Pressure Cooker Coconut Lemongrass Ginger Tapioca
Pressure Cooker Coconut Lemongrass Ginger Tapioca is an Instapot tapioca recipe, infused with fresh lemongrass and ginger, then garnished with crystallized ginger, cashews, and Thai basil. Subtle Thai flavors provide a tasty twist on an American classic.
Feliz Navidad, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Holidays from Texas’ Rio Grande Valley! It is a privilege to bring you a recipe that is sure to please this holiday season. I’m Tamara from Beyond Mere Sustenance here with a Thai-inspired twist on a beloved classic – tapioca pudding. I love to encourage people to enjoy healthy food with global flair around the table… regularly.
Making Coconut Lemongrass Ginger Tapioca in an Instant Pot
An Instant Pot is one of the most popular brands of electric pressure cookers. They are easy to use and your Instant Pot can help you create this delicious Coconut Lemongrass Ginger Tapioca!
Perhaps you’ve tried Pressure Cooker Tapioca Pudding? It’s so good! My Pressure Cooker Coconut Tapioca With Lemongrass and Ginger took off from there… With Thai flavors, coconut milk is a great dairy-free option. A bruised lemongrass stalk and some minced ginger cook along with the coconut milk beverage and small pearl tapioca.
Important note: Don’t use quick tapioca! You need a tapioca that requires a soak and longer cooking time. I used Bob’s Red Mill Small Pearl Tapioca. After the tapioca is cooked in the pressure cooker, canned coconut milk and egg yolks get whisked in, and it thickens after being returned to a boil. While the tapioca cools, you prepare the garnishes.
I have shown two options for serving this tapioca dessert. Given that this recipe posted on the end of December, New Year’s Eve comes to mind. My local Asian market has these lovely red Asian soup spoons for $.89 each. The spoon holds a mini portion of the tapioca – perfect for your New Year’s Eve party.
Your guests can somewhat daintily eat them from the spoon. Seriously, you can! My husband and I did try them out… several of them! If your occasion is more formal, individual trifle cups make a pretty presentation. Either way, your guests are sure to enjoy the unique spin on this American classic!
What do you have planned for New Year’s Eve? I have to admit to a tendency to want to stay home, but I do love to entertain. That just means the party is on us. 🙂 My favorite way to entertain is with small plates or “tapas.” My Pressure Cooker Coconut Tapioca With Lemongrass and Ginger Will be right at home on the menu!
Coconut Lemongrass Ginger Tapioca Recipe:
Pressure Cooker Coconut Tapioca With Lemongrass and Ginger
Ingredients
- 1 cup pearl tapioca (such as Bob's Red Mill) *see notes*
- 4 cups coconut milk beverage *see notes*
- 1 6" piece lemongrass, smashed
- 2 teaspoons fresh ginger, minced or grated
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup coconut milk *see notes*
- 4 egg yolks
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1/2 cup cashews
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper +/- (optional)
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- crystallized or candied ginger, sliced *see notes*
- Thai basil leaves
- prepared cashews
Instructions
Rinse pearl tapioca thoroughly.
Add coconut milk beverage and pearl tapioca to the pressure cooker pot.
Use a mortar and pestle or meat tenderizer hammer to bruise the lemongrass stalk. Add to the pot along with the minced ginger.
Lock the lid in place. Bring to high pressure or select rice setting. Cook 6 minutes.
Allow to depressurize for 10 minutes naturally. Release remaining pressure.
Whisk sugar, salt, coconut milk, egg yolks, and salt together. Whisk into the tapioca. Return to a boil. *See Notes.*
Cool to room temperature. Once cooled, spoon into serving vessels and chill.
Meanwhile, prep the cashews. Add sugar to a small saute pan over medium-high heat. Cook until sugar melts.
Add the cashews. Using a wooden spoon, stir until coated. Add cayenne if using. Continue stirring until cashews begin to brown in spots.
Scrape coated cashews on to a piece of foil or waxed paper. Sprinkle with sea salt.
To Serve
Garnish with thin slices of candied/crystallized ginger, cashews, and chopped basil.
Notes
You cannot use quick cook tapioca for this recipe. I used Bob's Red Mill Pearl Tapioca. I rinsed it, but did not do the soak. This works great in the pressure cooker.
This recipe uses coconut milk "beverage" (in a carton with almond and cashew milk), and coconut milk in a can. You can certainly substitute milk for the coconut milk beverage.
We love the hint of heat on the cashews, but the cayenne is totally optional. If you don't love heat, leave it off!
Candied or crystallized ginger is pretty widely available. Slice it thin to garnish. You can also make your own. It's pretty easy. The lovely byproduct is a ginger simple syrup. I used this recipe: How To Make Crystallized Ginger.
Visit Beyond Mere Sustenance for more great pressure cooking recipes.
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This is an extremely poorly written recipe. The instant pot will scald the coconut milk and tapioca if you set it to high pressure cook.
The way the ingredients are listed are not specific to the steps. It would make more sense in my mind to have the four separate recipe steps for the tapioca to be spread apart and labeled. i.e., Step 1: tapioca, coconut milk, ginger, lemongrass. Step 2: egg yolk, etc etc. Step 3: candy cashews… Overall this recipe was crap and now I know to set the damn pressure cooker to the rice setting versus high.
Not impressed with this at all, which was a huge disappointment, given that we were excited to serve this dish for friends. This stupid recipe burnt the hell out of my pot and now there is burnt tapioca caked to it. I honestly wouldn’t recommend following this vague and poorly written recipe. If you modify this recipe to have less sugar in the pudding and cooked to a lower heat setting, I think you mat have better luck than we did.
First, I want to sincerely apologize for the poor results of this recipe. I can only imagine how disappointed and frustrated you were when it didn’t turn out.
At the time that I wrote the recipe, I used a Pressure Cooker XL, and my instructions reflect those settings. The “rice” setting worked well, and I didn’t get a burn warning. I think it’s possible that the Instant Pots run hotter as I now have 2 of them.
I’m going to make this again in my Instant Pot when I return home from holiday travel. I echo Barbara Schievings recommendation to try doing tapioca pot in pot. I will also talk to her about updating the steps to include numbers that make them easier to read.
Again, I am so sorry for your results. Happy holidays,
Tamara Andersen.
I tried this twice using Bob’s Mill small tapioca and Trader Joe’s Coconut Beverage in an Instant Pot using manual for 6 minutes. Both times I got a high temperature warning halfway into th process and had a burnt mess at the bottom of the pot. Any advise?
Hi Chris – I’ve had good luck cooking tapioca pot in pot. Cook the first steps in a pan on a rack above a cup of water. Then proceed with the rest of the recipe as written.
Thank you!