🍮 Riz bi Haleeb (Lebanese Rice Pudding)
Riz bi haleeb is the Levantine rice pudding: short-grain rice simmered slowly in milk with sugar until thick and creamy, then perfumed with orange blossom water. It is poured into small bowls, chilled, and topped with chopped pistachios. The texture is soft and spoonable, the flavour mild, milky and floral.
Diets
Allergens
Contains (in a typical recipe):
What it is made of
Recipe
Ingredients
- 100 g short-grain rice
- 1 l milk
- 100 g sugar
- 1–2 tbsp orange blossom water
- 300 ml water
- 30 g pistachios, chopped
Method
- Simmer the rice in the water until it is absorbed, about 10 minutes.
- Add the milk and cook on low heat, stirring often, for 25–30 minutes until thick.
- Stir in the sugar and cook 5 minutes more.
- Off the heat, add the orange blossom water.
- Pour into bowls, chill and sprinkle with pistachios.
How to make it lighter
- Use semi-skimmed milk to cut fat while keeping the texture creamy.
- Reduce the sugar to 60 g — the orange blossom water adds a perfumed sweetness.
- A 10 g sprinkle of pistachios is about 55 kcal; use a light dusting.
History
Milk-and-rice puddings are made across the Middle East, and riz bi haleeb is a staple of Lebanese and Syrian homes and sweet shops. It is especially common during Ramadan as a light dessert after iftar.
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Values are estimates per 100 g for a typical recipe; home and restaurant versions vary. Diets and allergens are worked out from the ingredients of a typical recipe — always check with whoever cooked the dish. Not medical advice. Nutrition data: Me Nutrition dish database v13. How we count →