Horchata, pronounced as 'or-CHAH-tah' , is a sweet and refreshing Mexican beverage! It is commonly made with rice and is flavored with cinnamon and sweetened with sugar.
You can find many versions of this drink where nuts, seeds and vanilla too are added, for the Steemit Culinary Challenge of this week, I decided to make my version of this delicious Mexican drink!
With Mexico's hot climate, this drink is served over ice as a cooling beverage! I can assure you it is really refreshing, I just had a long glass!
The journey of Horchata
Before looking into the recipe, let us find out a little bit about this drink roots!
Surprisingly we see that horchata was first made in Egypt where chufa nuts were used to make it! Then it made its way to Spain where it is called horchata de chufa.
When finally the Spanish brought horchata to Mexico, the natives replaced the chufa nuts with rice! But you can still find the chufa version in Mexico as well!
Horchata can be found in most Mexican restaurants and is often sold by street vendors in Mexico.
To make this refreshing Almond and Rice Horchata, you will simply need :
- 1/2 cup of whole almonds
- 1 cup of long grain rice
- 5 cups of almond milk
- 3 cinnamon stick
- Raw sugar to taste
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- Pinch of cinnamon powder
Start by firstly soak the rice and almonds in some warm water for approx. 2 hours.
You can soak it overnight in cold water if you have time.
Drain the rice and peel the almonds as you can see below.
I discarded the rice water.
Place the peeled almond, soaked rice and raw sugar in your blender.
Add the almond milk and blend for 2 minutes.
Blend until the rice and almond are well crushed and you have a frothy texture.
Pour the mixture in a jar, add the vanilla essence and the cinnamon stick.
Let it infuse in the fridge for 4 hours, until it is well chilled and all the flavors diffused in the drink!
Pass the horchata through a fine strainer and discard the residues!
And here you are , the almond and rice horchata is ready!
You can pour on ice cubes and enjoy right away if you like it more chilled!
I added some cinnamon powder on top and it was really very tasty!
So voila my dear friend, my personal touch on this Mexican classic drink!
Do you like it!? Then try it!
By following me you will discover more and more surprising recipes!
Please do comment below if you want some more info!
Should you like the post, kindly upvote and resteem!
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@progressivechef
I make this too, but I boil the cinnamon sticks in whatever milk I'm using then blend the milk when it cools down with the rest of the ingredients. I definitely will try it with the almonds next time!
Yes with boiling milk will of course bring much more flavor of the cinnamon out in the drink!
It's more silky with the added almonds and taste better too!
I take the chef's word for it and I will definitely try it this way ;)
Yummy! This drink will be good for hot days! :) Good work my friend, have a nice day! <3
You are right my friend, i really enjoyed it well chilled. You are energized too with it!
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Oooh yum! This looks great @progressivechef. I could totally see it in a horchata smoothie too! (with coconut, banana, more cinnamon, and maybe a little dark chocolate!) Can you tell I haven't had breakfast yet?? :)
That's an awesome idea my friend and very creative too! Horchata Smoothie...wow!
You could have tried it for your breakfast though! I'm sure that would have been a perfect one!
Lovely-looking horchata @progressivechef! Nice touch with the almonds. I only just heard about this drink due to this week's Mexican theme, and am definitely going to make some for myself. It sounds so delicious and refreshing, and anything with cinnamon gets my tastebuds tingling! Personally I find cold milk to be more effective than cold water in cooling your mouth down after spicy food, so it's no wonder horchata is so popular in Mexico! It's interesting reading that bit of history behind the drink too, so thanks for that :-) Good luck!
You are absolutely right about cold milk after a spicy meal, it really helps your mouth cooling down!
I used to make it the traditional way but this time I really wanted to upgrade it my way and the result was simply heavenly!
The addition of almond really change the taste and make this drink more silky and tasty!
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STOPWhat an interesting fun drink! It looks yummy! I enjoyed hearing the history about it too!
Thanks so much for sharing! Have a great day!
Really fun and tasty drink my friend! Do try it some time, you'll love it!
Mmmmm... this looks like an extremely delicious drink :)
Thanks so much for your usual support my friend! Do it some day, it's really a super tasty and healthy drink!
Oh man that looks so yummy! Hey, I want you to know I mentioned you in a post because I noticed you're really good about tagging your photos with Steemit, your name, date, etc. Here's that post: Printable Tagging Cards.
That's a wonderful thing you did my friend! I was actually planning to create one to use too, you made it so easy for me!
Thanks so much for the mention!
Fo sho! You rock, brother. I am really impressed my your content, as well as your genuine care and kindness. Cheers.
WOW I had no idea that it was made in Egypt but of course, some food from newer civilizations is not as traditional as we think if you really look into the roots of it. Good job with that ;D
Great job too bad I didn't see an actual meal maybe next time <3
Soy tu tio
Thanks so much for appreciating my friend! I really did not want to venture on the Mexican classic dishes and not respect the originality. When I do not the real original taste of a dish, i never cook it!
As you said maybe next time!
Cheers
@progressivechef
Never heard of this. Looks great! Love everything with cinnamon.
You should try this my friend, or maybe turn it into a smoothie as mentioned by @jaymorebeet below! Will be super tasty!
Ohh that's a great idea! Thanks for the tips and lovely recipe ;)
I've never tried to make horchata, but I have a friends recipe that's a little different than this. :) I may try to film a recipe
Hello mate! Glad to see you back! Horchata is really a very tasty drink and I know you'll love it! That would be great if you make a film on this one! And you can add your personal touch too!
Nice post and competitive entry @progressivechef! ;) Horchata is really good. So, I can't blame you for making the same as me, haha! :P
Hey yes I noticed that we did practically the same one this week! But sad that we were not among the winners!!! I hope you like the theme I have proposed for next week...Monochrome!
Haha, we are both creative - and it goes in one direction. ;)
Yes, that's sad. :/ But doing the challenge is already really amazing. Winning would be nice to top it off. :)
Yes, I'm totally excited for your theme! :D Here's my entry: https://steemit.com/steemitculinarychallenge/@alinalisa/steemit-culinary-challenge-41-red-beet-risotto
I hope you will like it. ;)
Win or lose we just have to keep on going my friend! That's life and best part of a contest!
oh my goodness...i got 2 contest to judge this week! I'll check it out soon for sure!
Of course i'll like it, you cook amazingly well!
I never heard of this Horchata! When you wrote it for the first time I was wondering how one would pronounce it - glad you mentioned that in your second sentence, haha!
I can't imagine the taste very well, but it sounds kinda tasty actually :o Maybe you can turn it into an Horchata milkshake and add vanilla ice cream in it!
Hahaha! I knew many people would read the Horchata the wrong funny way! Hahaha! You know what I mean!
The taste is just like sweet almond milk but a little more thick/silky and very flavorful. You can can of course add the vanilla ice cream, it will be even better!
Hahaha yeah, I know exactly what you mean :')
Im curious to try it out some time!