I came across delicious taro for the first time in an Asian market where I ordered taro bubble tea. I ordered it because the of the lovely purple color but quickly fell in love with the flavor. Afterwards I would often buy taro buns or taro popsicles from this same market as occasional treats. Last week I noticed that the thai market had several boxes of taro root for sale and I bought some to make homemade ice cream. The recipe is super simple (only 3 ingredients!) and the finished product is quite yummy.
Ingredients:
1 large taro root (1 cup)
1 can coconut milk
3/4 sugar (thai coconut sugar works well)
Directions:
Skin the taro root and chop into one inch chunks. Steam or boil until soft. Add to one cup coconut milk in a small saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring as needed. Allow to cool for 20 minutes and then add to a food processor or vita-mix to puree. Refrigerate until completely cool and then add to your ice cream maker. We used a Cuisinart ice cream maker and it was done in about 25 minutes.
The texture is slightly grainy due to the potato texture of the taro. If this bothers you then I suggest using grassfed cream instead of coconut milk. Coconut milk is the traditional Thai ingredient but cream gives it silkiness. Either way, this ice cream is not super sweet and it makes enough for five small servings. Enjoy!
