This delicate rose pudding is a irresistibly creamy dessert with wonderful floral and nutty notes. We made it vegan and sugar-free to give you a healthier take on classic Middle Eastern Muhallebi. It’s perfect for making ahead of time and serving at a fancy dinner – your guests will love it!
All you have to do for this recipe is prepare one Pudding with almond milk and rose water in serving glasses and leave to cool in the fridge. When ready to serve the puddings, sprinkle with cinnamon, pistachios, and rose petals. You get a beautiful yet light dessert full of Middle Eastern flavors.
Classic Muhallebi, also known as Mahabia (مهلبية) in Arabic, is a milk pudding sweetened with sugar and thickened with starch or rice flour. It’s a popular Middle Eastern dessert, believed to be named after the Persian chef who invented it. Muhallebi is similar to the French puddingbut it’s flavored with either orange blossom or rose water and topped with local nuts like almonds or pistachios.
To make our recipe vegan and sugar-free, we swapped cow’s milk for almond milk and refined white sugar for erythritol powder. Almond milk is a great milk substitute in vegan desserts, low in fat and calories. It also gives the pudding a nice nutty flavor that goes perfectly with the oriental notes of this recipe. Erythritol is a safe, diabetic-friendly sweetener that tastes almost as sweet as sugar, but has zero sugar.
Rosewater really sets these puddings apart from other pudding recipes. Just a few teaspoons are enough to give the Muhallebi delicate floral notes – we love it! If you can snag dried rose petals to garnish, they make the pudding even tastier and super pretty!
A serving of these Rose Puddings has less than 150 calories, only 4% RDI carbohydrates and zero sugar. That means you can top off a Middle Eastern-style dinner with a light dessert that won’t derail your diet.