A warm Filipino coconut-milk dessert soup with chewy glutinous rice balls (bilo-bilo), sweet potato and taro cubes, saba banana, jackfruit strips, and tapioca pearls. Sweet and creamy, it is a favorite merienda especially on cool or rainy afternoons.
A type of ginataan (anything cooked in coconut milk); bilo-bilo refers to its hand-rolled glutinous rice balls, eaten as a Filipino merienda or dessert.
Creamy coconut soup carries soft sweet potato, silky taro, and bouncy, chewy rice balls in every spoonful. Sweet banana and fragrant jackfruit make it lush and homey, best enjoyed warm.
The glutinous rice balls release starch and stay chewy from their high amylopectin content, while the starchy tubers and tapioca thicken the coconut milk into a luscious soup. Coconut fat carries and rounds out all the sweet flavors.
Variations
ginataang halo-halo / binignit (the Visayan name for essentially the same dish, with assorted tubers and fruit), with sago only, mais (corn) version, pumpkin added
On the Palate
Where Ginataang Bilo-Bilo sits in the Filipino flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 6
How it's made
8 steps · 20 min
- 16 min
Mix glutinous rice flour with a little water and knead into a smooth dough.
- 26 min
Pinch off small pieces and roll them into balls to make the bilo-bilo.
Watch outRoll the balls small and even — oversized ones stay raw and doughy in the middle.
- 33 min
In a pot bring coconut milk and water to a gentle boil.
- 46 min
Add cubed sweet potato and taro and simmer until they begin to soften.
- 54 min
Drop in the rice balls and cook until they float to the surface.
Watch outThey're done when they bob up and float — floating is the signal the centre is cooked through.
- 63 min
Stir in tapioca pearls, sliced saba banana, and jackfruit strips.
- 76 min
Sweeten with sugar and simmer until everything is tender and the soup thickens.
Watch outSimmer until the tubers are fork-tender and the coconut milk turns thick and glossy, not thin.
- 81 min
Serve warm in bowls, optionally with a splash of coconut cream.
