This Healthy Chocolate Chia pudding is so delicious you might confuse it with a chocolate chia seed dessert. Make this recipe as an overnight breakfast, or a quick and healthy snack or dessert. Chia Chocolate Pudding can be blended or left as whole chia seeds.
I love breakfast and I love dessert. So recipes that are healthy enough to be a breakfast and indulgent enough to be a dessert show up over and over again on my table. In my kitchen, they are know affectionately as bresserts.
You definitely don't want to skip over this Healthy Chocolate Chia Pudding. It's an easy recipe that that just might change your mornings.
Healthy Chocolate Chia Pudding is a breakfast recipe that you can also enjoy for snack or dessert
This Chia Chocolate Pudding also picks up bonus points for its quick preparation and health benefits (omega-3's and antioxidants, anyone?). Can you believe the recipe literally involves three steps and can be done the night before?
So yes, this is one of those great breakfast recipes for those rushed mornings.
You do get a choice for how you would like your chocolate chia seed dessert prepared: either mixed as is with full chia seeds to make more of a traditional chia seed pudding or blended for a smoother pudding texture.
Feel free to blend this healthy chocolate chia pudding so it is smooth, or leave it as is with whole chia seeds
You can see the difference in the photos below. The cup on the left is unblended Chocolate Chia Pudding. The cup on the right is a blended Chocolate Chia Pudding.
Blended chia pudding is "smoother" than chia pudding made with whole chia seeds. But regardless of how you prepare it, this chia chocolate pudding recipe is naturally textured.
I confess I was slightly disappointed to discover that there wasn't any way simple way to turn this overnight chocolate chia seed pudding into a super smooth mousse with normal home kitchen appliances.
I know chia chocolate puddings often look smooth and mouse-like in pictures. And it might even look that way to you in my own photos.
But after several rounds of testing an overnight chocolate chia seed pudding with various home kitchen appliances, I couldn't ever get rid of the natural grittiness you get from the chia seed shells.
Overnight Chocolate Chia Seed Pudding has natural texture that pairs well with granola or strawberries
The chia seed shells don't melt or dissolve. And unfortunately, I could not get the texture to entirely disappear. Even when blended very well, I could always feel a bit of grittiness. BUT, you can actually use this texture to your advantage when pairing it with toppings, which I'll get into later on.
I'm telling you this so you don't feel misled by the photos, and the concept of this chocolate chia seed dessert. Even though the photos might make this look like a super creamy and mouse-like regular chocolate pudding, this is a chia chocolate pudding.
It's vegan, it's healthy, it's low in fat, and it's extremely delicious. Though it might look like a replica of chocolate pudding made with heavy cream when it's blended, it's really quite different in its ingredients.
How to best blend chia chocolate pudding
To test how to best blend chia seeds into a pudding, I used my trusty high-end food processor, a regular blender, and a hand blender (immersion blender)
. My goal was to get a super smooth chia chocolate pudding.
After attempting attempting all three methods (and lots of dishes to do), I found that the hand blender actually works best.
Since the recipe doesn't make a large batch Healthy Chocolate Chia Pudding, a standard food processor has a hard time blending it. Even when I used the small bowl on the food processor, the blades never quite caught the seeds enough without having to scrape down the sides frequently.
A regular blender does do the job more effectively. But it is difficult to pour out your pudding, especially if you don't have a removable base. As with the food processor, I also had to keep scraping down the sides because the chia chocolate pudding wasn't liquid enough.
A hand mixer is the best method to blend chia seed pudding
The hand mixer wins out in terms of the most effective blending tool. You can move the hand mixer around the bowl to make sure all the chia seeds are evenly blended. At the same time, you can also use a hand mixer to blend small portions of this chocolate chia seed dessert.
Topping ideas for this Chia Chocolate Pudding
One suggestion for those looking to mask the grittiness of this chocolate chia seed dessert, is to add a handful of granola to the top. You could also opt for topping with chopped nuts. The different layers of texture between the smaller chia seeds and the larger granola makes each bite more varied.
Blending this Healthy Chocolate Chia Pudding with (roasted) almond butter also gives the chia seed pudding a bit of a savory edge to the chocolate flavor. We really enjoy it this way for breakfast.
Happy mornings to you with this overnight chocolate chia pudding!
Healthy Chocolate Chia
Print Recipe Save RecipeIngredients
- ¼ cup chia seeds
- 1 cup almond milk (or other)
- 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon almond butter
Instructions
- In a bowl, whisk together the chia seeds, almond milk, cocoa powder and maple syrup. Cover and set in the refrigerator to chill overnight.
- In the morning, you can mix everything together and serve, or blend the chia seed pudding with 1 tablespoon of almond butter.
- Top with granola, fresh berries and yogurt or whipped cream.
Lauren says
Do you blend the pudding the morning after?? Or before it goes into the refrigerator??
Brianna says
What about grinding the chia seeds in the blender first until they are a fine powder? Then mixing with the other ingredients. I wonder if this would yield a smoother pudding?
Tina Jui says
Good thought! So I've tried making chia pudding with store bought ground chia seeds before, and it works. But I still get some texture with it. I wonder if I could get it even finer by blitzing it myself. If you try it, let us know how it turns out.
Carol DeLaurier says
love the flavors! Not as thick as I would want.
Connie says
Thanks for the idea to blend it to change the texture of the seeds! Now to attempt to find carob where I live. Toddler had 5 baby spoonfuls which is pretty good for her. I'd eat it as breakfast or snack
Tina Jui says
I usually buy carob in health stores or online. Do you have Amazon there?
Natalie says
I love chia pudding! It's such a great healthy dessert and the texture is simply fabulous! This chocolate chia pudding sounds delicious!
Brian Jones says
That sounds lovely, I am so glad you mentioned about blending chia seeds as I really struggle with the texture of the left whole. Great tip!
Jillian says
Love that this can be made the night before! Yum!
Tisha says
Mmmm Love Chia!!! Love the pudding idea!
sondria Harp says
I love having another healthy and tasty option for breakfast. Thanks for the recipe.