Gluten free frog eye salad, part 1

The other day, Mr M and I were bemoaning the fact that I couldn't make frog eye salad ever again. Frog eye salad is made with acini de pepe, which is a pasta that is formed into tiny balls. While the gluten free manufacturing companies have come a long way in expanding their product lines, I have yet to find gluten free acini de pepe.

Then we randomly started talking about tapioca, how Mr M loves it and how as a kid I hated it because the only time I'd had it was the one time I was in the hospital overnight, which was not a great experience, and I thought all tapioca tasted as gross as it had that time. I've since realized that it's not all that bad, and can actually be quite good.

In the midst of all this, Mr M said "why not try tapioca pearls in the frog eye salad? They're about the same size and texture, maybe it'll work out."

So,  the next time we went shopping we bought a box of tapioca pearls. I followed the directions on the box for cooking (boil water, then whisk the pearls in, let cook for 17 minutes, then wing it from there). Ok, not really, the only directions they had were for making tapioca pudding, so I used the first few steps and then made it up as I went. After the 17 minute point, I think I cooked it a little bit longer till the pearls were mostly clear. Then I dumped them in a wire sieve and ran warm water over them to rinse the gel off.

I let them drain for awhile, then stirred in some cool whip.

The texture looked right, so I added some drained, crushed pineapple and a handful of marshmallows

and mixed it all together.

We had it for dinner, and we discussed the results as we ate it. It was good, but not quite the same as what we remembered frog eye salad tasting like. I had made this without a recipe because I couldn't find it, and it turns out I'd forgotten the custard. Mr M called his mother and got the recipe so I can try it again.

While the overall taste wasn't quite the same because of the lack of custard, the texture was pretty close. Tapioca is a bit chewier than acini de pepe, but when you're eating it with a spoonful of other stuff (marshmallows, fruit, etc), it's not noticeable. We noticed because we were analyzing the results. The next step is to make it again, this time with the custard.

Gluten Free Frog Eye Salad, part 2

Gluten Free Frog Eye Salad, part 3:  Recipe with Egg Free Option