Easy Refreshing Dairy-Free Strawberry Sago

YAY, it’s free from all of the top 9 major allergens! No wheat/gluten, eggs, dairy, peanuts, tree nuts, soy, sesame, fish and shellfish. Contains coconut, but simple substitution suggestions are specified in the post.

Celebrating and closing out Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) heritage month by sharing this refreshing and delicious strawberry sago recipe! It’s a riff on mango pomelo sago, a popular Cantonese dessert originating from Hong Kong and Singapore. Typical ingredients include fresh mango and pomelo, sago pearls, coconut milk, evaporated milk, and milk. The fresh mango is usually blended with the milks and then combined with the sago. This mixture is served chilled, then topped with more fresh mango and some fresh slices of pomelo. My mouth is watering just talking about it! Now to be clear, this is not exactly a pudding. It’s a “dessert soup”, or tong sui. My siblings and I enjoyed all kinds of tong sui throughout our childhood, and the ones we grew up with were served hot and cold (red bean or taro sago anyone? yum!) So with the warm weather we’re having recently, I definitely wanted to attempt a free from version of this and introduce tong sui to Em and Cee. <3

The Dilemma: How Mango Sago became Strawberry Sago

Sometime, around 3 years old, Cee caught the stomach flu, and fresh mango was the last thing he ate before that and ever since, he just won’t eat it. He’ll eat dried or dehydrated mango, mango sorbet or mango flavored candy, but not fresh mango. Em, on the other hand, loves fresh mango and can inhale a couple of whole ones if we let her. She doesn’t like grapefruit at all, which is basically what pomelo is, but Cee is a huge fan of grapefruit. Opposing pickiness plus multiple food allergies between both…fun! Not really. Seriously not problem though, because as Barney from How I Met Your Mother would say, “Challenge Accepted!” 😜

So I opted to not even bother with pomelo and decided I’ll leave the mango out of the milk mixture. I hoped maybe this sago would get Cee back on the mango train. Then I thought strawberries pair really well with coconut, and since we all love strawberries, I decided to do both.

The mango was a no go. I think he spit it out, but I was pretty happy he at least gave it a chance. And surprisingly, Em actually liked the strawberry more than the mango, so this definitely worked out for me! But this is how strawberry sago was born. 🤩🍓

Make the Sago

Fun fact: Sago is actually not tapioca pearls. Sago is made from the sago palm tree and tapioca is made from the cassava root. Sago is not as easy to find as tapioca, especially here in the States, but for the sake of simplicity, we’ll still use sago and tapioca interchangeably.

So I have found that cooking times vary between different brands of tapioca pearls. If your package does not have specific instructions, boil it until the pearls are completely translucent. This can take up to 20 minutes in some cases. If there’s still a dot of white at the center of the pearls, turn the heat off and cover for about 10-15 minutes. This should help cook them completely.

Make the Dairy-Free Milk Mixture:

For the milks, dairy-free condensed milk yielded a creamier mixture instead of just oat milk or almond milk in place of the evaporated milk and milk. Add both the coconut milk and dairy-free condensed milk to a medium saucepan. Dissolve over medium heat to incorporate the milks together. Turn the heat off before adding a teaspoon of vanilla extract. Note: Heating is optional. I prefer to do this so the milks incorporate together better.

When the pearls are done, drain and rinse thoroughly with cold water. Transfer to a large bowl or container. Add the milk mixture into the pearls and stir gently. Then cover and chill in the refrigerator.

Dice up the strawberries and place into a large container with a lid. Then add a heaping tablespoon of sugar to macerate the strawberries. Even after only 10 minutes, the strawberries will start to juice up. I store these strawberries for about 1-2 days.

The leftover sago milk mixture will last about 3 days. After the first day, the mixture does thicken up significantly and will become more like a pudding texture. You can add more dairy-free milk to loosen it up or eat it like a pudding.

Most or all the typical recipes will tell you to keep the milk mixture separate from the sago pearls until serving. I think the sago doesn’t keep well by itself, similar to boba making. I prefer to make this bigger batch and mix the milk into the pearls and serve with the macerated strawberries over a couple days. It’s easier with the kids especially during the week and we don’t mind either the tong sui or the thickened texture. Both are amazing and even though I try not to, I can’t help overeating this stuff, lol. I hope you try making this! Feel free to top with fresh mango and grapefruit/pomelo instead and let me know what you think.