Homemade Horchata — This easy horchata recipe requires some planning, but it’s so easy to make! Just soak your ingredients overnight, then blend them up!
Creamy Homemade Horchata
One of my favorite things to do in the spring and summer is go to the farmers market, walk around and take it all in, and drink freshly made horchata. At the farmers market, I load up on a ridiculous amount of seasonal fruits and vegetables. My eyes are always bigger than my stomach and my refrigerator storage drawer.
The treat of the day is usually homemade horchata. The local vendors offer more free samples than Costco. They make everything from hibiscus punch to watermelon juice to mango salad, along with their fabulous homemade fresh horchata.
When I was in Mexico City last summer, I also had some amazing horchata from the markets and street food vendors.
This was a life-changing day. So incredibly powerful; a day I will never forget as long as I live. Some of the things I saw, oh boy. There was so much to see and so much food to eat.
I started researching recipes and came across a Rick Bayless recipe for horchata. It seems that most people make horchata with almonds, but I generally prefer cashews to almonds because cashews are creamier, they’re more neutral-tasting, and they blend much better and more easily.
The blending part is key because I didn’t want to be bothered with straining this or bothering with a cheesecloth, which is why I used cashews. The vanilla flavor was very pronounced and there was a hint of cinnamon present. The horchata was sweet, creamy, milky, and I had to restrain from drinking about 19 ounces of horchata at once.
It’s that good and this is going to become a staple. And try not to drink the whole batch at once. Refrigerate excess (if you mange to have any and haven’t drank it all directly from the Vita-Mix canister).
But I was classier than that. I used a straw and a mason jar.
What’s in Horchata?
For this easy horchata recipe, you’ll need:
- Raw cashews
- White rice
- Water
- Cinnamon stick
- Granulated sugar
- Vanilla extract
How to Make Horchata at Home
Put the cashews into the Vita-Mix or blender canister along with the rice, water, and a cinnamon stick and refrigerate overnight. The next morning, remove the cinnamon stick and add in the sugar and vanilla.
Blend the mixture until it’s as smooth as possible. If needed, you can strain the homemade horchata through a cheesecloth to remove any lumps. My Vita-Mix blended everything up perfectly, but depending on how strong your blender is you may want to strain it.
Can I Use Almonds Instead of Cashews?
Yes, you can make this easy horchata recipe with raw or blanched almonds. Just make sure they don’t contain any salt!
Ways to Enjoy Horchata
There are SO many ways for you to enjoy homemade horchata, besides drinking it straight. A few of my go-to ways to use up horchata are:
- Use over cereal, in oatmeal, and in smoothies.
- Make ice cubes with it for iced coffee.
- Bake with it in place of recipes calling for nut or rice milk.
- Use it as coffee creamer.
- Add chocolate sauce for chocolate “milk.”
- Freeze it for 2 hours (or until barely frozen) for a slushy-esque treat.
- Make it into a cocktail! Just Add 1 ounce of Baileys, Kahlua, or Vanilla Vodka to 4 to 6 ounces of horcahta and ice cubes, shake/stir and serve.
Tips for Making Horchata
I used traditional recipes (here and here) as reference for the amount of sugar to add to this horchata recipe (and they use more than I did). You may wish to start with 1/3 cup sugar, and increase from there if you prefer something sweeter. You can also use another form of sweetener, to taste.
All amounts are to taste. If you are serving over ice, it will also water down and become less sweet, something to keep in mind. This is a sweet beverage; it’s not supposed to be “barely sweet,” it’s supposed to be sweet.
If you prefer a thinner horchata, increase the amount of water, to taste, or strain it. Whatever blender you use, blend, blend, blend. Depending on type of blender used, and taste preferences, strain if desired.
Lastly, make sure you’re using raw unsalted cashews in this recipe. If your cashews are salted, the flavor of your horchata will be way off!
More Easy Drink Recipes:
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- Tequila Sunrise — Not only is it pretty to look at, but a Tequila Sunrise is also refreshing, nostalgic, and the grenadine sweetens it up enough that you may not even notice it packs quite a punch!
- Flavored Water — I’ve shared two of my favorite flavored water recipes in this post — a cucumber water and a berry water — but the flavor options are endless!
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- Rum Runner — This delicious Rum Runner recipe (complete with my secret ingredient!) packs a punch that can sneak up on you!
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Homemade Horchata
Ingredients
- 1 cup raw cashews, or use raw or blanched almonds
- ⅔ cup white rice, uncooked (medium or long-grain preferred)
- 2 ½ cups + 3 cups water
- one 3-inch cinnamon stick
- ⅔ cup granulated sugar, or to taste*
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract, increase to 1 teaspoon if you love vanilla
Instructions
- In a large blender canister, Vita-Mix canister, or large bowl combine cashews, uncooked rice, 2 1/2 cups warm tap water, cinnamon stick, cover and place in the refrigerator for 8 to 12 hours.
- Remove canister from the refrigerator, remove the cinnamon stick, and blend the mixture for 2 to 3 minutes on high speed, or until blended as smoothly as possible.
- Add sugar (to taste), vanilla extract, 3 cups more water and blend again for 2 more minutes, or until mixture is as smooth as possible.
- If desired, strain horchata through a sieve or cheesecloth (I did not find it necessary as the cashews blended incredibly smoothly in my Vita-Mix). Serve immediately as is, over ice, or refrigerate and serve chilled, shaking before if mixture has separated. Horchata will keep in the refrigerator for 3 to 5 days; use common sense.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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These pictures are BEAUTIFUL! Love the white on white with the cinnamon sticks-they are all so pretty. Never tried Horchata but after seeing those pictures and reading the ingredients, I think I just might have to.
What an awesome recipe, I’ve never tried horchata! This looks like a lot of fun!
You Mexico city trip looked like such fun, I’d live to sneak away on a trip like that!
I’ve never heard of horchata. Sounds very interesting. Love cashews, so how could it be bad?? And honestly, even if I don’t like something, you make it look so darn good!
I had actually never even heard of horchata before. I have heard of kefir, but I’ve never tried it. I have had cultured coconut milk, which I just recently tried. The only nut milk I’ve tried is almond, but my stomach doesn’t tolerate it well. Cashews are a great replacement for almonds in recipes!
My husband loves horchata. I will have try this. Good call using the cashews! I hate messing with cheesecloth, too.
If I had the time I would Pin every single one of your photos. There is such a clarity in your photography I come back everyday for more.
I’ve never tried horchata, but you made it look so easy, I just may…and the glass stray = envy.
Thanks so much, Deirdre. That is my goal, to make the pics look online as good as the food looked in person; some days with better success than others…haha! Thanks for your support, as always!
Hey Averie! This sounds delightful, I have never had this before! And you have a beautiful space, love your photographs! So glad to be your new follower!
Thanks and welcome!
I AODRE horchata! (Which is why I put a raw version in my cookbook, of course) This looks amazing…but dangerous. I’m likely to drink it all at once…
As I have been reading your cookbook (like most people read novels, page by page, really studying each and every page and recipe), I have seen recipes for tons of things I already make, made, or have in my to-be-published drafts. This one has been waiting for almost a month…so I was chuckling when I saw your recipe the other day in the book :)
I’ve never had horchata…but it sounds delicious!! Mail me some?! ;-)
I love going to the farmers market too. One of my favorite destinations. I have never tried horchata but it looks so light and refreshing! I would love to try this one day!!
: ))
Jen
Hope you try it sometime!
It is something I have always wanted to try, but I’ve never done so. You make it sound so simple, maybe I should just do it :)
It IS easy…just do it!
I LOVE horchata! I actually thought it was just rice though, I had no idea there were other nuts in there. I’ve clearly not done my horchata research. I’ve mostly just had it at mexican restaurants and used the instnat packets from the grocery store. I’m lazy like that. But, I do have some cashews and I’m thinking maybe this would be good without the rice. (Not a rice fan.) and with my brown sugar cinnamon coffee syrup.
Oh, baby.
I’m not a big rice lover either; you can’t taste it but I really think it does help and is important. Use less than I did or else you basically just have nut milk on your hands which is fine too but I wouldn’t steer you wrong…try it just once with the rice :)
Beautiful photo’s, only you could make a mason jar and white liquid look stunning.
Brooke
http://www.MarvelousLoveBlog.com
Thanks, Brooke :)
When my roommate traveled to Puerto Rico last year she came back with all sorts of recipes to share, horchata being one of them, and I had never heard of it up until then. Yours looks fantastic, and I really want to try making it. Also- I had no idea nut milks were that simple to make (always thought you had to strain etc.) but I am so trying my own almond milk asap. Thanks for the suggestion!
You know, there are people who will but it’s based on your tastes, your blender, and if you are okay with some thickness. If you want “paper thin” milk, i.e. like grocery store skim milk, this is not that.
If you want something thicker like full fat coconut milk or half and half, this is more like that. Keep me posted!
I’ve never tried horchata but love cashews, vanilla, and cinnamon – definitely on my list of recipes to try!
LMK if you try it!
I’m in love with these bright white pictures! Horchata is something I’ve always wanted to make (and try, I’ve never even had it!) b/c I know I’ll love it.
That would be the fastest comment ever award :)
haha you must’ve popped up in my reader just as I was going through it. good timing :)
I took off some plugin on my site that was causing allllll kinds of issues (only took a year to figure out which one) and since then my site’s feed seems to be hitting Google Reader almost instantly, rather than in 5 to 45 minutes. I better not type any more because this is one of those knock on wood things. Lol
But I think we’ve talked feeds/timing in the past so just geeking out with you :)