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Horchata Recipe

J. Kenji López-Alt

The combination of blended and strained rice, almonds, and milk is at once rich and refreshing.

Published: Last Updated:
Horchata Recipe

Horchata is a creamy almond-based drink. The soothing, sweet beverage is a perfect foil to any chili pepper laden dish. The drink owes its creamy consistency to the combination of almonds, rice, water, and milk. Horchata is prepared by blanching and soaking almonds, pulverizing rice, and combining the ingredients in a blender and straining the mixture with cheesecloth.

Read more: Going Nuts for Horchata

  • Yield:makes 1 1/2 quarts
  • Active time: 3 minutes
  • Total time:12 hours

Ingredients

  • 1 cup uncooked long-grain rice
  • 1 cup blanched almonds
  • 2/3 cup white sugar, plus more to taste
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 quart water
  • 2 cups milk

Directions

  1. 1.

    Combine rice and almonds in blender. Blend on high speed, stopping to shake jar as necessary until roughly powdered, about 30 seconds. Add remaining ingredients to blender and blend on high speed for a further 1 minute. Refrigerate and let steep overnight. The next day, strain through a fine mesh strainer. Add more sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla to taste. Serve chilled over ice.

Review: The Best Blenders Under $200
This Recipe Appears In
Going Nuts for Horchata

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J. Kenji López-Alt Chief Culinary Advisor

J. Kenji López-Alt is a stay-at-home dad who moonlights as the Chief Culinary Consultant of Serious Eats and the Chef/Partner of Wursthall, a German-inspired California beer hall near his home in San Mateo. His first book, The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science (based on his Serious Eats column of the same name) is a New York Times best-seller, recipient of a James Beard Award, and was named Cookbook of the Year in 2015 by the International Association of Culinary Professionals. Kenji's next project is a children’s book called Every Night is Pizza Night, to be released in 2020, followed by another big cookbook in 2021.

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