Coconut Tapioca Taro Soup is one of the best desserts you can get at the end of a Chinese meal. It's sweet, creamy, and very easy to make. You can easily adjust the sweetness to make it suitable for all your guests. I usually make it less sweet and then have sugar at the table for others to add more if they like.
I've been wanting to add more dessert recipes to my repertoire (mainly to impress my in-laws when they come over for dinner), so I decided to make coconut tapioca soup! This is one of the best desserts you can get at the end of a meal at a Chinese restaurant. The more common dessert is red bean soup, but almost everyone I know prefers this one! It's usually served on special occasions.
Important Ingredients
Dried tapioca: Unless you want your soup to take an hour to cook, make sure you get the small-sized tapioca. They are about ⅛-inch in diameter and take about 25-30 minutes to cook. You want to cook them until they are completely translucent. If they are not translucent, just keep cooking them until they are.
Taro: You can buy this at almost any Asian grocery store. One thing to be careful about is that raw taro is known to irritate the skin. You want to wash your hands immediately after preparing it. If you are slow at cooking, I actually recommend wearing disposable gloves while you peel it and chop it. I cook pretty fast, so I usually just wash my hands after, but sometimes they do get a bit itchy.
Coconut milk: Not all coconut milk is the same. I have found some brands will leave a "grittier" taste than others. My go-to brand is Aroy-D, and I have found the T&T brand (if you live in Canada) is also really good.
How to make it
I usually get two pots going at once: one for the tapioca and another for the taro. Once the tapioca is cooked, you want to drain the water and rinse the tapioca several times.
For the taro, you just want to drain the water, then use a potato masher to mash about ⅓ of the taro.
After that, it's just a matter of adding the rest of the ingredients, which are coconut milk, regular milk, and condensed milk.
Coconut Tapioca Taro Soup
Ingredients
- ½ cup small tapioca pearls
- ¾ pound taro (cut into ½-inch chunks; about 2 ½ cups)
- 1 cup coconut milk
- 2 cups milk
- ½-3/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Bring a medium pot of water to a rolling boil. Add the tapioca pearls and reduce the heat to medium. Cook for 25-30 minutes until they are completely translucent with no white dot in the center. I have noticed that if the water level is too low, sometimes the tapioca will always have a white dot in the center. If your tapioca seems to be taking too long to cook, try adding a few more cups of water and check if the white dots disappear.
- Pour the tapioca pearls through a strainer and rinse several times to remove the starch. Transfer the tapioca to a bowl of cold water and set aside.
- In another pot, bring about 8 cups of water to a boil. Add the taro and reduce to a simmer. Cook for 10-12 minutes until the taro is tender. Drain the water.
- Use a potato masher to mash about ⅓ of the taro.
- Add the coconut milk, milk, condensed milk, and salt to the pot.
- Drain the tapioca pearls and add them to the pot as well.
- Taste and adjust the sweetening to your liking then serve! If you like to serve it warm, then heat it over medium heat for a few minutes.
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