During my culinary training with Doris this past weekend, the day I was MOST looking forward to was “desserts” day, of course! I have a massive sweet tooth, and as far as I’m concerned, you can never have too many good dessert recipes under your belt.
This pudding was the first dessert we learned that day, and once we all tried it, I’m pretty sure we could have happily curled up with the entire blender and a spoon, and have been done for the day. It’s that good.
Well, if you like ginger.
If you don’t, as my husband doesn’t, then you might as well skip this recipe and dive into a pan of Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Blondies instead. It won’t hurt my feelings, I promise.
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Japanese Purple Yam & Ginger Pudding
makes about 3 cups
Recipe courtesy of Doris Choi
Ingredients:
2 Korean purple yams, roasted
½ cup coconut milk
1 inch piece ginger, peeled
Agave nectar, or stevia, to taste
Directions:
Begin by roasting the yams. Simply wrap them individually in foil, place them all on a baking sheet, and roast in the oven at 400F for about an hour.
Note: Korean Purple Yams can be found at your local Asian market, but if you can’t make it to one, any type of yam will work!
They should be very soft and tender when done. Let them cool before handling.
Into a high-powered blender, like a Vita-Mix, add in the coconut milk, along with the fresh ginger. (You want them to hit the blades of the blender first!)
*If you don’t have a high-powered blender, make sure you mince the ginger very well, and blend it with the coconut milk first, so it’s completely smooth. You don’t want to bite into a piece of ginger while eating your pudding!
I made a double-batch of this pudding last night, so pictured here is a double-portion of ginger.
(I’ve already found myself measuring like Doris… a.k.a. “eyeballing” it!) 
We used frozen coconut milk in class (which avoids preservatives), but since it can be difficult to find, I used homemade coconut milk instead–> which is made by simply blending together the meat and water from a young Thai coconut. Canned coconut milk is also fine!
Add in the flesh of the purple yams, and a drizzle of agave nectar (or sweetener of choice– I used 3 dropperfuls of liquid stevia), then blend away!
You may need to stop and scrape down the sides a couple of times, which is the perfect opportunity to taste-test your pudding! Adjust the sweetness and texture to your liking, by adding more coconut milk and/or sweetener.
Serve warm, or chill for later!
- 2 Korean purple yams, roasted
- ½ cup coconut milk
- 1 inch piece ginger, peeled
- Honey, or stevia, to taste
- Begin by roasting the yams. Simply wrap them individually in foil, place them all on a baking sheet, and roast in the oven at 400F for about an hour. Note: Korean Purple Yams can be found at your local Asian market, but if you can’t make it to one, any type of yam will work! They should be very soft and tender when done. Let them cool before handling.
- Into a high-powered blender, like a Vita-Mix, add in the coconut milk, along with the fresh ginger. (You want them to hit the blades of the blender first!) *If you don’t have a high-powered blender, make sure you mince the ginger very well, and blend it with the coconut milk first, so it’s completely smooth. You don’t want to bite into a piece of ginger while eating your pudding!
- We used frozen coconut milk in class (which avoids preservatives), but since it can be difficult to find, I used homemade coconut milk instead–> which is made by simply blending together the meat and water from a young Thai coconut. Canned coconut milk is also fine!
- Add in the flesh of the purple yams, and a drizzle of honey (or sweetener of choice– I used 3 dropperfuls of liquid stevia), then blend away! You may need to stop and scrape down the sides a couple of times, which is the perfect opportunity to taste-test your pudding! Adjust the sweetness and texture to your liking, by adding more coconut milk and/or sweetener.
- Serve warm, or chill for later!
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I actually prefer this pudding WARM, with a dollop of sweetened coconut milk on top!
Pudding á la mode! I love the contrast of the warm pudding with chilled coconut milk.
If you have any pudding leftover, you can store it in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
I hope you all love this pudding as much as I do. If not, go enjoy those blondies with Austin.
More pudding for me!
First of all- that is freaking gorgeous and I cannot wait to try it. Second- I can’t believe I’m still confused about this but does canned coconut combine as a starch? I know young coconut does but I always thought the canned stuff ended up in the nut category…
Hmmm… I guess I’ve never thought of that since I rarely use the canned stuff! I think canned coconut milk is made from MATURE coconuts, so it most likely does combine as a nut/seed.
You could always stick to almond milk or water, to make it easier, too!
If I remember correctly, the canned coconut combines as a nut/seed and the young coconut can combine as a starch *or* a nut/seed. This pudding so so beautiful! I don’t know if I can find the purple yams anywhere around here, but I’ll definitely keep an eye out for them! I wonder if it would work with sweet potato… Hmmm
It definitely works with sweet potato! The purple ones might be a little sweeter, but that can easily be adjusted to taste.
YOU MADE THE PUDDING!! I WANT!!!!!
It’s so good! Break out that Magic Bullet.
That pudding looks to die for- thanks for sharing! Now I need to find the purple yams!
The purple yams have such a gorgeous color…so excited for these new recipes..thank you!!!!
Wow, it’s just GORGEOUS! I’d probably leave out most of the ginger, but maybe a sprinkle of cinnamon would be nice in there? Yum!
Mmm… I love cinnamon-y desserts, too! I bet that would be fantastic.
Wow! You woke me up with the color of the purple pudding! When I lived on Maui I used to eat purple sweet potatoes from Molokai and these remind me of them.
I love how your sweet treats are delicious and healthy!!
Hey Megan,
Ever since you posted your pictures from your time with Doris, I have not been able to get this pudding off my mind! I am so glad you posted the recipe, I am super pumped to try it. I may just try homemade coconut milk with the shreds and see how that digests because I love the idea of sweet potato, ginger and coconut. Thanks for posting all of these recipes, they are inspiring me to branch out from my normal dinners.
Jamie
Hope you like it, Jamie! I just had it again tonight, and it just gets better and better as the flavors meld together in the fridge. YUM.
This pudding looks delicious – and I love your idea of topping with chilled coconut milk. …Can I come to your house for cauliflower crust pizza & pudding now?
Ha.
I just made this but didn’t have time to roast the yam so I used it raw….still awesome and delish! Thanks!!
Oh, good to know! Glad you liked it.
OMG! I was eating some purple sweet potatoes right now and this looks perfect for my other ones!!! Mine has a purple flesh as well as purple skin!
Wow looks amazing! Is this ok to eat on a candida cleanse?
It depends on which approach you’re using for Candida cleansing, but if you’re following a D4W approach, this would be fine as an occasional treat! Just make sure you prepare it with stevia instead of agave.
(You could reduce the sugar content even more by using filtered water instead of coconut water, too!)
Thank you so much for this recipe. I had to use ginger powder,but WOW this is SOOOOO good!
Can you make yam and pine nuts Pudding?
I saw that on KBS (Korean T.V.)
I’ve never heard of that! I’ll have to look into it.
That looks BEAUTIFUL and purple just happens to be my favorite color!! I have never seen a yam that color and didn’t even know they existed!!! I’ll have to check at Whole Foods to see if they sell them there!! It looks like so much fun to eat purple pudding and my kids would be more apt to eat it too.
Thanks! You gotta admit…you are so lucky to have a blog where you get to make up/try out recipes. It’s my dream job!! 
Let me know if you need an assistant from Iowa! ha ha
Made this tonight…LOVE purple (wore purple shoes for my wedding)…I didn’t even know purple yams existed and have recently discovered purple cauliflower, carrots, and potatoes…thinking of doing an “all-purple” meal some time.
I was wondering how yours looks so creamy? I ended up adding at least twice the coconut milk (didn’t measure) and it was still pretty pasty…also added some cinnamon…it tasted good, just interesting texture. Husband “will take some getting used to”.
Been doing a lot of your other recipes lately, too (love the 3-min chocolate pudding)…keep up the great work and congrats on the little one ☺