Chocolate Chia Pudding is decadent enough to be considered an easy chocolate dessert, and at the same time, it’s at the top of my list for healthy foods with fiber.
Recipe for Chia Pudding
With 6 ingredients total, you can whip up my recipe for chia pudding with chocolate in a couple of minutes.
How to Make Chia Pudding with Coconut Milk
While chia pudding with almond milk is delicious, I like chia pudding with coconut milk even more, given its ultra creamy consistency.
Creamy Chia Pudding Vegan
For this Chocolate Chia Pudding recipe, it’s important to blend the coconut milk in a high-powered blender so that your result is smooth, rather than one with little lumps of coconut milk in it.
Vegan chia pudding, anyone? Here we go!
Chocolate Chia Pudding
Ingredients
- 1 (13.5 ounce) can full fat coconut milk, blended
- 1 cup water
- 2 tablespoon cacao powder
- ⅛ teaspoon vanilla stevia
- ⅛ teaspoon celtic sea salt
- ¼ cup chia seeds
Instructions
- In a vitamix, combine coconut milk, water, cacao powder, stevia, and salt
- Blend until smooth
- Transfer mixture to a one quart mason jar
- Add chia seeds and shake well
- Refrigerate overnight to let chia seeds soften and absorb liquid
- Serve
What Are Chia Seeds Good For?
Wondering what chia seeds are good for? They’re not just for chia pets anymore!
Chia fiber can help improve gut motility and assist with blood sugar maintenance by slowing down the absorption of carbohydrates. It also improves the body’s response to insulin.
What is Fiber?
With all of this talk about fiber, it’s a good idea to hone in on what it is.
Fiber is the roughage from vegetables, fruits, beans, grains, nuts, and seeds. Although often overlooked, fiber is critical because it resists digestion and sweeps toxins, excess hormones, cholesterol, and waste out of your body via the digestive system.
Fiber Intake
Along with aiding in digestion and so much more, fiber is important for improving the gut microbiome, and it is also key in terms of creating that feeling of fullness that leads to satiation.
How Much Fiber Per Day?
When it comes to fiber daily intake, how much is enough?
Sadly, most American consume around 15 grams of fiber daily, but we may need upwards of 35 grams of fiber per day for our bodies to function optimally.
Fiber Rich Food for Digestion
Fiber rich foods can help to kick start your digestive system when things are feeling a bit sluggish. Furthermore, the fiber in a tasty chia pudding will help you feel full and eliminate cravings.
Other Fiber Sources
But chia is not the only fiber rich food on the menu. Here are some other great sources of lower carb fiber for you:
- Legumes
- Berries
- Green Vegetables
High Fiber Food List
Chia seeds are rich in omega-3 fat, quercetin, and vitamins B1 and B2, and near the top of the high fiber food list, right after beans which I also love.
Chia Seeds Calories
Like many perfect keto foods, chia seeds are not low in calories. But then again, not all calories are created equally.
Food is so much more than calories.
Food is information that tells your body whether it should release fat burning hormones or fat storage hormones, and this makes all the difference for weight loss and weight maintenance.
Chia Seed Carbs
Perfect for the Keto Diet, chia seeds are low in carbohydrates and high in fat.
Chia Seeds Uses
I use chia seeds in smoothies, brownies, and much more! Sometimes I make a drink of hot water with chia seeds and a squeeze of lemon, which is referred to as an internal shower.
Recipes for Chia Seeds
Looking for ways to get more fiber into your diet and recipes for chia seeds? You’re in the right place.
Chia seeds work well in my recipes and are incredibly easy to add to your diet due to their neutral flavor.
If you’re not in the mood to experiment, my recipes for healthy desserts and more are loaded with healthy and delicious chia.
Recipe for Chia Seed Pudding Easy
You can whip up this Vanilla Chia Pudding recipe, with a creamy cashew base, using my simple 2 step process.
Blend cashews, a touch of honey, vanilla, water, and salt until smooth, then place the mixture in a mason jar, add the chia seeds, and shake.
Experiment and add flavors like cinnamon or vanilla beans to customize the recipe.
Chia Seeds in Smoothie Recipes
I love using chia seeds in my smoothie recipes.
My Keto Chocolate Smoothie is made with chia seeds, protein powder of your choice, coconut milk, vanilla stevia, and 85% chocolate.
This fabulous fat fueled smoothie tastes like a heavenly chocolate milkshake and will energize you throughout the day! If chocolate isn’t your thing, try my Strawberry Breakfast Power Smoothie recipe also made with high fiber chia seeds.
Chia as Egg Substitute
Truth be told, I haven’t had much luck using chia as an egg substitute. Chia eggs just do not work 1:1 in my recipes as a sub for regular eggs.
I use the magical combination of chia, sunbutter, and bananas in my fabulous Vegan Gluten Free Brownie recipe. This somehow alleviates the need for eggs but is not really a “chia egg” substitute.
These scrumptious brownies hit the spot with a tall glass of my homemade Almond Milk!
Recipe for Paleo Porridge
My recipe for Paleo Porridge will shake up your breakfast routine in the best way!
This warm gluten and grain free porridge brimming with healthy fats from flax, chia, pumpkin seeds, and more, is quick and easy to make!
The complex flavors of spicy cinnamon and rich walnut in this healthy hot cereal recipe bring back memories of hot cereal from my childhood, only healthier!
Focus on the Fiber
Why all this focus on fiber? Living with an autoimmune disease that’s triggered by a specific food (gluten) means I make optimizing my gut a top priority.
What Celiac Disease Is
I was diagnosed with celiac disease in the late 1990s, the Dark Ages of Gluten Free, and it changed the course of my life.
Although commonly thought of as a gut disorder, celiac is a multi-organ system disease that can impact the body as a whole, given that it triggers a destructive reaction in the immune system.
The combination of a strict gluten free diet, along with plenty of fiber every day, have been instrumental in keeping my gut as healthy as possible.
The Fiber Health Connection
Celiac or not, fiber is such an important component of our health on so many levels. Do you get enough fiber each and every day? What are your favorite sources?
This Chocolate Chia Pudding post is an oldie but goodie from the archives. I first published this recipe in 2015.
E. Nadler says
In the Chocolate Chia Pudding recipe, there’s an omission. It says 1/4 cup ??? probably supposed to say dark chocolate chips or something similar. Thanks for the great ideas!
Elana says
E., you may need to update your browser for this to appear on your computer/phone.
Jill says
Hi Elana! Just wanted to give a shout out for this lovely, easy recipe. I have made it for YEARS and love it every time. Some of my favorite add-ins are a tablespoon of tahini or almond butter in the bottom of my bowl, cut up strawberries, grain-free granola on top, the list goes on! I also keep shaking the mason jar about every 15 min for the first hour or so whilst it is chillin’ in the refrigerator this keeps those chias from clumping together. I also have noticed that different brands of coconut milks set up differently, but it hasn’t stopped me from eat super thick or super runny pudding! Thank you for a quick paleo dessert and all the best to you and your family!
Elana says
Jill, many thanks for your wonderful comment!
Marcile says
Hi There,
Can you substitute the coconut milk with coconut cream to get a thicker consistence Just wondering.
Elana says
Marcile, I haven’t tried that :-)
Julie says
Hi Elaina,
Love your website! I have a neuropathy in my feet. Which I got when I was pregnant in o6
And still have. I am hoping that doing some keto will help!!
Just starting physicAl therapy again.
The pudding sounds wonderful! Love love chia!! I definitely want my kids to eat better and they have sweet tooth’s like me. But seem to know when I use the stevia..
Its tough with the kids because didn’t start them on this type of diet.
is there something else I could use for this recipe? And could I substitute in others?
Do u ever use coconut sugar or agave?
And would it work in this recipe?
I love agave because it is so good in the blood stream and doesn’t spike sugar levels.
What would you recommend?
Thanks again and have a wonderful day!
Elana says
Hi Julie, thanks for your comment! I’m so sorry to hear about the neuropathy. Here’s a little video I made with some things that might help:
https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17974166956066940/
Feel free to experiment with using agave in place of stevia in this recipe and I hope you’ll let me know if it works.
Let’s keep in touch!
Elana
Daniel Perales says
Hello Elana,
I just finished following your recipe to exact course counts and looking at it 24 hours later the pudding is still very runny. In fact it’s more like chocolate milk and pudding, and please dont get me wrong I’ve been follow your recipes for about 4 months now and love them all except this pudding and really would love to have it in my diet. What should I do?
Elana says
Daniel, thanks for your comment! This pudding won’t be super thick. It’s very important when consuming chia seeds to soak them in an adequate amount of liquid otherwise they are very unhealthy on the gut :-)
Natasha Robison says
I’m organizing all the gazillion recipes I’ve saved and I’ve noticed I have quite a few from your site. I like recipes that are healthy and tasty and don’t feel like you’re on a ‘diet’ or depriving yourself and it seems you have mastered that concept….and I really wanted to say I love the look of your website! I like how there’s a stationary picture on the side and it scrolls on the other side. It’s not cluttered up with adds and everything just seems easier to find than on other sites, and to read as well. Anyways, just wanted to give you a compliment even though I’m sure you get them all the time :)
Elana says
Natasha, thanks for all of your kind words! Glad you are finding the site easy to use and also love hearing you say I have mastered the concept of both healthy and tasty in my recipe creation :-)
Leah says
Hi ! Just wondering about carbs and Fiber per serving?
Elana says
Leah, for more on that please go here:
https://elanaspantry.com/nutrition-information/
Have a great day!
Elana
molly says
is this sugar free for candida diet? Is there sugar in vanilla?
Elana says
Molly, if you use alcohol-free stevia this is perfect for the Candida Diet :-)
Janie says
Hello Elena,
I made the recipe for the first time last night and this morning the mixture had not firmed up, which I expected. It was like a thick milk-shake consistency. Is that what it’s supposed to be like?
It’s really delicious though! Than you so much for sharing!
Elana says
Janie, yes that’s a good consistency for this. If you use the recommended coconut milk that I link to in green text in the ingredients portion of the recipe, it will likely be even thicker :-)
Shawn says
I use a Ninja and have this consistency, too, but it makes a wonderful base for Whey protein shakes! I make it once a week. So good!
Jess says
U can add more chia seeds if its watery I do half a cup instead of 1/4
Elana says
Jess, thanks for your comment! Just a quick word of caution, this can have the opposite effect if it is too dry and the fiber in the seeds will be binding to the digestive system. If you allow the seeds to soak up the moisture overnight this will thicken perfectly :-)
Lindsey says
I have eczema and I need to be careful what I eat but this recipe looks too good not to try.
Thanks for a great article.
Elana says
Lindsey, you’re very welcome!