Halo-Halo, Vegan

I ran out of ice cream in the fridge and I found myself craving for something cold and sweet to beat the weather.

“What else can I make?” I wondered. “Oh, but of course, Halo-halo!” (pronounced ha-loh ha-loh and NOT halo like angel halo).

Growing up in Digman, where Halo-halo originated from, I terribly missed this drink. Not that it’s hard to re-create. Most Asian and Filipino stores carry the ingredients. So without much contemplating, I drove to the store and bought the ingredients as well as an ice shaver (only $8.99 for the shaver, Score!).

By the way “halo” is Tagalog for “mix”, which pretty much describes the drink: a mix of sweetened tropical fruits, milk, and ice.

Halo-halo is similar to the Vietnamese jelly drinks except the Filipino version has more ingredients mixed with evaporated milk and topped with purple and yellow flan.  To veganize it, I incorporated the Vietnamese component of using coconut milk. Soymilk and Almond milk can also be used. For the purple flan, I used Will Peji’s recipe for “Ube Halaya“.

Instead of having to buy all the sweetened fruits separately which can be expensive, I found a Halo-halo mix that has all the needed fruits in one jar. The fruits were sweet coconut jelly, red beans, jackfruit, bananas, and white beans.

Makes 1-2 servings, Ready in 5 minutes!

INGREDIENTS:

• 5-6 tbsp. Halo-halo sweet fruit mix
• 1/4 cup coconut milk (or soymilk or almond milk)
• 1/2 – 1 cup shaved ice
• 2-3 tablespoon toasted rice flakes (or rice crisps)
• 1 slice of Ube Halaya (optional) (see below for recipe)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Add about 3 tablespoons sweet fruits in a glass.
2. Add a little bit of shaved ice
3. Add another 3tablespoons sweet fruits
4. Add the rest of the shaved ice
5. Carefully pour the milk all over the drink
6. Add the rice flakes/crisps
7. Top with Ube Yam
8. Enjoy!

After carefully putting the ingredients in layers, now you can destroy by mixing them well! hehe The layering is for the eyes, the mixing is for the tummy.

And here’s Will Peji’s recipe for Ube Halaya Yam:

4-6 Servings

Ingredients:

• 1 lb frozen grated Ube (Purple Yam) Thawed
• 1 cup Turbinado Sugar/Brown Sugar
• 1 can Coconut Milk (I used light one for this)
• 1/4 cup Vegan Butter

Directions

1. Heat cooking pot then put in butter and let it melt
2. Add coconut milk and let it boil
3. Add Brown Sugar stir well
4. Lower the heat then add the ube mix well
5. Stir occasionally until the ube becomes thick about 15-20 mins.
6. Put Ube in a mold or container and let it cool  I used soup bowl for this one
7. Refrigerate to 2hrs and serve

OR You can also try Allyson’s delicious VEGAN UBE ICE CREAM to top your Halo-halo. Enjoy!!!