Spiced Maple Tapioca Pudding with Butterfly Peas is a perfect dessert for a lactose-free diet, as it is made with vegetable cream combined with tapioca pearls, spices, and maple syrup.
The tapioca pearls are a product derived from tapioca, a starch extracted from the cassava root, not to be confused with sago pearls: tapioca comes from cassava, while sago comes from the sago palm.
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Economical
- Rest time: 2 Hours
- Preparation time: 5 Minutes
- Portions: 6 Servings
- Cooking methods: Boiling
- Cuisine: Contemporary
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients
- 3.5 oz tapioca pearls
- 2 egg yolks
- 3/4 cup lactose-free cooking vegetable cream
- 1/3 cup maple syrup
- 4 cardamom pods (crushed)
- 3 star anise
- to taste ground cinnamon
- 1 pinch salt
- to taste Butterfly peas flowers
- to taste shredded coconut
Steps
Soak the tapioca pearls in water for 30 minutes, then rinse them.
In a small pot, combine the tapioca pearls with the spices and 1 1/2 cups of water.
Bring to a boil.
Beat the egg yolks with the cream, add the maple syrup.
Add to the tapioca mixture, add a pinch of salt, and cook for about 15 minutes, stirring continuously.
Remove the cardamom and star anise.
Pour into bowls.
Let cool and garnish with shredded coconut and butterfly pea flowers.
Butterfly Peas Flower:
Butterfly Pea Flower, or the “blue butterfly pea flower”, produced by a plant belonging to the legume family, the Clitoria ternatea.
It is called Butterfly Pea Flower Tea but it does not contain caffeine, thus it is more accurately described as a herbal tea made from the infusion of dried blue butterfly pea flowers. Also called Blue Tea, it is very common in Southeast Asia where it is consumed after dinner, hot or cold, with the addition of honey, ginger, mint or passion fruit. The taste of Butterfly Pea Flower Tea is quite neutral and herbaceous, similar to green tea.
The blue flowers of Clitoria ternatea are a concentrate of anthocyanins and thus antioxidants that counteract the aging of skin, eyes, and hair. The flowers are also able to relieve stress and provide calm and serenity, also acting as an analgesic to alleviate localized or general pain.
