Vegan Gluten-Free Tapioca Pudding

Tapioca derives from the root of the cassava plant which is native to Northern Brazil. It's a starch that is packaged as flakes, flour, or pellets which are often called pearls. It's commonly used instead of wheat flour in South America, the West Indies and India. It is also widely used in warmer and tropical climates in a variety of ways. It is mainly in the western world that tapioca is used to make the pudding dessert we are familiar with. Other countries use it to make savory dishes such as the Indian dish Sabudana Khichdi which is often made with potatoes, roasted peanuts, coconut, curry leaves, and lemon.

While a natural food, tapioca is almost pure starch, and not good for low calorie diets, but is good for children and those trying to gain weight. It's not bad for you, but has little nutritional value. Tapioca is not very fattening. To save fat while making this recipe replace the soy milk and coconut with lite soy milk. Tapioca naturally has no sugar. Add less sugar to this recipe to lessen the amount of sugar or use an alternative sweetener like stevia. Tapioca also makes a great treat for people with celiac disease or other gluten sensitivities because it is gluten-free.

This is an Old-Fashioned recipe, in that it takes time, but it has a new modern vegan spin, and with a bit of cardamom it's slightly exotic.

This recipe takes 1 hour to soak, 30 minutes to cook and feeds approximately 4 people.

Ingredients

- 2 cups Soy or Almond milk
- 13.66-fl. oz. can coconut milk
- ½ cup tapioca small pearls (not instant)
- ¾ t. cardamom
- 1 t. vanilla
- ½ cup brown sugar
- Pinch salt