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There’s something comforting about tapioca. I love how it thickens up and forms tiny, plump and squishy pearls, floating about in soups or puddings. Commonly featured in traditional Chinese sweet soups or dessert soups in combination with nourishing ingredients such as red adzuki beans, green mung beans, or starchy root vegetables, they provide a nice textural mouthfeel that few other ingredients can mimic. I wanted to make a Chinese sweet soup with AIP-friendly ingredients one day for breakfast but had no starchy root vegetables on hand and decided to enrich it with some batch-cooked spaghetti squash that was calling out to be used.
Instead of using coconut milk in the cooking process, I used creamed coconut, which comes in small packs. It’s essentially coconut butter but in a basic packaging and thus cheaper, in my opinion. Mixed with water, it makes a creamy coconut sauce, great for times when you need a small amount of coconut milk or cream but don’t want to open a can and rush to finish it before it goes bad. What I ended up making was a porridge-like dish, very palatable and easy to consume in the morning. I tend to react to coconut if I eat it on an empty stomach in the morning, but surprisingly did not react to this at all. Imagine my happiness!
Feel free to swap out the raisins with other toppings of your choice. I can imagine berries or other diced fruit blending very nicely with the porridge. A lovely grain-free way to start chilly mornings when you don’t feel like eating meat.
- ½ cup/ 100g small tapioca pearls
- 2 cups/ 370g well-cooked spaghetti squash
- 1 short cinnamon stick
- ¼ tsp mace (AIP-safe)/ nutmeg (reintroductory AIP)
- 4 cups water, divided
- Pinch of sea salt
- ¼ cup creamed coconut/ coconut butter
- Ground cinnamon, to taste
- Raisins, to taste
- Maple syrup, to taste
- Coconut milk, to taste
- Soak the tapioca pearls in ½ cup water for 10 minutes.
- Place the spaghetti squash, cinnamon stick, mace/ nutmeg and 3.5 cups water in a saucepan over medium heat and bring to a boil
- Lower the heat and allow the mixture to simmer for 5 minutes, breaking up any chunks of squash.
- Add the soaked tapioca pearls, sea salt, and stir in the creamed coconut/ coconut butter.
- Lower the heat to low, cover, and let it cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until the tapioca pearls are no longer opaque. Add more water if desired.
- Remove from heat and scoop into individual serving bowls.
- Sprinkle with some ground cinnamon, raisins, and drizzle with maple syrup as well as coconut milk to taste.
