Instant Pot Tapioca Pearls
Easy Instant Pot Tapioca Pearls recipe. Ready in 2 minutes, no need to buy bubble tea anymore when you can make it at home!
Are you comfortable with the coronavirus situation where you live to go to restaurants yet?
For me, I'm not feeling it at the moment, so I am making all of my favourite things at home.
Now we are making bubble tea at home!
To be honest, it really shouldn't have taken a pandemic for me to make homemade bubble tea.
One of my first actual jobs was working at a bubble tea store in the mall. I was so young, my parents actually had to sign something that said that they acknowledge that this is not child labour.
All that to say, I used to cook tapioca pearls all the time. But that was before the Instant Pot. We used to cook it in a rice cooker.
Now that I have an Instant Pot, I thought: why not try making some Instant Pot Tapioca Pearls?
This turned out way better than I thought. It is so quick and easy, it might even be faster to make your own bubble tea than to order takeout.
All you need is:
- tapioca pearls
- sugar
- hot water
That's it!!
I'm going to be posting a lot of bubble tea ideas in the upcoming weeks, but if you want to try something to put these pearls in right away, try making my Mango Berry Smoothie with these pearls. I promise, it's so good!
Save money this summer, and all the summers after by making your own bubble tea! You won't regret it!
If you try this recipe, let me know! Rate it, leave a comment and tag me with #atasteofmadness on Instagram! I always love seeing what you are creating!
Instant Pot Tapioca Pearls
Ingredients
- 1 cup dry black tapioca pearls (see note)
- 2 cups water
Sugar water
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup hot water
Instructions
- Combine the tapioca pearls and the 2 cups of water in the Instant Pot. Cook on high pressure for 2 minutes. Allow for quick release.
- Drain the water and rinse the pearls in cold water. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, mix together the sugar water. pour the cooked tapioca pearls in the sugar water and allow to sit for a couple of minutes. Enjoy with your favourite drink!
Notes
- These pearls are best enjoyed within the same day you make it. However, you can store them in your fridge in an airtight container. When ready to use, microwave the amount you want for around 30 seconds or until the pearls are softened.
- This ONLY works for black tapioca pearls used for bubble tea (such as these ones).
Nutrition
Turned out great. Halved the recipe because I feel that any more than 1/2 cup boba pearls is too much for one drink. I also substituted brown sugar for granulated sugar. Thanks for making the recipe so easy to follow. Took a star off because the pearls shrink down in size after you rinse them, although they still maintain their chewiness, which is more important. Is that normal? How do you keep the pearls from shrinking?
I haven't noticed the pearls shrinking all too much, but you could try rinsing them for a shorter period of time, and in lukewarm water.
The trick to making perfect boba in the instant pot is using hot water! I used black tapioca pearls that are not instant (requires a cook time of 45 minutes on the stove), so this recipe worked great!
You should specify in your recipe that you use the 5-minute tapioca pearls, which are NOT the standard black tapioca pearls. But you inspired me to try this anyway, so I'll make a few batches and figure out the right amount of water and time. 🙂
Oh shoot, thanks for letting me know! I'm going to have to buy some standard black tapioca pearls to test that out. Let me know what you find too!
Have you come up with a recipe to cook traditional black pearls in the instapot?
turned out perfectly!
So glad to hear 🙂
I’m, mine turn into a gelatinous ooze. Do I need to rinse them first? Or am I missing a step?
Some types of pearls are extremely sticky, but that has never happened to me!!
My advice would be to try to add more water (maybe double the water) and stir the pearls before closing the lid.
Figured it out!
1: Separate out any crumbs.
2: use sauté mode to bring water to a rolling boil before adding the tapioca pearls.
Worked like a charm.
Sean, did you use 5 minute pearls or the traditional kind?
Disappointed. I should’ve read the comments that this is applicable to a specific tapioca Pearl. The ingredient list didn’t mention this is for the black one only, Consider updating your details perhaps.
I’m now stuck with half cooked tapioca pearls that I need to figure out how to fix.
So sorry for the confusion! Yes, it is just for the black bubble tea pearls. I updated the recipe to reflect that, thanks for pointing that out!
Did not turn out as in your pic.maybe because I used white pearls. Gelatinous mass with lots of uncooked pearls. Will try again with dark colour pearls, maybe these are pretty-cooked but instructions on package pretty complicated!
Yes, you need to use the large black tapioca pearls. These Tapioca Pearls are the exact ones I get on Amazon
Wow. This post was actually eye opening for me. I never knew that bubble tea was just tapioca pearls. So nice to know I can make it myself!
Well these are the pearls at the bottom of the drink. You will still need to make the drink 😉
This is an amazing and more easy to make as well...i loved your idea during this coronavirus....i will made it...Thanks for sharing.....!
Yay! So glad you tried it 🙂