Culture | Aug. 2025
THE DISH: TAPIOCA PUDDING
By Monica Kass Rogers
Photography by Monica Kass Rogers
This delightful tropical dessert has lots to recommend it. Free of gluten, grain, dairy, and egg, it’s easy to make, creamy rich, and delicious. To prepare it, you’ll use tiny tapioca pearls, coconut milk, sweetener, and a splash of vanilla. We like to garnish with a little mango puree, diced fresh mango, and slivers of fresh young coconut. But you can add other fruits—banana and pineapple, fresh berries, or whatever strikes your fancy. In Southeast Asia, this dessert is called sago pudding whether it’s actually made with sago (from tropical palm plant innards) or with tapioca (from cassava root). Soaking the uncooked tapioca pearls in coconut milk for a half hour softens them a bit. Then simmered with sweetener, the pearls will plump up and become translucent—swelling and gelling even more when you refrigerate the puddings after cooking. To source the tapioca pearls, coconut milk, fresh young coconut, and mango, visit one of the Chicago area’s Asian markets, if you can. These give you several varieties of mango to choose from as well as different kinds of banana and many other tropical fruits.
Serves 6-8
INGREDIENTS
- • 1/3 cup small tapioca pearls (not instant)
- • 2 1/2 cups full-fat coconut milk
- • 1/3 cup sugar OR . cup maple syrup
- • Pinch salt
- • 1 tsp vanilla extract
- • 1 cup fresh mango, diced
- • 1 cup fresh or frozen mango, pureed
- • 1/2 cup fresh young coconut slivers
INSTRUCTIONS
SOAK TAPIOCA PEARLS: Place tapioca pearls and coconut milk in a bowl and stir to keep them from clumping. Let rest for 30 to 40 minutes.
COOK PUDDING: Scoop mixture into a heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat. Whisk in sugar or syrup. Add pinch of salt. Once mixture just begins to boil, reduce heat to low and stir, simmering for 10 to 15 minutes until thickened into a pudding. If too thick, add a bit more coconut milk. Remove pot from heat and whisk in vanilla.
POUR INTO CUPS: Spoon warm pudding into 6 to 8 small cups and refrigerate for 2 hours.
PREP TOPPINGS: Chop young coconut in half. Using a spoon, carefully scoop out the soft white coconut flesh. Cut into thin strips and slivers. Set aside. Puree one cup of fresh or frozen mango with a blender. Dice one more cup of fresh mango.
ASSEMBLE: Spoon small amount of pureed mango onto each chilled pudding. Top with fresh diced mango and small strips of young coconut. Serve.
