Who wants dessert? Creamy, chocolatey, incredibly smooth dessert … Anyone?

This little pot of chocolate is delicious! and Nutritious, with a big, capital N, because it is packed with all the goodness of Chia seeds and Almond milk. It is also healthy, with no processed sugar, no additives or butter or cream, or even condensed milk, which is so so sweet and quite hard to digest (for me, at least).

So, I hear you ask, what’s it made of?? Clouds? Magic? Don’t be silly! Please, don’t. We are being super serious here, it is Friday after all, the most serious day of the week…no? Right, that’s Monday. Friday is the day we spend thinking about Saturday and all the wonderful things we have planned while we shuffle papers around and fiddle with the keyboard pretending to look ever so busy. Yes…that’s Friday…I remember now.

Anyways, nothing magic about this pudding other than the fact that it’s super easy to make and requires no cooking to speak of.

You’ll need the following three ingredients + almond milk.

That is…

Ingredients:

(For 1 pot of approx. 200 ml)

150 ml almond milk.

2 tablespoons of Chia seeds.

1 fat tablespoon cocoa (and probably a pinch more). I used Bournville and it worked lovely. It has no added sugar, so you can decide how sweet you want your pudding to be.

1 teaspoon runny honey (or 2-3 teaspoons, if you have a sweet tooth).

To decorate: dried coconut, almonds, fresh strawberries, raspberries, mint leaves, banana slices, or give it some bling with gold leaf.

How to:

1.- In a jar or glass place the Chia seeds, honey, cocoa and a bit of the almond milk. Mix everything together until the cocoa dissolves and add the remaining almond milk.

2.- Place in the fridge overnight.

3.- This third step is optional: after a night in the fridge, your pudding will be ready to eat, but it will have a vague resemblance to a tapioca dessert. If you like this sort of texture you can enjoy it like that. But I know one or two people (Ehem!) who don’t like that sort of slimy texture, so if you are one of said people, just place the pudding in a blender and blend until smooth and creamy. My blender is a hand-held one and it produced a pudding that was slightly grainy, but I didn’t mind. I’m letting you know though, so that you can decide whether you leave it as is, or blend it anyway.

I read somewhere that you can use a coffee grinder to grind your Chia seeds to dust before you use them, thus avoiding the tapioca effect and the grainy effect. They lose none of their properties, so that might be another way to go if you don’t have a high-speed blender.

Finally, add some chopped almonds…

and some coconut…

or even make it kids-friendly by adding some chocolate candy…

They’ll probably love it without the candy, but adding 5 little chocolate candies will make it look even more appealing and it won’t take away its healthiness, since they’ll still have the full benefits of the Chia seeds, cacao and almond milk.

If you are bored with reading or in a hurry, you may go your way now. That’s the full recipe. You are most welcomed! Hope you have a lovely day, wherever it is you are. Don’t overdo the alcohol, remember you still have tomorrow (Sometimes I think I’m the oldest young person in the world…)

If you have a few more minutes and would like to know what’s good about this pudding (apart from flavour and its sheer simplicity, that is), you may read on.

What are Chia seeds? Well, they look a bit like miniature dinosaur eggs to me… I swear, they do. Just have a closer look at them…

What do you say now? I think they are very Jurassic Park.

The Chia plant is a species of flowering plant in the mint family, native to central and southern Mexico and Guatemala.

They are not only one of the highest known vegetarian sources of OMEGA 3 in the world, but they are also high in fibre, calcium, iron, selenium and zinc. They provide a source of protein and are easy to use as they are a tiny, tasteless seed.

When mixed with a liquid they produce a gel, therefore they are great for creating healthy puddings: try mixing them with mashed banana and almond milk; mashed blueberries and coconut milk; or even in this simple, chocolate pudding.

Cocoa has potent antioxidant properties that protect our cells from damage. It is also a rich source of magnesium which helps us relax and generally provides a feel-good factor. It is the sugar and cream added to processed bars that makes chocolate addictive, so if you opt for dark chocolates, or even use raw cacao (bitter), you’ll be getting all the beneficial effects without many of the drawbacks.

For the benefits of almond milk you can read here, where you’ll also find a recipe to make your own almond milk.

Also great word Choco-chia … sounds a bit like a train: choco-chia, choco-chia, choco-chia choo -chooooo….

Have a great weekend! Go and make someone happy today.

Namaste,

Paula