If you like rice pudding or tapioca, I know you’ll love chia pudding too. Sometimes I serve it with a muesli topping which makes it a substantial and delicious breakfast, mid-afternoon pick-me-up or dessert.
It’s always good to have a few uncomplicated dairy-free and gluten-free puddings up your sleeve and I’ve made it a few times at home now and worked out a recipe I’m really happy with. (It’s super-easy to make too!)
Ingredients
1 can unsweetened coconut cream (I prefer one with a lower fat content – look for 25% or less)
1 generous handful frozen berries (I particularly like boysenberries)
4 tablespoons chia seeds (white or black)
3 teapoons granulated sugar or grated palm sugar (palm sugar has a lovely caramel flavour)
Toasted muesli and whole frozen berries for topping (optional)
Method
- Blend the coconut cream and the sugar in a medium-sized bowl; (you need to do this thoroughly otherwise you end up with thicker lumps of coconut cream in your mix, which isn’t so pleasant).
- Stir in the chia seeds and fruit and leave covered in the fridge overnight.
- Serve in a glass (so you can see the lovely textures and colours) and top with a tablespoon of toasted muesli.
Notes:
- I tried using freeze-dried berries one time, but I didn’t add enough liquid to compensate for the dryness of the fruit, and it was too stodgy. If you are using freeze-dried fruit, you will need to play around with how much more liquid you need to add to get the thickness of the pudding right.
- You could use pureed date, honey or maple syrup as less refined sweeteners and add cinnamon or vanilla extract to alter the flavour balance.
- You could use a different dairy-free milk if you don’t like the taste of coconut. If the milk is thinner than coconut cream, you may need to stir the pudding a few times in the first half an hour to ensure that the seeds don’t stick together. Two tbsp chia seeds to half a cup of liquid seems to be the right proportions.
- If you like coconut as a flavour but find the coconut cream too rich, you could use coconut yoghurt and coconut water. Try 2 tbsp of chia seeds/one third cup coconut yoghurt/half cup coconut water/1 tsp sweetner of your choice.
- Mine never lasts more than a day or so before being eaten, but I’ve been advised that it will last 5-7 days covered in the fridge.
If you make this recipe, snap a photo and hashtag #coastalflavour – I love to see what you’ve been making and any feedback is really welcome. You can find other recipes like this in my book, Coastal.
