Guyanese Sweet Rice Recipe

This Guyanese sweet rice recipe is a rich, creamy rice pudding (also known as kheer) simmered on the stove with warm spices and milk. Enjoy this delicious porridge for breakfast or dessert.

Guyanese Sweet Rice

Growing up in Guyana, I ate sweet rice all the time. Both of my grandmothers would make it. Whether you refer to it as sweet rice, kheer, pap, or rice porridge, it’s a staple in Guyanese households for breakfast, dessert, and special occasions. Learn how to make the perfect sweet rice every time with this recipe!

Why You’ll Love This Sweet Rice Recipe

• Comforting: When served hot, sweet rice has a warm aromatic quality. It’s super filling, smells heavenly, and tastes even better!
• Delicious: This rice pudding is enhanced with fresh spices and sweetened condensed milk for a mouthwatering treat.
• Versatile: Eat it hot or cold, for breakfast or dessert, and add as many or as little toppings as you’d like! This recipe also has three different cooking methods so you can make it your way.

What is Sweet Rice?

Sweet rice, also called kheer, rice pap, or rice porridge, is a thick creamy rice-based dessert or breakfast food. There are variations of this sweet, simple dish across the world, including other parts of the Carribean. It is called arroz con dulce in Puerto Rico and rice porridge in Jamaica.

Is Sweet Rice the same as Indian Kheer?

In Guyana, many Indo-Guyanese families call this dish kheer, like the Indian rice pudding. It is typically made for religious ceremonies and holidays, especially Diwali and Phagwah/Holi. My grandmother Evelyn, who was a devout Hindu, made sweet rice for her Poojahs and served it with puri (a deep fried roti).

In many Afro-Guyanese households this dish, with all the same ingredients and cooking instructions, is called rice pap or porridge. The word pap (not pop as some may say) has French and German origins meaning soft food and is used predominantly on the African continent to describe foods that are soft and porridge-like.

Fun fact: All of my life growing up in Guyana I thought the word was “pop” as in rice pop and really thought that people were using a hard “a” pronunciation because of creoles (a local Guyanese dialect that tends to emphasize soft vowel sounds with a hard “a”).

Ingredients for Sweet Rice

Traditionally, sweet rice is sweetened with milk and sugar. In Guyana, we use evaporated milk and/or milk powder and condensed milk when available. When I was growing up, there was limited access to fresh dairy milk unless you lived in a community where someone owned cows, so most people relied on canned milk or milk powder.

• Rice Arborio or Long Grain White Rice: For this recipe I tested a few different types of rice. I shared some of my recipe testing on instagram and quite a few of my followers suggested using arborio rice, the rice used in making risotto, for a really creamy sweet rice. That is the rice I used for this recipe but you can also used long grain white rice as a substitute. If you have the time, soak the rice overnight in 2 cups of water.
• Water: To cook the rice.
• Cinnamon sticks: This infuses the rice with a warm spiced flavor.
• Whole cloves: This adds a depth of flavor and a subtle sweetness.
• Cardamom pods: These provide a piney, fruity flavor.
• Milk: Add evaporated milk and sweetened condensed milk to enrich the sweet rice with a creamy texture.

Optional:

• Golden raisins: Rinse the raisins before adding them to the porridge. If you don’t, the raisins will absorb the liquid from the sweet rice.
• Custard powder: This is a thickening agent that gives the sweet rice a pudding consistency.
• Freshly grated nutmeg: If eating this as a breakfast porridge, I highly recommend adding this nutty, slightly sweet spice.
• Vanilla extract/essence: This enhances the overall flavor, and makes it tastes even better as a dessert.

See recipe card for quantities.

Choosing Spices for Sweet Rice

When cooking on the stovetop, I prefer whole spices. Want to brighten up and enhance your spices? Toast them a little in the hot saucepan before adding the water. This will really bring out the flavor of the spices.

When making sweet rice in the instant pot I use ground spices because pressure cooking the whole spices increases the intensity of the flavor and makes the sweet rice very perfumed and fragrant. So to maintain the right balance between the spices and other ingredients I use ground spices

How to Make Sweet Rice

Traditionally, sweet rice is made similar to risotto. You add liquid to the rice a little at a time and cook low and slow, stirring constantly to ensure even cooking. But I am always thinking of and looking for an easier way of making traditional dishes that don’t compromise on flavor, so if you are open to trying some other methods see below.

1. Traditional Stove top method:

For the truly traditional way of cooking sweet rice, I soaked my rice in water overnight (you can also soak it for 2-4 hours if pressed for time). Soaking rice helps to break down the grain and helps to achieve that silky texture needed for sweet rice.  

Then I add the rice and spices plus 2 cups of water to a saucepan on high heat, bringing it to a boil and cooking for 10 minutes. Next, add the milk and reduced the heat to medium-low. Continue to cook, stirring often until the rice is fluffy.

Then add an additional cup of water as the mixture thickens. You can add small amounts of water throughout until the rice is cooked and a creamy consistency is achieved. This will take between 30 to 40 minutes of slow cooking and stirring constantly.

2. Cooking low and slow with no stirring:

For the next method, I tried cooking my sweet rice the way I cook stovetop rice. Add 3 cups of water and spices to a saucepan and bring it to a roaring boil. Then added the soaked rice (drained and rinsed).

Immediately after that, reduce the heat to low, cover, and let the rice cook. After 30 minutes the rice will be completely velvety. Then add milk and continue to cook on low for an additional 10 minutes, stirring only once or twice in between.

It was delicious without as much work as the traditional method.

3. Instant Pot:

For an even more hands-free method, add water, ground spices, and the soaked rice (drained and rinsed) to an instant pot and pressure cook it for 20 minutes. Allow it to sit until the pressure naturally releases.

Then add the milk. During one of the tests for the instant pot recipe, I added the milk, rice, and all of the spices and pressure cooked for 20 minutes. Although this method created a tasty sweet rice, the rice did not get as silky and the texture was a bit gummy.

Substitutions & Variations

• Consistency: In some families it is thick and pudding like while in other families it may be loose and runny. This really just depends on your preference and there is no right or wrong way to eat sweet rice. As long as it is tasty, enjoy it however you like.
• Rice: In Guyana, my family used “fine” rice to make sweet rice. Fine rice is broken rice grains left over from the milling process. It is sold at a discounted price and is often used for large gatherings. Whenever my late grandmother made sweet rice (called Kheer by her side of the family) she used fine rice. Whenever my grandmother Inez made sweet rice we called it rice pap or rice porridge. For rice pap or porridge Granny Inez used regular long grain rice.
• Dairy-Free Sweet Rice: I made a vegan version of this recipe for my children by using coconut milk. In one recipe I used evaporated coconut milk, sweetened condensed coconut milk, and topped it off with coconut cream. They loved it but it was a bit too sweet. In another version, I used coconut milk, coconut cream, and coconut sugar to taste and this version was the clear winner. I love experimenting and converting traditional dishes into wholesome dairy dishes.
• More Toppings: You can add chopped maraschino cherries or chopped nuts (sliced almonds or pistachios).

Equipment

• Saucepan: Use this to cook the sweet rice.

Storage

Store leftover sweet rice in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. To reheat, warm it up over low heat or place it in the microwave. As the porridge cools, it will thicken so you may need to add a splash of milk and stir.

Tips for the Best Sweet Rice

• Soak the rice overnight before cooking. I soaked my rice overnight before making the sweet rice but you can soak it for 2-4 hours if pressed for time. If you don’t soak your rice you can still make good sweet rice, it will just take a longer cooking time.
• Remember to rinse the rice in order to remove residual starch. If you don’t, the sweet rice will be sticky.
• Be patient. Raising the heat to high will not speed up the cooking process. Instead, it will cause the rice to stick to the bottom of the pan and burn.
• If you want to add maraschino cherries but don’t want the red/pink hue to bleed into the mixture, soak the cherries in water before adding them to the sweet rice. Alternatively, if you want to add color to the porridge, add some of the juice to the pot.

Frequently Asked Questions