Kolak Ubi Pisang = Indonesian Dessert Soup Recipe

A traditional Indonesian sweet dessert soup called Kolak, which essentially means a mixture of sweetened ingredients that usually includes coconut milk, pandan and coconut sugar, which can be enjoyed both hot or cold.

Ingredients:

• 1 squash

• 1 plantain

• 250g or 2 blocks of coconut sugar

• 400ml coconut milk

• 3 pandan leaves
  

This recipe makes 3 to 4 bowls of dessert soup.

Method:

Peel the squash and remove its seeds, then dice to around 2cm cubes.

Peel the plantain and slice up to around half a cm in width.

Fill a small pan and fill with 2 cups of water and bring to a boil and place 2 coconut sugar blocks to melt, keep stirring whilst it simmers and bring it back to the boil. Then sieve into another bigger pan to remove the roughage.

Take a few leaves of pandan and fold and tie it up into a small knot and place into the pan of cooked coconut sugar water and also add the squash and leave to boil for around 6 minutes.

Then add the plantain and a whole can of coconut milk to the pan and continue to cook for another 5 to 10 minutes, depending on how thick you would like the dessert soup to be.

Give it a taste, if you feel it needs more sugar you can also add any sugar of your choice, or if you feel it needs more coconut milk then just add more and stir thoroughly.

You can serve and eat straight away whilst it's hot or leave to cool down and place in the fridge for a few hours or add ice cubes for a cold dessert. I hope you enjoy it!

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What does kolak taste like?

The flavour of Kolak is sweet creamy coconut with an earthy vanilla-like scent from the pandan leaves and sweetness from the coconut sugar which balances really nicely with the contrast of sweet and sour of the plantain. The texture varies amongst each bite of the squash and sweet soup. In hot weather this is incredibly refreshing when eaten cold with added ice and very comforting when eaten freshly made whilst hot. This is certainly a filling dessert.

Kolak is fairly straightforward to make with quite basic Indonesian ingredients which makes this rather a staple in most households. The main ingredients will usually be coconut milk, sugar and pandan leaves, whilst the addition of plantain and squash are optional, there are many variations of this dessert, with many who like to use pumpkin, banana, sweet potato and also with the addition of tapioca pearls, sago, jackfruit or sugar palm fruit. Most also tend to adapt the water content of the soup by adding more or less coconut milk and sugar and varying the cooking times to reduce or add thickness, you can really make this dessert to your own taste.