Bilo-bilo is a Filipino dessert made of small glutinous rice balls in a coconut sugary cream along with jackfruit, saba bananas, sweet potatos or taro root, and tapioca pearls. Bilo bilo’s origin is in Luzon, an island in the northern Philippines. It’s great hot or cold, in the summer as a nice cool treat, or in the winter like warm porridge in a bowl.
Ingredients – Original Carb recipe (Not Low Carb)
- 2 cups glutinous rice flour
- 1 cup water for the rice flour
- 2-3 cups water for boiling
- 2 400ml can coconut milk or coconut cream
- 1 1/2 cup cooked tapioca pearls
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 2 big sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
- 4 piece plantain bananas, peeled and cubed
- 1 cup jackfruit, cut into strips
As you can see, the ingredients above are high in carbohydrates. I really missed desserts like this recipe, so I decided to make it lower in carb by changing a few ingredients to make it more lower carb. Of course, it’s not keto, but sometimes a girl needs a cheat meal before getting back on the keto train.
For starters, instead of tapioca pearls for the “porridge/stew”, I used chia seeds. For the chia seeds, I soaked the chia seeds in water or coconut milk, simply by mixing them in a 1:10 ratio of chia to water/milk and allowing them sit for 30 minutes to two hours. This is equal to one and a half tablespoons of chia seeds in one cup of water/milk. You want it to gel and not be watery. This is the type of consistency we want.
Instead of sugar, I used monk fruit sweetener. You can use any sweetener of choice like monk fruit, Erythritol, or a blend of both: Monk Fruit Sweetener/Erythritol Blend
For the milk, you can use coconut milk, coconut cream, nut milk or cashew cream. In this recipe, I used coconut milk.
For the jackfruit, I buy it canned. This one was in syrup so I washed and drained it well. There are canned jackfruit in brine, without sugar or syrup.
Since it’s low carb, I incorporated some tubers like sweet potato, Japanese potato, or you can use taro root. I left out the saba bananas, as it’s higher in carb content. There are already tubers in this recipe, which has the most carbs already. Obviously, this is not keto or strict low carb but if you’re having a cheat day, why not try this recipe. It’s so delicious!
For the glutinous rice balls, called Bilo Bilo, you can use coconut flour instead of rice flour. Coconut flour is 4 grams fat and 18 grams carbs. Almond flour will not work for this recipe as the consistency will not stay firm, while rolled into a ball. To make these balls, incorporate 2 cups of coconut flour and 1 cup of warm water. Roll into small balls. They will cook in a pot of coconut cream or coconut milk, which will end up creating delicious and chewy little balls.
Low Carb Filipino Ginataang Bilo Bilo Recipe
Here is my low carb version of this recipe with chia seeds and keto sweetener.
Low Carb Ingredients
- 2 cups coconut flour
- 1 cup water for the coconut flour to roll into Bilo Bilo “rice” balls
- 2-3 cups water for boiling
- 2 400ml can coconut milk or coconut cream
- 1 1/2 cup prepared chia seed mixture
- 3/4 cup Monk Fruit Sweetener/Erythritol Blend
- 1 sweet potato, Japanese potato, or taro, cubed
- 1 cup canned jackfruit in brine, unsweetened, drained
