The Perfect Rice Kheer Recipe - TurmericMeCrazy (2024)

Ever since my friend Alnaar taught me how to make this dish it has become one of my favourite desserts! Rice Kheer is a rice pudding made with milk, cardamom, and saffron. Its so simple, yet incredibly tasty. You can serve it warm or cold too so its pretty versatile.

Rice Kheeris not difficult to make. However, it does involve a lot of downtime while the rice is cooking and absorbing all of the water. So make sure you have a good book to read (or in my case, a messy kitchen to clean) to keep yourself entertained.

This Kheer recipe has both condensed milk and sweetened condensed milk, both of which contain additives to increase shelf life. I am working on a completely natural version of this recipe and will post it here when it’s ready!

The photo below is how the pudding will look once you add the milk after the rice has absorbed the water.

The key to making this pudding aromatic and delicious is two things: cardamom and saffron. Alnaar always reminds me keep my saffron in the fridge to make sure that it stays fresh. You can buy ground cardamom, and I do use the store bought variety for some recipes, however, for rice pudding I think its important to use freshly ground cardamom as the flavour punch is just that much better!

To grind the cardamom, I open up the shell of the cardamom pod and remove the inner seeds. Then I just throw them in the magic bullet (or other blender) and run it for a minute. The smell of freshly ground cardamom is so heavenly it is worth the extra effort.

I love how colourful the kheer looks after the saffron and cardamom have been sprinkled on top! Believe me, it tastes as yummy as it looks. Some people also like to sprinkle some nuts on top. Usually pistachios or almonds. If you have a sensitivity or allergy to nuts just skip that part as I did here. However, my favourite topping is pistachios mmmm!

Thank you to my dear friend, Alnaar, for sharing her expertise in her East African-Indian Canadian Kitchen!