Coconut Tapioca Pudding with Blood Orange

Imagine yourself somewhere warm. Somewhere with a gentle breeze and turquoise waters and the sound of ocean waves.

It’s a nice thought, eh? Especially since so many of us are probably freezing our buns off right now.

This recipe takes me back to that serene, happy place, as it was inspired by a similar dish we enjoyed on our cruise last fall. At Jiji’s Kitchen aboard the Carnival Sunshine, they served the loose, coconut-infused pudding topped with crispy lychee-filled wontons. While you can certainly do something along those lines, I felt the pudding was standout on its own (in fact, I don’t really remember the wonton part at all), and didn’t need any fussy fried topping, simply fresh fruit and crunchy raw sugar was more than enough to make one downright impressive dessert.

Now, don’t make any assumptions: this is NOT your typical sticky, gummy tapioca (ew). In fact, it’s more like a soup than a pudding, the transluscent tapioca pearls floating in a milky white sea of sweetened coconut milk.

This dessert is a nice contrast to my usual dense and chocolatey concoctions, and it’s quite refreshing. It’s surprisingly light and just barely sweet, relying on the natural sweetness of the coconut milk and blood oranges and a mere 1/4 cup of sugar.

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