Recipe
🥤 DRINK
Es Cendol
Green rice-flour jellies in iced coconut milk sweetened with dark palm sugar syrup.
Indonesian · medium · serves 4
prep 20 min · cook 15 min
~515 cal · 4g protein · 65g carbs · 29g fat · 3g fiber · 42g sugars · 25g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Es cendol is a beloved Indonesian iced dessert-drink, worm-like green jellies of rice flour (pandan-scented) in , sweetened with palm sugar syrup ('gula melaka') and served over shaved ice. Sweet, creamy, and cooling, it is a favorite refuge from the tropical heat.
The green jellies are made by pressing rice-flour batter through a mold into cold water, and the drink's magic is the deep caramel notes of the palm sugar against the rich . It is found across Indonesia and the Malay world (as 'cendol').
Sold by street vendors and drunk across Indonesia, es cendol is a nostalgic, refreshing treat.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and gluten-, dairy-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
3/4 cup rice flour
2 tbsp a little tapioca starch
1 tsp pandan extract (or juice)
2 cups
3/4 cup palm sugar (gula melaka)
Hard to find? dark muscovado sugar, or coconut palm sugar with a little molasses - gula melaka is coconut-palm sap boiled down and set in cylinders, so it is darker and faintly smoky; muscovado is the closest thing in an ordinary cupboard and molasses on its own is far too strong
to serve shaved or crushed ice
Instructions
1
Cook the rice flour, tapioca, pandan, and water into a thick green paste.
2
Press the hot paste through a cendol mould (or colander) into iced water to set the jellies.
3
Melt the palm sugar with a splash of water into a dark syrup and cool.
4
Lightly salt the coconut milk.
5
Layer jellies, ice, coconut milk, and palm syrup in glasses and stir to drink.
Yogyakarta street tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Yogyakarta (Java). Sweetness is the regional signature and it is deliberate. Central Javanese cooking leans sweet where Sundanese West Java leans hot and fresh, and the difference is one Indonesians make constantly. Yogyakarta is a kraton city, still governed by a sultan, and the refined court style behind that preference is a living institution rather than a museum piece.
🗺️
Indonesia. Rendang belongs to the Minangkabau of West Sumatra rather than to Indonesia at large, and Malaysia lays its own claim; it is defined by cooking the coconut milk down until the liquid is gone and the meat starts to fry in what is left. Sambal, meanwhile, is not one recipe but hundreds, changing island by island with what grows and what is fermented locally.
🌍
Asia. Fermentation is the thread that runs the whole way across: soy sauce and miso, Korean doenjang and kimchi, Southeast Asian fish sauces, the soured batter behind an idli. Chilli is the newcomer among them, arriving only after 1500 with Portuguese and Spanish traders, which makes the heat in Sichuan, Thai and Korean cooking far younger than the fermenting underneath it.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Indonesia
Nasi Goreng KampungVillage-style fried rice, smoky and sweet with kecap manis, crowned with a crisp-edged fried egg.
Gado-GadoJakarta’s "mix-mix": blanched vegetables, tofu, tempeh, and egg under warm peanut sauce.
Beef RendangBeef simmered for hours in coconut milk and spice paste until the liquid vanishes and the meat turns dark, dry, and intense.
Browse all Indonesia recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Mould or tin.
Storing it: Cool leftover rice quickly and refrigerate within an hour. Keep up to 2 days and reheat until piping hot all the way through.
Make it a Indonesia meal
Nasi Goreng KampungDinner
KleponDessert
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Drinks
Frequently asked questions
What is Es Cendol?
Green rice-flour jellies in iced coconut milk sweetened with dark palm sugar syrup.
Where does Es Cendol come from?
Es Cendol is a Indonesian dish from Yogyakarta (Java), Indonesia.
Can Es Cendol be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Es Cendol recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Es Cendol safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Es Cendol take to make?
About 35 minutes total (20 minutes prep, 15 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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