Cucumber Tapioca Balls — Whoever Invented This…
By Vivian
Why You'll Love It
No summer survival dessert list is complete without these cucumber tapioca balls. The texture beats ordinary milk tea boba — springy, chewy, soft with a good bite, with the clean flavor of cucumber. Ice-cold in your mouth, clean and refreshing. With temperatures pushing past 90°F, a bowl of these is just fantastic!!
Pair the base with whatever you like — milk, coconut milk, sparkling water, popping boba. The color alone looks cooling; one bite cools you down and heals you, and the method is simple.
Ingredients
| Ingredients | |
|---|---|
| ⅓ cup (75–85 ml) cucumber juice | ¾ cup + 2 tsp (100 g) tapioca starch |
| 1½ tbsp (20 g) sugar | water, as needed (for blending) |
Ingredient Notes
- Use only the green peel for the juice — that's what gives the color.
- Strain the juice once; pulp spoils the texture.
- The juice must be at a full boil when you pour it in, or the dough won't come together.
- Don't swap the tapioca starch for cornstarch — the texture is completely different.
- Plunge them into ice water after boiling: brighter color, springier bite.
Instructions
-
1
Peel the cucumber, put the peel in a blender with a little water, and blitz to a fine juice. Strain it if there's pulp. Add the sugar and warm it in a small pan over low heat, stirring until dissolved, and turn off the heat once it boils.
-
2
While it's still hot, pour the boiling cucumber juice onto the tapioca starch in one go, stirring fast with chopsticks until evenly shaggy, with no dry flour and no lumps.
-
3
Once it's cooled to just warm, knead it repeatedly by hand into a smooth, fine dough that's neither sticky nor cracked.
-
4
Divide the dough into small pieces, roll each into an even log, then snip into equal pieces with scissors.
Cut them into squares or little pellets if you prefer — shape is up to you, just keep the size even so they cook at the same rate.
-
5
Bring a pot of water to a boil and add the raw pieces. Boil over high heat, stirring gently so they don't stick. Once they all float and are translucent with no white core, take them out and drop them into ice water or cooled boiled water — that makes them springier and chewier.
-
6
These come out low in fat and clean, soft and springy — far better than milk tea boba. Make a big batch and freeze it; boil straight from frozen whenever you want. A summer essential — save this one.
-
7
Cold and clean, soft and chewy — better than boba!!! One of these when it's hot out and you're in heaven. Everyone has to try it.
Recipe Notes
Cucumber Tapioca Balls
cucumber peel blended into juice, scalded into tapioca starch, rolled and snipped into pieces, boiled until translucent and plunged into ice water. Chewy, low in fat, and cooling.
Time Needed
Prep Ahead
- Strain the cucumber juice once for a smoother texture.
- The raw shaped pieces freeze well — boil them straight from frozen.
- 【Yield】¾ cup + 2 tsp (100 g) tapioca starch makes 2 bowls.
- 【Key ratios】Tapioca starch to boiling cucumber juice ≈ 100:75–85; pour the juice in all at once.
- 【Heat】Warm the juice with the sugar over low heat until it boils, then pour it straight onto the starch, stirring.
- 【Boiling】Drop into boiling water; once they float and are translucent with no white core they're done. Straight into ice water.
- 【Storage & reheating】Raw pieces freeze 1 month; eat the cooked ones the same day.
- 【Common problems】Cracked dough means the juice wasn't hot enough or there was too little. Gummy texture means under-boiled.
Nutrition (per 100 g, estimated)
| Calories | about 95 kcal |
|---|---|
| Protein | about 0.4 g |
| Fat | about 0.2 g |
| Carbohydrates | about 23 g |
| of which sugars | about 9 g |
| Fiber | about 0.4 g |
| Sodium | about 10 mg |
Estimated from the ingredient amounts, not lab tested. One bowl is about 10 oz (280 g), roughly 266 kcal, calculated at 4 / 9 / 4 kcal per g of protein / fat / carbs.