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Box of cereal silently judging you from the pantry? This champorado recipe is going to make it significantly more jealous while it upgrades your breakfast table. With 8 ingredients (I mean, one of them is water, for goodness' sake), in under 30 minutes you'll have a rich chocolatey bowl that your whole family will adore.
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What makes this champorado special? It blends bittersweet tablea chocolate with deep, earthy black cocoa and creamy coconut milk for a deep, dark, decadent chocolate flavor. And yes, there's drizzled vegan condensed milk on top, because that's just the way things are around here.
Perfect for breakfast, merienda, or a midnight snack, champorado is a shape-shifter in the best way-like Vietnamese chè khoai môn, Malaysian bubur cha cha, or Filipino taho, it straddles the line between being an indulgent dessert and a fun, comforting breakfast.
This recipe reminds me of my lola's which makes it an instant 10000/10. She used to make champorado for us whenever it was rainy. She'd make it with just a little bit of brown sugar, so my cousins and I could adjust every bowl to our liking. I remember putting so much brown sugar in mine since I liked it extra sweet. Did the same for this and it's soooo good!!
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🥰Why you'll adore this champorado recipe
✊ Vegan AF and GF: Like all of my vegan Filipino recipes, this bad boy is blissfully free from cow's milk, dairy-based evaporated milk, and any sneaky animal stuff at all. Don't get it twisted either-just because this contains glutinous rice, doesn't mean it's not going to be one of your fave gluten-free vegan recipes of all time!
⏰ Quick & Cozy: From stovetop to spoon in under 30 minutes.
🌡️Flexible Temps: Enjoy hot, chilled, or reheated-still insanely yummy any which way.
✅ Tested and Approved Worldwide: Like all of my vegan recipes, this champorado has been tested and tweaked with the help of hundreds of recipe testers to perfectly nail the balance of chocolatey richness and the flavor and texture of the sweet rice.
I'm on my knees staring weirdly into your eyes, asking you in a soothing voice to be my taste-testing partner in crime. Sign up for the recipe testing crew and get early access to new recipes before they're published.
🍫 Champorado ingredients
Glutinous Rice
Also called sticky rice or malagkit in the Philippines, glutinous rice is the key to champorado's thick, pudding-like consistency. Don't even try to make this with regular long-grain rice, or (shudder) normal brown rice. A short grain Japonica rice (like what you would use to make a vegan sushi bake or yaki onigiri can work in a pinch, though.
Tablea Chocolate
Pure cacao tablets from the Philippines, often stone-ground, pack a kinda rustic, robust flavor. If you can't find vegan tablea, use unsweetened baking chocolate, or unsweetened dark chocolate chips.
Black Cocoa Powder
This deep, dark cocoa adds a darker color and intensifies the chocolate flavor. I use it in my vegan chocolate babka and flourless chocolate cake because it delivers that nostalgic, Oreo-cookie-ish vibe that Dutch-processed cocoa just can't quite match. Sure, Dutch-process will work in this recipe in a pinch (I mean, most traditional champorado recipes don't even contain cocoa powder at all), but it will not result in quite as amazing a flavored bowl.
Coconut Sugar
Coconut sugar adds gentle caramel notes without overpowering the chocolate. Brown sugar, palm sugar, or sucanat sugar are all solid substitutes.
Vegan Condensed Milk
I use condensed oat milk for the thick, sweet milky drizzle on top. Use any plant-based condensed milk you love-coconut condensed milk works beautifully too. IN lieu of any of that, a nice smooth, thick can of coconut milk can also be used for the drizzle on top, especially if you don't want to make your champorado any sweeter.
*See the recipe card at the bottom of the page for exact quantities, nutritional info, and detailed cooking directions.
🤯Variations
Ube Champorado
Skip the chocolate and black cocoa, and instead stir in ¼ cup of ube halaya and a few drops of ube extract during the final simmer for a dreamy purple yam rice pudding.
Che Khoai Mon
Che khoai mon is a breakfast/dessert from Vietnam, loaded with tender taro chunks swimming in creamy coconut milk, sometimes with little tapioca pearls hanging out for fun.
📖 How to make champorado
I get it, you want this cholatey goodness now. If you want to skip the glamour shots, scroll straight to the printable recipe card below.
Step One
Rice to Meet You:
Rinse the glutinous rice in a fine-mesh strainer until the water runs clear.
Step Two
Boil George:
In a medium saucepan, combine rice and water. Bring to a boil over high heat.
Step Three
Sim Simmer, Who's Got The Keys to My Bimmer:
Reduce to low heat. Cook uncovered for 12-14 minutes, until rice is just tender.
✅ If a lot of the original water evaporated while the rice was simmering, you may want to thin your champorado with an extra splash of water, depending on how thick you like yours.
Step Four
Choc Norris:
Stir in tablea chocolate, black cocoa, coconut milk, coconut sugar, and salt. Simmer uncovered over medium-low heat for 12-15 minutes, stirring often, until thick and creamy.
✅ You may want to use a whisk at first to make sure the black cocoa quickly gets mixed in and doesn't form any little clumps.
Step Five
Sargent Milko:
Remove from heat. Ladle into bowls and drizzle with condensed oat milk before serving.
💡Serving Ideas
Pair with turon or sticky suman malagkit for a yummy dessert spread. Basically, if it belongs at a Filipino kid's bday party, it belongs next to this champorado.
Serving it for breakfast? Slap down some ube pancakes, or sago't gulaman, and some vegan scrambled eggs next to it, or a vegan omelette stuffed with tofu bacon.
👉Top tips
- Stirring Strategy: Stir often once the chocolate hits the pot-this is not the time for multitasking, unless you enjoy the taste of burnt regret. The main thing actually is stirring it quickly to ensure the black cocoa gets distributed and doesn't form any little clumps on you.
- Sweetness Check: Taste and tweak your sugar levels-tablea's bitterness can swing from a little sus to full-on meltdown at the chocolate factory.
- Reheat Rescue: When reviving leftovers, stir in a splash of water or coconut milk to loosen things up. The rice will continue to absorb liquid, and you don't want it to be super-thick and stiff.
🤷♀️ Recipe FAQs
Unsweetened baking chocolate works in a pinch. Just adjust the sweetness to taste.
Absolutely! Chill in the fridge for a few hours, then loosen with a splash of coconut milk before serving.
Yes-cook the rice in water first, then finish with chocolate, coconut milk, and sugar. It will take a bit shorter of a time to cook, so don't let it burn or stick.
❄️ Refrigerating:
Store cooled champorado in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
🔥 Stovetop Reheating:
Warm over low heat with a splash of coconut milk or water until loosened.
⚡️ Microwave Reheating:
Heat in short bursts, stirring between each, until warmed through.
🇵🇭You'll love these vegan Filipino desserts too:
For just $1: Take a fun vegan dessert cooking class with Cinnamon Snail's Chef Adam Sobel and Chef Amanda Bankert from Boneshaker, Paris.
Vegan Champorado Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup glutinous rice
- 3 ¼ cups water
- 100 grams tablea chocolate
- 4 teaspoons black cocoa powder
- 400 ml. canned coconut milk preferably full-fat
- ⅓ cup coconut sugar or brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup condensed oat milk
Instructions
- Rinse the glutinous rice in a fine-mesh strainer until the water runs clear.
- In a medium saucepan, combine the rice and water, then bring to a boil over high heat.
- Reduce to low heat and simmer uncovered for 12-14 minutes until the rice is just cooked through.
- Stir in the chocolate pieces, black cocoa, coconut milk, coconut sugar, and salt. Stir well and continue simmering without a lid over medium-low heat for 12-15 minutes, or until the rice is very tender and the mixture has thickened to a porridge-like consistency. Stir frequently to prevent scorching.
- Remove from heat and ladle into bowls. Drizzle each serving with condensed oat milk before serving.
Notes
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Reshyll says
This recipe reminds me of my lola's which makes it an instant 10000/10. She used to make champorado for us whenever it was rainy. She'd make it with just a little bit of brown sugar, so my cousins and I could adjust every bowl to our liking. I remember putting so much brown sugar in mine since I liked it extra sweet. Did the same for this and it's soooo good!!