If you’ve never had horchata you are in for a treat! It’s basically a homemade almond and rice drink that’s flavored with cinnamon and sweetened.
My Instant Pot Brown Rice Horchata makes it a little healthier by using whole grain rice and you can sweeten it however you want.
What Exactly is Horchata?
Horchata is a drink that originated in Mexico. It’s a sweetened homemade rice almond drink that’s full of cinnamon flavor.
Traditionally, it is soaked in the blender overnight. In this recipe, we cook it in the Instant Pot in place of soaking so we can drink it even sooner.
Can You Really Make Horchata with Brown Rice?
You can and it tastes great with brown rice.
Do You Need an Instant Pot to Make Brown Rice Horchata?
Honestly, you don’t. But we’re using it to speed up the process. If you’re reading this and you have a blender near by you can still make this.
Soak the rice, almonds, and cinnamon in your blender overnight. Remove the cinnamon stick in the morning, add the sweetener, and blend.
You’ll still need to strain the pulp out with a nut milk bag or fine mesh strainer.
What Other Drinks Can I Make in My Electric Pressure Cooker?
You can make lots of yummy drinks in your Instant Pot. Try a few of these recipes: Strawberry rosemary infused water, Chai Concentrate, or make your own Almond Milk.
See the mixture above? I made a big mistake which made the photo look nicer, but I don’t want you to do it. I broke up my cinnamon stick, but please keep yours whole.
I had to pick each sliver of cinnamon out after cooking, before I pureed the mixture. Do do better than I did!
I Can’t Have Nuts, What Can I Substitute for the Almonds?
You could use all brown rice, but it won’t be quite as thick. If you can have coconut you could use unsweetened shredded coconut in place of the almonds.
Basically, you just need to make a plant based milk that you will sweeten and flavor with cinnamon. So you can use your favorite ingredients.
I Don’t Use Refined Sugar, What Can I Use to Sweeten this Brown Rice Horchata?
To sweeten with dates, add 5 or 6 diced and pitted dates, then cook using the same directions in the recipe below.
You can really use any sweetener to taste. Agave nectar, maple syrup, regular vegan sugar, stevia, monk fruit, or whatever the newest sweetener is at the moment. The only thing you’d need to add into the cooking process is dates.
If it’s a granular sweetener like sugar, add it to the mixture while it’s still in your Instant Pot and hot. That way it will melt.
Is Horchata Served Hot or Cold?
I serve it cold in the summer and warm in the winter. I love how refreshing it is cold, so I guess if I only could pick one I would lean towards that.
Served hot, it’s a great change of pace from coffee, tea, of cocoa. I even have a hot vegan horchata post on my other blog. But you you don’t need another recipe, you can just warm this one up.
Instant Pot Brown Rice Horchata
Ingredients
Pressure Cooker Ingredients
- 4 cups 944 ml water
- 1/4 cup 46 g brown rice
- 1/4 cup 35 g raw almonds
- 2 whole cinnamon sticks
Before Straining
- 1/2 cup vegan sugar (or sweetener of choice, to taste)
Instructions
- Add the water, brown rice, almonds and cinnamon sticks to your Instant Pot and cook on high pressure for 10 minutes.
- Release the pressure manually and remove the cinnamon sticks. If you are using a granulated sweetener add now so it will dissolve in the hot liquid.
- Puree the mixture in a blender.
- Strain through a nut milk bag or fine mesh strainer. Store in the refrigerator for up to 7 days.
Lindsay says
How can there be no protein value with all the rice and nuts?
Kathy Hester says
Nutrition information is provided from nutritionix.com as a close estimate. This is done through the recipe plugin that I use.
If you have specific health issues please put the recipe information into the nutritional calculator your Dr. recommends.
Erika says
All the ingredients are also considered “incomplete proteins” and only make up the 9 essential amino acids when ingested in combination. That might have something to do with it too.
Kristine Flynn says
Does this get put through a mixer before the nut bag?
Kathy Hester says
It does.
Stephanie says
This was so difficult to strain, and when I finally did, it was way too thick.
Kathy Hester says
You can always add extra water and blend again to thin it.
San Alessio says
Hi Kathy, just wanted to point out that horchata originated in North Africa and came to Mexico via Spain. Orxata is still popular in Valencia.
We usually do the overnight method and just toss the cinnamon stick with the rice. Sometimes we add coconut milk to stretch out the drink a bit, and often have it with Kahlua.
Will be dragging out the Instapot to try your version today!
Kathy Hester says
Thank you for all the great info!
Elaine says
Looks delicious. Would an immersion blender work as well as a standing blender?
Kathy Hester says
It should, but it will take about twice as long.
Beth Vaughn says
The ice cream is delicious! I got the ebook and attended the class and was inspired to get right to work making pints. This is the first one I made and it was just scrumptious. I used brown rice for the recipe and it turned out great. The texture was a little grainy with brown rice, I suppose because of the fiber. It had a similar texture to brown rice flour but it wasn’t bothersome to me. I prefer to use brown rice to keep it WFPB. I will definitely have this recipe on repeat and will also be using brown rice as a thickener in the future., like on the maple walnut ice cream that I’m about to eat right now!
Beth Vaughn says
Oops! Feel like an idiot! Didn’t see this was a drink! I have ice cream on the brain after Saturday’s class! The Horchata ice cream in the ebook is a keeper. Will have to try the drink version!