You can’t talk about Filipino cuisine without mentioning one of its most popular desserts, halo-halo. The name that means mixed or mixture has been a favorite dessert and refreshment not only for its vibrant mix of flavours but also for its eye-catching combination of colours.

But your traditional halo-halo can still get a lot better! Take a look at these six interesting variations.

1. Halo-halo with Leche Flan

Photo Credit: hungryhuy.com 

While the traditional halo-halo is overflowing with different ingredients, Razon’s style halo-halo keeps everything simple with just some coconut strings, caramelized banana sauce and evaporated milk on shaved ice and topped with generous slices of creamy leche flan.

This version may be muted, but it still packs a punch when it comes to flavour.

2.  Vegan Halo-halo

Who says that you can’t enjoy halo-halo because you’re vegan? This dairy-free take on the traditional halo-halo uses coconut milk instead of evaporated milk and you can also make your vegan version of the ube halaya that uses vegan butter and muscovado sugar.

3. Fried Halo-halo

If the original halo-halo recipe isn’t interesting enough, you have fried halo-halo. Now, this isn’t your typical dessert in a tall cup with shaved ice, but it incorporates another traditional Filipino favourite snack, the turon or banana and sweet potato spring roll.

Here, you get to add coconut strips, jackfruit and sweetened red beans to the banana before it’s wrapped and deep fried until golden brown. Pack them in the Thermos® Lunch Tote as a lunchtime snack!

4. Spicy Halo-halo

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You might think that heat and halo-halo wouldn’t go well together, but this spicy halo-halo will definitely surprise you in a good way. You still get all the ingredients that you love about your halo-halo, like the macapuno, jackfruit, white bean paste and ube halaya. But you can add chili powder and some slices of siling labuyo on top to balance the sweetness of the shaved ice.

5. Halo-halo Durian

Durian is as exotic as fruits can get, even if not for everyone’s palate. But if you love the fruit, you’d definitely want to try this Halo-halo Durian, which incorporates the exotic durian into the traditional halo-halo recipe with the addition of durian jam and even durian ice cream into the concoction.

6.  Halo-halo Sweetened Banana

Photo Credit: Pepper.ph

Here is another classic Razon’s style halo-halo version that uses a lot of sweetened banana, which is made by boiling water and sugar together, and adding bananas into the mix until they’re fork tender.

You can then add slices of this sweetened banana into your typical cup of halo-halo and top it with ube halaya or leche flan, served in the Thermos® Food Jar.