Ube Champorado (Sweet Ube Rice Porridge)

Ube champorado is a twist on the original Filipino champorado. Made with glutinous rice, coconut milk, and ube, this will for sure be a filling breakfast or a tasty dessert/snack!

What is champorado?

Not to be confused with the Mexican champurrado, this recipe is an incredibly popular Filipino dish typically served for breakfast, snack, or for dessert.

Champorado was introduced to the Philippines originally as a Mesoamerican chocolate drink via trade routes. Instead of masa, the Filipinos adapted the dish to use rice in order to make the dish more filling, hence why you’ll see champorado normally being served with dilis (dried anchovies) to start the day!

This version takes that original recipe and makes ube the star flavor. Ube has been skyrocketing recently as this trendy new purple yam food, and for a good reason! Here in Canada, fresh ube is incredibly hard to come by and so my family always stocks up on frozen grated ube whenever we visit the Asian supermarkets.

As always, use this recipe as a guide to make your ube champorado how you like it. Some prefer their champorado more on the soupy side, and so you can definitely add more water/coconut milk to your desired consistency. If you prefer yours to be more sweet, feel free to also add more sugar.

Ingredients for Ube Champorado

• Glutinous rice: To get that optimal champorado texture, we’ll be using glutinous rice for this recipe. You could also use standard white rice (e.g., Jasmine), but just expect the texture to be a little more on the “loose” side.
• Coconut milk: Coconut milk and ube go absolutely perfect together. You can choose to leave it out and instead replace it with water, but the coconut milk adds an incredible depth of flavor to this dish.
• Ube halaya: Halaya is basically a thick jam made with ube, sugar, and milk. While homemade halaya is best, for conveniency sake you can purchase halaya pre-made in most Asian/Filipino grocery stores.
• Ube extract: This will help to intensify the ube flavor and deepen the champorado’s purple color.

*Note: for this recipe, I made the white sugar optional/to taste because depending on what halaya you use, it can greatly affect how sweet your champorado will already be. Some halaya is already incredibly sweet, so in those cases I wouldn’t add as much sugar (or any at all!)

Instructions for Ube Champorado

Wash your glutinous rice at least 3-5 times until the water runs clear. Add the rinsed rice to a deep pot.

Pour in the water and coconut milk and bring to a boil. Once boiling, lower the heat to a medium low, and continue simmering the rice for 15-20 minutes until the rice has softened and is no longer raw. Be sure to stir occasionally to prevent the bottom from scorching.

Add in the ube halaya, ube extract, and a pinch of salt. Gently stir to combine, being sure not to overly break the rice grains.

Season with additional sugar to taste (if desired) and stir gently until smooth. Add more water to the champorado if you prefer it to be more on the “soupy” side.

Serve the ube champorado in a bowl drizzled with evaporated milk and topped with toasted coconut flakes. Enjoy!

Is Champorado Eaten Warm or Cold?

To be completely honest, I might be one of the minorities who loves eating their champorado cold. I just find it incredibly refreshing and it really reminds me of ube ice cream.

Either way, champorado can be eaten both hot or cold. It’s all up to personal preference!

Looking for more tasty dessert ideas? Here’s a couple more:

• Mango Sago
• Turon (Filipino Banana Springrolls)
• Leche Flan
• Mango Float

Ube Champorado (Ube Rice Porridge)

4.5 from 24 votes

Recipe by Ian Course: Dessert, SnacksCuisine: Philippines

Ube champorado is a twist on the original Filipino champorado. Made with glutinous rice, coconut milk, and ube, this will for sure be a filling breakfast or a tasty dessert/snack!

Cook Mode

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Ingredients

• 1 cup glutinous rice

• 3 cups water

• 1.5 cups coconut milk

• 3/4 cup ube halaya (homemade or store-bought)

• 1.5 tsp ube extract

• Pinch salt

• *White sugar, to taste

• Toppings

• Evaporated milk

• Toasted coconut flakes

Directions

• Wash your glutinous rice at least 3-5 times until the water runs clear. Add the rinsed rice to a deep pot.
• Pour in the water and coconut milk and bring to a boil. Once boiling, lower the heat to a medium low, and continue simmering the rice for 15-20 minutes until the rice has softened and is no longer raw. Be sure to stir occasionally to prevent the bottom from scorching.
• Add in the ube halaya, ube extract, and a pinch of salt. Gently stir to combine, being sure not to overly break the rice grains.
• Season with additional sugar to taste (if desired) and stir gently until smooth. Add more water to the champorado if you prefer it to be more on the “soupy” side.
• Serve the ube champorado in a bowl drizzled with evaporated milk and topped with toasted coconut flakes. Enjoy!

Notes

• *For this recipe, I made the white sugar optional/to taste because depending on what ube halaya you use, it can greatly affect how sweet your champorado will already be. Some halaya is already incredibly sweet, so in those cases I wouldn’t add as much sugar (or any at all!)

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