To be honest I’ve never had a Horchata until I move to California. There’s not a lot of authentic Mexican food where I’m originally from (Minnesota) so I was surprised how much I liked it when I first tried it! Like, what was this cinnamon rice milk goodness? I could honestly sip Horchata all day long.

Now you know how I feel about using Pandan in recipes. I love it. If you don’t know Pandan is a plant that’s native in Southeast Asia. It’s widely known for not only its aromatic smells of coconut and vanilla, it also gives dishes a beautiful green hue.

I was inspired by my visit to a restaurant in Stanton called Banh xeo boys where they feature a pandan Horchata. And I wanted to re-create it at home!

Turns out it’s super easy and on top of that I had so much Horchata for literally less than $7! My favorite thing about this is that it not only uses pandan extract it also uses fresh pandan as well.

You can find fresh or frozen pandan leaves in your local Asian market. It’s very hard to find it fresh but using frozen works just fine. The recipe is below as always, until next time!

Refreshing PANDAN Horchata Recipe!

Recipe by Jen H. Dao

Servings

8

servings

Prep time

10

minutes

Cooking time

15

minutes

Ingredients

• 1 c uncooked white rice

• 2 cinnamon sticks

• 4 c water

• 5-6 pandan leaves

• 1 tsp pandan extract

• Mix-Ins:

• 1 can condense milk

• 1 can evaporated milk

• 4 1/2 c water

Directions

• Soak rice, cinnamon sticks and 4 c water overnight in the fridge.
• Blend rice, cinnamon sticks, water, pandan leaves and pandan extract.
• Press liquid through a strainer/cloth. Discard residue and repeat process until all liquid is extracted.
• Mix in condense milk, evaporated milk, and water. Refrigerate. Serve with a dash of cinnamon and ice.