We’re sort of obsessed with dates. We can get through huge quantities of them in one sitting and be totally okay with it. Anyway, dates are fruit and chock full of vitamins and fibre, so in our view, they can’t be THAT bad for you – unless you’re on a low carb diet, in which case, you may be reading the wrong blog!

So when our mother told us she’d made kheer (Indian rice pudding) with dates and another with figs recently, we couldn’t wait to try both of them. At once. After all, it is Ramadan at the moment, which is a perfect time to rustle up such a recipe, when dates and figs are in abundance.

We used the softest dried dates we could find and cooked them slowly with milk, brown rice, cardamom and cinnamon. The obvious missing ingredient is sugar – we’re trying to stay away from sugary foods and in fact you shouldn’t need any as this pudding is sweet enough! Topped with sliced almonds, it is the perfect dessert or even breakfast!

Serves 2

1 heaped tbsp brown rice
2 1/2 cups milk
seeds of 3 green cardamom pods, ground
3 large dates, chopped
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp sliced almonds
2 figs, cut into two

1. Heat the milk in a saucepan until boiling.
2. Turn the heat down to a simmer.
3. Add the rice, ground cardamom, dates and cinnamon.
4. Cook gently, stirring frequently until the rice is cooked. This could take half an hour. (To shorten your cooking time, you could soak the rice overnight in water, but we’re not always that prepared!)
5. Take the rice off the heat and serve immediately, dividing the pudding between two dessert bowls. Top with sliced almonds and figs.
6. Enjoy and feel virtuous!

So what do you think? Feel free to share your questions and comments below! We’d love to hear what you have to say.