3-Ingredient Vegan Rice Pudding with Oat Milk (Dairy Free + GF)

Looking for an easy vegan dessert? This vegan rice pudding recipe with oat milk only requires three ingredients and can be made on the stovetop in one pot. Plus, it's dairy-free and gluten-free! It is also very customizable, simply adding a dash of your favorite spices!

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Some rice pudding recipes call for eggs, whole milk, heavy cream, or condensed milk. That is not the case here; this is a 100% vegan recipe that is equally creamy and rich.

This dessert is pure comfort food. My mom used to make it during the weekends when we returned from the beach; we had it chilled.

Mom's rice pudding wasn't vegan but followed the same technique. We like oat milk for its creaminess, but cashew milk and any other type of milk work.

This was inspired by my creamy cardamon rice pudding recipe and is perfect as a mid-morning snack.

Jump to:

• 🧾 Ingredients
• 🔪 Instructions
• 🍶 Substitutions
• 🥡 Variations
• 👨🏻‍🍳 Toppings
• 🍽 Equipment
• 🥡 Storage
• 💡 Top tip
• 🥢 How to serve
• ❓ FAQ
• 📚 More sweet snacks recipes
• 📋 Recipe
• 🌡️ Food safety
• 💬 Reviews and Comments

🧾 Ingredients

As promised, to make this creamy vegan rice pudding, you will only need 3 ingredients, but you can make it sweeter or enrich its flavor with some additional spices, suggested below.

• Rice - use a starchy short, grain white rice like arborio. You can also use medium-grain white rice such as basmati rice and Jasmine rice. Arborio rice is also suitable because it is very starchy and makes creamy rice.
• Oat milk - use creamy oat milk, or make your own (see how).
• Cinnamon sticks - to add scent and complexity to the rice pudding. You can also use ground cinnamon.

Optional ingredients

• Vanilla extract - adds a floral note that blends in perfectly with oat milk and cooked rice. Also, you can simply drop the vanilla bean pod's inner pulp into the milk.
• Maple syrup - adds sweetness and hints of vanilla, caramel, and prune. 
• Sea salt - acts as a flavor enhancer for the rest of the ingredients.

See the recipe card for quantities.

🔪 Instructions

This oat milk pudding involves two simple steps.

1. Boiling and cooking the rice with cinnamon and any other flavorings.
2. Stirring frequently and adjusting the flavor.

Hint: when the rice pudding cools off, it hardens a bit, so you don't need to stir until it has completely thickened.

Garnish this non-dairy pudding with mint leaves and ground cinnamon.

Hint: rice pudding can be consumed either warm or cold. If you want the cold version, let it come to room temperature before being covered in the fridge for at least four hours or overnight.

When refrigerating rice pudding, make sure you use containers with a lid. Otherwise, the surface becomes a little gummy. It is not critical to cover them but the surface to preserve their lovely texture.

🍶 Substitutions

• Cinnamon - add cardamom pods instead. See our Indian-inspired cardamom rice pudding for more inspiration. Coconut milk works better with that version.
• Oat Milk - we chose oats because this plant milk has a sweet taste and doesn't need additional sugar for most palates. Other creamy and nondairy milk, such as almond milk, coconut milk, and vanilla-flavored soy milk, also works well.
• Sweetener - if you use sweetened plant milk, you don't need any sweetener, but feel free to use brown sugar, homemade date paste, maple syrup, agave nectar, or monk fruit.
• Rice - you can use brown rice. It will just take longer to cook and achieve the texture of a creamy rice pudding.

🥡 Variations

You can also make rice pudding with oat milk with slight variations; our favorites are below

• Dried fruit - add 2 tablespoons of raisins, cranberries, or sultanas halfway through the cooking time.
• Chocolate - add one teaspoon of cocoa powder.
• Citrusy - add orange peel or orange extract to the saucepan while cooking. Feel free to remove the cinnamon so it doesn't overpower the citrus notes.
• Almond extract - instead of using a vanilla bean pod or extract, you can use the almond extract to make it taste more like marzipan.
• Peanut Butter - add ¼ cup of peanut butter or your favorite nut butter when you add the sweetener of your choice.
• Fruits - strawberries and bananas are great additions to this creamy vegan rice pudding. Add them as a topping or a mashed banana while the pudding cooks.

👨🏻‍🍳 Toppings

• Fruits like raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, and sliced bananas.
• Crushed nuts like peanuts, almonds, or walnuts.
• Coconut whipped cream goes very well with strawberries.

🍽 Equipment

To make this delicious pudding, you only need a saucepan and a wooden spoon, nothing else... promise!

🥡 Storage

Store this salad in a BPA-free airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.

You can freeze oat milk rice pudding in an airtight container, but it doesn't stand up well to freezing for more than 2 months.

🥢 How to serve

Serve warm, hot, or cold oat milk pudding with a sprinkle of ground cinnamon or nutmeg.

❓ FAQ

📚 More sweet snacks recipes

• Vegan 4-ingredient protein cookies
• Try out our 3-ingredient oat milk chia pudding; it doesn't get any better than that!
• Healthy vegan truffles, AKA power balls.
• Homemade vegan granola bars
• 5-ingredient no-bake fig bars
• Almond pulp chocolate protein balls

You may also want to look at our oats and chia pudding, and dark chocolate chia pudding with pistachio nuts.

⭐ If you try this dairy-free rice pudding recipe, let us know! 💬 Leave a comment, rate it, and don't forget to tag us @ourplantbasedworld on Instagram. Cheers!

📋 Recipe