Rice pudding + cooling, refreshing drink met in a bar (er, in a rice cake.)
There was a time in my life when I was making hundreds of rice cakes a day.
Let me say that I’m pretty glad that this chapter has passed, and I’m so glad that it happened! Because whenever I have a big adventure planned that I want to stay well-fueled for, I pop out the rice cooker (who am I kidding, it’s already on the countertop) I make a batch of rice, and in about 30 minutes I have an ultimate ride/run/hike/adventure food that everyone loves and makes me feel well cared for, no matter what I get myself into.
When I was out in Kansas, cooking for the Rapha athletes at Unbound Gravel, I developed a new sweet rice cake that I’m SO excited to share with you. I’m calling it Dirty Horchata – a coconutty cake with a zip of lime juice, a grounded scent of cinnamon, and a touch of sweetness, sprinkled with a spark of ground espresso powder. The racers loved them, and I could barely keep my little fingers out of the micing bowl. When I took them out for a big ride last weekend my squad and I devoured a batch. And so, they’re now immortalized here in the Recipe Library. Yay!
Horchata is a delicious, creamy plant-based beverage, typically containing grains, seeds and sweetner. In Mexico, it’s most often made with white rice, cinnamon, sugar and almonds or coconut, or even milk. This is the variety I’m most familiar with (though the Spanish also make one, frequently with tiger nuts!)
From an Ayurvedic perspective, horchata and it’s ingredients are bioenergetically cooling, sweet and dense which can be very beneficial to bodies under the pressure of vata or pitta (ie: during big efforts) and ESPECIALLY if you balance these flavors with uplifting bitter, astringent and pungent flavors as I’ve done in this recipe.
Bottom line, horchata is a success story for athletes…if we blend it right. (And, we have here!)
For those of you who are new to fueling your runs/rides/hikes/adventures with real food, rice cakes are little globs of rice, generously seasoned with delicious flavors. Think Japanese onigiri, but even better. There was a time when the whole professional cycling world was fueled on these little babies. But, in the endurance sport world, the rage of rice cakes has more recently been all but been overshadowed by the fad of high-carb fueling. Most of these “high carb” products contain ingredients like maltodextrin which are challenging for digestion (though there are different grades of this product, they’re still pretty taxing for the human system though individually effective for staying fueled for very long efforts.) I say fad without really knowing what will happen with this newly common practice, but I can imagine that – like all tactics of this nature – science will discover something else and a new strategy will emerge. What I hope is discovered is just how harmful this kind of fueling strategy is long term on our digestive health; something that Ayurveda has been looking at for thousands of years. That doesn’t mean that using high carb isn’t smart…especially if your job is to race, or if you’ve got some really serious short-term racing goals. (If you have serious racing goals, then we also want to be really serious about attending to gut health!) But if you don’t have insanely serious racing goals, or your not being paid to race (I’m raising my hand) then using rice cakes to fuel rides is a really solid strategy.
Your favorite energy bar, and plain old cookie recipe can’t say that (though many of the cookie recipes on this site are 20% moisture or higher, which is the magic ratio needed to digest a food well without additional liquid so there ya go!)
Rice cakes are the fastest way to use whole, real food to fuel your sport. And they’re also arguably the most delicious!
Let’s not forget that EVERYTHING is Ayurvedic! All things can be both medicine + toxin, depending on how they’re used.
In the case of the addition of espresso powder in this recipe, the espresso helps to add bitter, astringent and pungent flavors to this recipe, which balances the digestive system and makes it a Six Flavored meal, satisfying and nourishing for the body, specifically during effort.
Does this mean that using an entire tablespoon of espresso powder will be beneficial? No. Does it mean you should dunk your rice cake in coffee? No. But using a little sprinkle to boost the flavor and the “spark,” of these cakes will serve you well, especially on long hot, grindy days out there!
There are a million different ways to make rice cakes. My favorite recipes are typically the savory ones, and the Za’atar Tahini Rice Cakes and Yaki Onigiri are my go-tos. But, if you’re really going out there, it’s nice to have a sweet option too. This is where the Dirty Horchata comes in.
My colleagues Dr. Allen Lim + Chef Biju Thomas have written literal books on rice cakes, with lots of different flavor options inside. Google “Feed Zone Cookbooks” and scoop up these titles if you’re starving for more options!
If this is you, then you probably aren’t a Back to Forward member yet, or you haven’t watched my “Make: Rice Cakes to Fuel Adventures” tutorial yet! Get there! I share the tips, tricks and pitfalls and show you how to make perfect rice cakes every time!
Are round, grounding, salty, and sweet without being cloying. As a person who doesn’t really “do” caffeine, I wasn’t sure about the little hit of espresso but it’s the bomb.
I recommend watching the tutorial before you make them, especially if you’re new to the process, as it will land so many ideas about how to make these great. And enjoy them! If you make them, please tag me on Instagram – I can’t wait to see where they take you! : )
That's ok, just sign up or log in to see this recipe.