coconut vanilla tapioca

Cooking with whole vanilla beans takes everything up a notch. It's like any of those premium, flavourful ingredients: truffle oil, saffron, maldon sea salt - it suddenly makes everything taste like a million bucks. I used a mix of cream, coconut milk and almond milk because that was what I had in my fridge; the cream adds some richness, but you can omit it for a vegan version - just use more coconut or almond milk.

Also, I found that making your own jam means you need to be more creative with it - it's time to move beyond peanut butter and jam sandwiches. A less sugary jam like this strawberry and rhubarb one makes a lovely topping for all kinds of desserts.

coconut vanilla tapioca

1/2 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup 10% cream
1/2 cup almond milk
1 vanilla bean
1/3 cup large tapioca pearls (larger than minute tapioca, smaller than the bubble tea ones)
1/3 cup sugar
pinch of salt

Simmer milks and cream in a saucepan. Split vanilla bean and scrape seeds into milk/cream, then throw in bean too. After the milk has infused for 5 minutes, add tapioca, sugar and salt. Cook on low heat, stirring often for 15 to 20 minutes. Add a bit more milk if it dries out before the tapioca is cooked through. Remove the vanilla bean.

Serve hot or cold, with some jam on top.