Coconut Tapioca Pudding :)

After being introduced to coconut tapioca pudding by a friend a few weeks ago (hi Gaelyn!), I immediately fell in love and became somewhat obsessed with it. It’s quick and easy to make, has only a few (inexpensive) ingredients, and is sooooo delicious! Seriously. Amazingly delicious.

Tapioca pudding in all its splendor.

Anyway! After a mishap involving missing tapioca pearls (alas!), my desire for more tapioca pudding couldn’t be satisfied until I returned home and picked up some more. I made it for my family, and similar obsession with its deliciousness resulted. It’s fantastic hot, cold, topped with just about any fruit, or just on its own. :)


Coconut Tapioca Pudding
yields about 3 ½ cups of delicious pudding

Ingredients:

2 cups water
½ cup dry tapioca pearls (not the instant kind, easiest to find in asian markets)

1 can (13.5 oz) coconut milk
1/3 cup sugar
½ tsp salt

½ tsp vanilla extract

The fancier ingredients...

Directions:

1. In a small pot, bring two cups of water to a boil.

2. Rinse tapioca pearls, drain, and add to the boiling water.

3. Return to boil, then cook over medium heat until the white tapioca pearls become clear (should be about 15 – 20 minutes). Stir occasionally to prevent tapioca from sticking to the bottom. The pearls should expand and get increasingly goooooey. :)

Ahhhhh! It's the Blob!

4. Once the tapioca is clear and looks like it has absorbed most of the water, add the can of coconut milk (just the contents, not the can!), sugar and salt. Mix well, return to a boil, and simmer for 5 minutes. Keep stirring so it doesn’t stick! :)

5. Turn off heat, and mix in the vanilla extract. Pour some pudding into a small bowl and be amazed by how delicious it is. The pudding will still be fairly gooey at this point, but it will thicken significantly as it cools.

Coconut milk, here we go!

If you don’t eat it all instantly, refrigerate what’s left and the pudding will gel up and thicken!

Top with mango or berries or chopped almonds, or anything that’s nearby and tasty! Enjoy! :)

This was all that was left of the pudding to take a picture of the next morning! It turned super thick and gooey. Nom nom.

Dig in!

Because it was such a hit, I decided to make a double batch the next night. Much to my dismay, however, I realized we only had one can of coconut milk left, and it was… light. DUN DUN DUN…

A word of warning – light coconut milk is extremely silly (and possibly evil). It’s coconut milk diluted with water… in a can. For the same price (or more!) as regular coconut milk. And significantly less delicious.

The quest for more delicious pudding was too great to be deterred by lite coconut milk, however, and so, out of necessity, this healthier version of coconut tapioca pudding was born! It’s much less decadent than the original version, but still delicious. It’s less coconut-y, so tastes similar to traditional tapioca pudding. Which is tasty too!

Incidentally Healthier Coconut Tapioca Pudding
yields about 7 cups of delicious pudding

Ingredients:

4 cups of water
1 cup dry tapioca pearls

1 can (13.5 oz) coconut milk
13.5 oz unsweetened soy milk (but I bet almond or hazelnut milk would be even better!)
2/3 cup sugar
1 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

The directions are the same as the original version. The soymilk goes in with the coconut milk (I just refilled the can with soymilk and added it).

Enjoy! :)