Purple Sweet Potato Tapioca

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Tapioca, purple sweet potatoes, and coconut milk come together in this vibrant dessert. Like a cross between pudding and sweet soup, this tapioca is wonderful both hot and cold. Don't forget the salty peanut topping ^_^

Tapioca, purple sweet potatoes, and coconut milk! That is all you need.

I'm not sure how tapioca got to be such a big "Hawaii thing," but it is very popular here.

From the many types of tapioca chè at the Vietnamese-owned shops (like the desserts from Thang's), to big bowls of tapioca desserts at potluck parties, and the dozens of tapioca recipes recorded in local cookbooks that get passed around from this auntie to that cousin, there is no shortage of tapioca sweets in Hawaii! That is a lucky thing ^_^

*Sweet Potato Tapioca from Thang's (Oahu)*

The kind of tapioca my mom makes is a combo of the local Hawaii version and the Vietnamese tapioca chè she grew up eating. It's simple to make and open to endless adaptations. The version in today's post is Purple Sweet Potato Tapioca. (Mom also makes an apple-banana one called Banana Tapioca and a mango one called Mango Tapioca.)

We eat this tapioca both hot and cold. We eat it hot, spooned into small bowls from the big pot, right after we finish cooking the tapioca. Leftovers go in the fridge, and then we eat it cold the next day for snack. I love tapioca!

Note: this recipe is like a cross between pudding and sweet soup. We don't call it "tapioca pudding" or "tapioca soup"...it's just "tapioca."

Hawaiian Purple Sweet Potato

The vibrant purple color of the sweet potato is so nice, yeah? ^_^

I don't often see purple sweet potatoes on the mainland (they're always orange!), but they are everywhere in Hawaii.

How did we even get purple sweet potatoes in Hawaii?

Purple sweet potatoes were first cultivated in Okinawa. They were eventually brought to Hawaii by the Okinawans, along with many other neat Okinawan dishes that have become part of our local Hawaii culture. This includes dishes like Goya Champuru (Okinawan Bitter Melon Stir Fry), Rafute (Okinawan shoyu pork), and of course...Andagi (Okinawan doughnuts) which we always get from Teruya's Andagi)!

Today these purple sweet potatoes go by two names:

Hawaiian purple sweet potato
Okinawan sweet potato

*Hawaiian Purple Sweet Potato, Tapioca, and Coconut Milk*

How to Cook Tapioca

Fyi, I’ve included affiliate links below. I may earn a small commission (at no cost to you), if you purchase through the links.

For this recipe, make sure you use small pearl tapioca. Do not get quick cooking tapioca, or tapioca powder. You want the tiny pearl shaped tapioca.

Cooking tapioca is easy...but it is also easy to mess up.

How to cook small tapioca pearls:

You want to cook the tapioca in a big pot of boiling water. I use about 6-8 cups of water for every 1 cup of tapioca pearls. Bring the water to a boil first. Then use one hand to pour in the small tapioca pearls while using the other hand to stir the water with a wooden spoon. You want to pour the tapioca in while the water is swirling because it helps keep the tapioca pearls from clumping together.

After cooking it on a simmer (with the pot lid on) for 10 minutes, the tapioca should be about ready. You can tell the tapioca is ready when:

The tapioca pearls look mostly translucent.
There is a tiny white dot in the middle of each tapioca pearl.

Be careful not to overcook the tapioca...it will melt into mush.

After cooking, drain the tapioca under running cold water. This is a key step for multiple reasons:

Helps prevent the tapioca pearls from sticking to each other.
Removes excess starch.
Stops the cooking process (to prevent overcooked tapioca).

And that's how you cook tapioca.

Salty Peanut Topping

The salty peanut topping is optional (but it's a definite must-have in our home). All you have to do is combine:

Roasted peanuts
Salt

Grind it in the food processor and you are done! Note: don't grind it up into a fine powder, leave some larger peanut chunks in there for texture contrast.

We often make a big potion of this salty peanut topping because we eat a lot of tapioca-based dessert and sprinkle the salty peanut topping on all these desserts.

*Hawaiian Purple Sweet Potato Tapioca, ready to eat!*

Method

This recipe only calls for three core ingredients: purple sweet potato, tapioca pearls, and coconut milk.

It's sweetened with sugar and a bit of salt. The salty peanut topping is optional (though a definite must-have in our home).

These are the ingredients:

Purple sweet potato
Small pearl tapioca (make sure you don't get quick cooking tapioca)
Coconut milk
Sugar
Salt (for both the tapioca and the salty peanut topping)
Roasted peanuts

This is the process (full printable recipe is at bottom of this post):

Think of this recipe (the complete printable version is at the bottom of this post) as having four distinct parts:

Part 1. Prepare the purple sweet potato: peel and cut into half-inch pieces. Boil till cooked. Drain and set aside.

Part 2. Prepare the tapioca: refer to the "How to Cook Tapioca" section above for details on tapioca preparation.

Part 3. Combine the purple sweet potato and tapioca: once you have them both cooked, combine the purple sweet potato and tapioca in a large pot with water. Sweeten with sugar. Add a bit of salt. Then add in the coconut milk. Stir to combine, and then it is ready to eat!

Part 4. Make the salty peanut topping.

To serve: spoon the hot tapioca into small bowls. Top with the salty peanuts, and eat with a spoon ^_^

Tips

Do not boil the coconut milk.

This is noted in the instructions below, but it is important to not let the coconut milk boil (because it might break). This is why you add the coconut milk in at the last step. Once you add in the coconut milk, turn the heat to medium, and stir to let it mix with everything.

Use full fat, unsweetened canned coconut milk.

Do not use "lite" coconut milk. Do not use sweetened coconut milk. We keep both the Chaokoh and Hawaiian Sun brand of coconut milk at home. (The Chaokoh coconut milk is richer and more intense.)

No purple sweet potatoes?

You could technically omit the purple sweet potatoes from this recipe entirely. The result would be a plain (but still delicious!) tapioca dessert. Feel free to also top it with anything from fresh to canned fruit.

Too sweet? Not sweet enough?

You can easily increase or decrease the amount of sugar used in this recipe. Start with less and you can add more sugar as needed.

How thick do you like the dessert?

Feel free to add more water for a thinner, more soup-like dessert. Use less water for a thicker, more pudding-like dessert.