom Spiced Honey Pears
- 2 pears
(peeled, cut in half, core removed but leave the stem) VERY IMPORTANT- Drizzle the pears with a little lemon juice as soon as you are done peeling them to prevent oxidation. - 1 tablespoon butter/coconut oil
use coconut oil to keep vegan - ¾ cup water
- 3 twills cinnamon sticks (if you need to use ground, do not add until just ready to serve- 1 teaspoon)
- 5 pods cardamom (slightly crushed) ( if you need to use ground, do not add until just ready to serve- ½ teaspoon)
- 1 teaspoon ginger freshly grated ( if you need to use ground, do not add until just ready to serve- 1 teaspoon)
- 2 tablespoon lemon juice
- 2 tablespoon honey (add more if you like it sweeter, adjust to your taste) use maple syrup if want to keep it vegan
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Garnish
- 2 tablespoon pecans crushed (optional) OR
- Air Fried Roasted Chestnuts optional
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan add cooked rice, coconut milk, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, honey, salt and vanilla and place on a medium low simmer and stir. Slowly stir for about 8 minutes until the coconut milk absorbs into the rice, thickens and you have creamy delicious rice. (Keep your eye on the rice and keep stirring or otherwise it will stick)
- In a separate frying pan add coconut oil or butter. Over a medium heat add the pears cut side down until just lightly browned on the edges about 2 minutes. Add water, cinnamon sticks, slightly crushed cardamom pods, fresh ginger, lemon juice, honey and vanilla and gently move the pan over the burner just to incorporate the ingredients. Gently simmer for about 5-8 minutes or until the pears are fork tender and the juice sticks to the back of a spoon. The length of time to poach your pears will depend on the ripeness of your pears- choose perfectly ripe pears. The sauce will thicken as it cooks.
- Serve the delicious cozy coconut rice pudding is a heat proof bowl, top with ½ of the Cardamom Spiced Honey Pears, a little of the juice glaze from the cardamom spiced honey pears and garnish with a little crushed pecans.
- Enjoy warm or at room temperature
Notes
Nutrition
Jacqueline says
Found your site while looking up pear dessert recipes to use up a few ripe pears. I've never cooked pears before and I wasn't sure about the blend of ingredients, as I wouldn't normally think some of those flavors would go together....but it looked easy and quick AND I had all the ingredients. So I just made it, following the recipe as stated, except I didn't need quite as much sweetener in the rice pudding part so did 3 tablespoons of honey. It was a delicious treat, with all the the various flavors melding perfectly. It was well received by my gluten/dairy free family! Thank you ?
HWC Magazine says
Thank you Jacqueline! We are delighted you enjoyed the recipe and happy that you adjusted the recipe for your families desired sweetness. It is such a cozy dessert and with all this damp and cool weather it really hits the spot. Take Care