Rizogalo-Greek rice pudding

A bowl of rizogalo garnished with powdered cinnamon and lemon peel.

Rizogalo-Greek rice pudding

Rizogalo is a delicious creamy Greek rice pudding made with just seven basic ingredients. This easy dessert gets ready within 40 minutes and has a very pleasing and comforting taste of a home-cooked dish.

Course Dessert

Cuisine Greek, Mediterranean

Diet Gluten Free, Vegetarian

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 35

Total Time 40

Servings

Calories 261kcal

Author Vandana Chauhan

Equipment

1 large heavy bottomed cooking pot
1 Spatula
1 small grater

Ingredients

½ cup short grain rice
1 liter full cream milk (whole milk)
⅓ cup sugar adjust to taste
2 tablespoons cornstarch
Peel of 1 large lemon
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Instructions

From the total 1 liter of milk that will be used in this recipe, take out around ¼ cup of milk in a bowl. Add cornstarch and mix until smooth to make a cornstarch slurry. Keep the bowl aside.
Rinse rice well and keep it aside too.
Put the remaining milk in a large pot and boil.
After the first boil, add lemon peel and rinsed rice. Mix and cook for around 25 minutes or until the rice is nicely cooked and the pudding starts turning creamy.
Add sugar and vanilla extract. Mix until the sugar gets dissolved in the milk.
Add cornstarch slurry and whisk continuously for 1-2 minutes. Cook until the pudding thickens. Turn off the heat.
Transfer the pudding to serving bowls and garnish with powdered cinnamon and lemon zest.

Video

Notes

For this Greek recipe, use a variety of rice that has short grains and is starchy like arborio or jasmine rice. It will help you to make creamy rice pudding.
Use a heavy-bottomed pot to make this dish and keep on stirring it after every few minutes. Also, cook on low heat. If the milk starts sticking to the pot, it will spoil the color and flavor of rizogalo.
You can also add full cream to this pudding to make it richer and creamier.
Instead of lemon peel, orange peel can be used too to flavor rizogalo.
Be careful to use only the thin lemon peel and not its pith as the pith is bitter in taste.
To make vegan Greek rice pudding, use plant-based milk like coconut milk, almond milk, or cashew milk. Also, make sure that the sugar you are using is vegan or use a plant-based sweetener to sweeten the pudding. All the other ingredients in the recipe are plant-based.
More recipe tips and tricks are shared in the post above, please follow them to make this recipe.

Nutrition