The quickest dessert you’ll even make. And healthy to boot! OK, it has to sit for a little while but the active work time is 5 minutes.
Don’t be fooled by the size… chia seeds pack a powerful nutritional punch. Gram for gram they contain more calcium than most dairy products, including milk, and more antioxidants than blueberries. They are also very high in healthy plant protein and fiber as well as key vitamins and minerals like Vitamins B1, B2, and B3, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, and zinc. They are very versatile and can be incorporated into your diet in many ways. Add the seeds to porridge, rice, baked goods (like my Sourdough Rye Bread) or sprinkle them on top of yogurt or cereal. Below is one of my favorite ways to use chia seeds, in a pudding.
It’s a really quick dessert that is full of flavor and texture and it is a great way to get to know chia seeds. You can customize this pudding in endless ways, changing the flavor, texture, color, and sweetener. As long as you keep the ratio of 2 to 2 1/4 cups liquid to 1/2 cup of seeds you can experiment to your heart’s content. Lemongrass infused soy milk also works well as does lavender infused almond milk. Below is a basic recipe for you to use as a starting point.
Chia Seed Pudding
Ingredients
- 1 cup coconut milk or other plant/nut milk
- 1 1/4 cups almond milk unsweetened
- 1/2 cup chia seeds
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 2 cardamom pods Seeds only (outer shell discarded) ground using a mortar and pestle, or 1/4 tsp cardamom powder
- 2 tbsp palm/coconut sugar, date sugar, maple syrup or other sweetener of your choice
- Zest from 1/2 lemon (or 1 lime)
- Fruit of your choice For a quick option simply blend defrosted frozen berries.
Instructions
- Mix the liquid with the flavors and sweetener. Stir well until the sugar has dissolved, then mix in the chia seeds. Stir very well and refrigerate for at least two hours. Serve with your choice of fruit. It’s that easy!
- As for the fruit topping here is a suggestion: serve it with a fruit salad made from honeydew melon, cantaloupe melon, and ripe mangoes mixed with fresh mint and drizzled with fresh orange juice. Seriously nice combination!
Notes
