Sticky Ginger and Almond Rice Pudding (Dairy and Gluten free)

Allergy friendly cooking with Eating Smart Magazine, from Woman and Home

Over the past few years I’ve not

always been that well but I’ve somehow battled through and as I’ve spoken about

before, I think diet plays a huge part

in healing and recovery but when food can be a cause of illness it can

be very hard to get back on track. It can be also quite overwhelming to work

out what is good to eat – and can be a constant source of anxiety... overall my

insides are better behaved than ever before nowadays just by relaxing about

food..

The recent diagnosis of

Fibromyalgia has knocked me a bit, though not entirely unexpected. Some days I

lack the energy to even go down stairs and get something to eat but I’ve been

reading up on gluten free diets easing the symptoms and starting to explore

that area further. .Whilst I have been tested for Coeliac disease and it was

negative, if it relieves symptoms and allows to claim some life back its worth

a shot!

Overall its still very much work

in progress though and as I love food so much on the good days, its fun to

discover new food and drink, and Woman & Home very kindly sent me a box full of free-from

goodies to experiment with and a copy of their fabulous Eating Smart magazine

to give some inspiration, it is jam packed full of delicious ideas and recipes,

including useful product guides depending on your dietary needs.

With dairy, I seem fairly

tolerant I just don’t over do it but my lovely auntie can’t have milk anymore,

even things like milky rice pudding can make her poorly and I recently stayed

with her for a few days and I decided to try and recreate a few favourites

dairy free and also discover some new delights along the way! This pudding I

made happened to be both dairy and gluten free so suitable for lots of people

following special diets.

I have tried a few different

dairy free milks with mixed results, I don’t mind soya in things, I rather like hazelnut milk and I had not used Almond milk before this but it screamed pudding to me and I set about

recreating a rice pudding to remember! Keeping on the almond theme I chose

flaked almonds to create a crunchy topping and sweet fragrant stem ginger to

give it a very delicious twist! I think I actually prefer this now over regular

rice pudding and my auntie loved it! Which was of course the main reason I made

it, fortunately everyone else liked it too and B had seconds. And I may have

too….

Sticky Ginger and Almond Rice

Pudding

• 90g pudding rice
• 1 litre unsweetened Almond milk
• 60g sugar
• 2 tsp stem ginger syrup (from
• the jar)
• Topping:
• 30g flaked almonds
• 2 balls stem ginger finely chopped
• 1 + 1 heaped tsp dairy free
• margarine/ butter
• NB: We had the oven on high
• cooking dinner but you can cook just a bit longer on the same

temperature if you prefer. All ovens vary too so judge accordingly!

Serves 4 generously

Preheat oven to 185o

Grease a suitable baking dish

with 1 tsp of the dairy free margarine. Ideally the dish 2-3 inches deep.

Place the rice, sugar, milk and

syrup in the dish and bake for an hour. Reduce the temperature to 140o and cook for a

further 1 ½ hours or until it has developed a golden skin and most of the milk has been absorbed and the rice is fluffy.

Meanwhile toast the almonds

lightly in a dry heavy frying pan, add the 1 heaped tsp of margarine and the

ginger pieces, fry for a further minute then reserve to one side, occasionally

stirring to break up the mixture, it should be light and slightly crispy.

About 10 minutes before serving, sprinkle over the top of the rice pudding and cook

for a further 5-10 minutes, allowing the ginger to melt slightly into the

mixture.

Remove from the oven and allow

to sit for 5 minutes before serving into bowls, making sure the crunchy topping remains on top! It will be very hot to be careful!

I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Disclaimer: This post was in collaboration with Eating Smart Magazine from Woman and Home, recipe and images remains the property of Anne's Kitchen. I received products for review and expenses to cover my time and ingredients