Forbidden Rice Pudding with Pomegranate Seeds & Coconut Chips

1 14oz can light coconut milk
1/2 cup black rice
2 Tbs sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1 vanilla bean
1/2 cup pomegranate seeds
1/2 cup toasted coconut chips

1) Pour coconut milk, rice, sugar and salt into a medium saucepan.
2) Slit the vanilla bean in half, scrape vanilla seeds into saucepan and add pod to saucepan.
3) Bring mixture to a simmer over medium heat, stirring often, then reduce heat to medium-low. Cook 30 minutes, or until rice is soft and much of liquid is absorbed. Remove and discard vanilla pod.
4) Serve pudding warm or chilled, topped with pomegranate seeds and coconut chips.

Review: The original recipe included instructions on how to make toasted coconut chips. However, I found a big bag of them at Costco:

Of course, the original recipe also called for using Arborio rice. I still had some black rice from the last time I made rice pudding and thought that would work much better. It didn't absorb as much of the liquid as the Arborio rice would have, so the fluid amounts had to be adjusted. At this point, I think this is now an original recipe! This tasted similar to the last rice pudding I made, but the vanilla bean really added extra flavor and the pomegranate seeds added just a bit of tang. The coconut chips didn't add much, but are super tasty!

Adapted from:
http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipe/coconut-rice-pudding-with-pomegranate-seeds/