Tapioca Melon Dessert Soup สาคูแคนตาลูป
This classic Thai dessert recipe is refreshing and light, with tapioca pearls and melon pieces in a light coconut broth. Super easy to make, and it's gluten free! See notes for do-head tips.
- Prep time
- 5 min
- Cook time
- 20 min
- Yield
- 4 servings
- Difficulty
- MEDIUM
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup small tapioca pearls
- 3/4 cup coconut water
- 1/3 cup coconut milk
- 1/3 cup whole milk (see note 1)
- 3 tbsp sugar (or to taste (see note 2))
- 5 inches pandan leaf (optional)
- Half a sweet melon such as cantaloupe, honey dew, or try mangoes!
Instructions
- 1
Combine coconut water, coconut milk, milk, sugar and pandan leaf in a small pot. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat. Let it cool at room temperature until it's lukewarm, then chill in the fridge until cold. Tip: If you're in a rush to cool it, sit the pot in an ice water bath!
- 2
Using a small melon baller, or simply cut them into 1-centimeter dice. Chill the melons in the fridge.
- 3
Bring 6 cups of water to a FULL boil. Sprinkle the tapioca pearls into the boiling water gradually and stir until the water comes back to a full boil again. Once the water is fully boiling again and the tapioca pearls are dancing away in the water, you can stop stirring and let them boil for about 12 minutes, until you can just see a tiny white dot in the center of the pearls. (Some pearls will have larger white dots, that's okay, as long as most of them only have a tiny dot inside.)
- 4
Fish the pearls out using a fine mesh skimmer and dunk them immediately into a bowl of cold water to stop the cooking. Strain them through a sieve and rinse under cold water until tapioca is completely cool. Alternatively you can drain the cooking pearls directly through a metal sieve and rinse until cool. Drain well and divide them into serving bowls immediately (it's easier to divide them now as they will stick together more as they sit.)
- 5
Add the melon balls to each serving bowl with the tapioca pearls already in them, then ladle the chilled broth over. Serve cold (you can add ice if it's not cold enough). Enjoy!