Saturday Share: Tapioca Pudding Recipe

In today's world, most people are familiar with tapioca as an ingredient in bubble teas. There are several bubble tea shops near where I live.

However, I remember tapioca as the pudding my mother made when I was a child.

Darling Hubby remembers it for the same reason—his mother made it often as a simple, inexpensive dessert.

There's no more soothing comfort food than the sweet vanilla goodness of Tapioca Pudding.

What Is Tapioca?

This starchy carbohydrate is made from cassava roots, or tubers. As a reference point for you, potatoes are tubers. Cassava tubers are native to most of South America, particularly Brazil.

You can find tapioca in many different forms: flour, meal, flakes, and pearls—tiny balls of tapioca—as well as everyday inexpensive grocery brands and organic more expensive brands. I buy the box of Kraft Tapioca from the grocery store.

Image by ivabalk from Pixabay

In cooking, tapioca is used not only for pudding and bubble teas but also for thickening sauces, gravies, and for the thickening agent in fruit pies.

The "clean food" movement seemed to emphasize that tapioca was better to use for thickening than cornstarch.

If you want organic tapioca, just enter that phrase in the Amazon search box, but the Kraft brand (only $3.88 from Amazon) works just as well. I hope you'll try my mom's recipe.

Authentic Tapioca Pudding

1/3 cup of sugar
3 tablespoons of Kraft Tapioca
2 3/4 cups of milk *see note below
1 egg well beaten
1 teaspoon of vanilla

Directions

• Shake the box before using just as the label says.
• In a saucepan, combine sugar, tapioca, milk, and egg. Whisk well together. Let it stand for 5 minutes for the tapioca to soften.
• Turn on the heat to medium. Cook, stirring constantly to keep it from scorching, until the mixture comes to a full bubbling boil.
• Turn off the heat. If you're using an electric stove, move the pan off the hot element.
• Stir in the vanilla, mixing well.
• If you plan on serving the pudding later, pour it into small bowls.
• Let the mixture cool for at least 20 minutes. It thickens as it cools.
• After that, it's ready to eat. Serve warm or cold.
• If refrigerating the pudding, cover the bowls with plastic wrap.
• Serves 6.

Note: For What It's Worth

A couple of years ago, after reading the latest dietary research on cow's milk, we switched to whole milk because of its health benefits. Recently, A recent article stated cow's milk is better because of the Vitamin D content which was once the way most people met their Vitamin D needs.

The article went on to say that unless you had lactose intolerance, to choose cow's milk rather than the proliferation of nut milks. I encourage you to do your own research about the dairy vs. nut milk issue.

Tapioca, Image by ivabalk from Pixabay

Takeaway Truth

Amazingly, this old-fashioned favorite is now a trendy "new" thing on restaurant menus and in "Whole 30" and Paleo kitchens.

I hope you'll try making Tapioca Pudding. It's nothing like the packaged, pre-mixed puddings which are rather bland and much too sweet.

Whether you choose an expensive organic tapioca, or the Kraft box from Amazon, you'll love this easy to make pudding and so will your family.