When you puree chia seed pudding, it becomes smooth and creamy just like traditional pudding. In this recipe for Mexican Chocolate Chia Seed Pudding, I also added cinnamon and cayenne—because why not? It works for my breakfast shake, and it works really well in this pudding too. Bonus: you can totally have this chia seed pudding for breakfast. Breakfast pudding! We’ll live like kings!
PrintMexican Chocolate Chia Seed Pudding
A rich, creamy dairy-free pudding made with chia seeds.
- Yield: 2 servings 1x
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup chia seeds
- 1 cup unsweetened almond (or other non-dairy) milk
- 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 tbsp maple syrup (I used Grade B)
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- pinch of cayenne (optional)
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl.
- Cover and refrigerate overnight or at least 8 hours.
- Transfer mixture to a high-powered blender and blend until completely smooth. If pudding is warm from blending, return to refrigerator until chilled. (Alternately, you can just stir the pudding and eat it without blending.)
Notes
This pudding is thick, almost like a mousse. If you’ve blended your pudding and decide you want it a little thinner, add some extra milk. Be sure to blend the pudding until completely smooth—if you don’t, it will be gritty! A high-powered blender like the Vitamix works best. Any sweetener you like will work in this, and if 1 tablespoon of maple syrup isn’t sweet enough, feel free to add more.
183 Comments
Amy
September 30, 2013 at 11:17 amWow this is delicious! I love the thick mousse texture. I didn’t add cayenne but I might next time.
Has anyone given this to their kids? I don’t have any kids but I think this would make a great natural alternative to store bought pudding. Would be fun to put into a child’s lunchbox in snack sized containers!
Kiersten
September 30, 2013 at 8:00 pmI’m glad you enjoyed it! I did have a reader tell me she’s made it for her grandson and he loved it. 🙂
Laura
October 10, 2013 at 8:19 amI laughed through this entire post! I totally relate to being too practical for my own good. 🙂 I just found your awesome blog yesterday and have already pinned, like, a jzillion of your recipes. Most look so easy. I’m newly vegan, and this will be the first vegan dessert recipe I ever make. I have everything needed in my house right now! Thanks for a wonderful blog. I’ll be back to let you know how this dessert was for me.
Kiersten
October 13, 2013 at 6:08 pmI hope you like it! If you don’t have a high speed blender, you can skip the blending part. 🙂 Then it’s kind of like tapioca pudding. Oh, and thanks for the pins!
denisa
October 11, 2013 at 6:15 amHi, I am really glad I came across your blog! I am a newbie in vegetarian/vegan field and I am really looking forward to doable recipes.
Thank you
Kiersten
October 13, 2013 at 5:52 pmGood luck with your new diet! 🙂
kate
October 14, 2013 at 6:46 pmhaha this is great! I can totally relate to running around the kitchen and dirtying multiple bowls only to use the same one as last time 🙂 This looks like a great recipe and can’t wait to give it a try. yum!
Kate
Amanda
October 18, 2013 at 2:41 pmFYI – for anyone who tries this and thinks its’ going to look like the picture ….a nice, smooth consistency – it wont. UNLESS you have a Vitamix – I don’t and started with the food processor, then the blender, then the hand blender – nothing…just little bits of chia seeds which is not what I was going for.
Kiersten
October 20, 2013 at 7:44 pmThe recipe does call for a high powered blender.
alie
April 24, 2015 at 12:36 pmThe same thing happend to me…more like tapioca texture than fluffy pudding!
steph
November 11, 2013 at 2:38 pmIs this ground chia seeds or whole?
Kiersten
November 11, 2013 at 9:11 pmWhole chia seeds.
She Rocks Fitness
December 31, 2013 at 10:30 amLove the addition of the maple syrup! I never thought of doing that. I only have skim milk, but that should work as well…right? Thanks for sharing this! 🙂
Kiersten
December 31, 2013 at 11:42 amI think skim milk will work too. 🙂
Nicole
January 23, 2014 at 8:04 pmI currently only have ground chia seeds on hand – would that work?
Kiersten Frase
January 24, 2014 at 8:32 pmI haven’t tried it with ground chia seeds myself, so I can’t say for sure. I think it would depend on how finely ground they are. If they’re very finely ground, it should work just fine. If not, the pudding might be a little gritty.
Jess
January 25, 2014 at 8:14 pmI used a Nutribullet. It came out slightly gritty, but not too bad. It was a little more like a smoothie, so I drank it with a straw. We just roll with those sorta things around here.
It all started last night when I decided to see what chia seeds soaked in almond milk would look and taste like. After examining the results this morning, I decided to find a recipe on Pinterest to further the experiment. Your recipe sounded interesting and yummy, and I guesstimated that I’d used about that much chia seeds and that much almond milk. All in all, the experiment worked nicely, with some tweaking (lots more maple syrup and a little more almond milk.)
I tried it with the cayenne. I might have added a little more than a pinch… ^_^
Kiersten Frase
January 26, 2014 at 7:39 pmWell hey, chia smoothies are good too! 🙂
Shinee
March 14, 2014 at 11:53 pmOMG, I just run into this post (and your beautiful blog) on Pinterest. I started reading this and I felt like I had written this in my dream or something. It exact description of me, not preparing the stages, running around the kitchen to find just right spoon or plate, and then be so hesitant to spread food all over the table etc… Wow I’m not alone, and thanks for sharing that!
Oh and I just made chia pudding the other day. I also “effortlessly” sprinkled chia seeds on the table for pictures, then vacuumed everything, thinking what a waste! Haha
Kiersten Frase
March 16, 2014 at 8:36 pmNope, you are definitely not alone! 🙂 I always admire the photos with ingredients artfully spilled all over the table, but I can’t bear to throw things away, so I never do it!
Kim
March 18, 2014 at 1:46 amHow long did you blend in your vitamix and on what speed? Do you find it separates? Does it keep well?
Kiersten Frase
March 20, 2014 at 8:18 pmI just blend it until it’s smooth–I start it at the lowest speed and slowly work my way up to high. It won’t separate; I’ve kept it for a day and it will thicken a little, but it’s fine other than that.
Steph
April 20, 2014 at 8:27 pmOoooh, this looks delish! I love the add of spice to make things interesting!
Sonu
May 8, 2014 at 4:10 pmCan I do this with fruit? Chocolate sounds great but I have a family of non chocolate eaters
Kiersten Frase
May 9, 2014 at 1:41 pmI haven’t tried it with fruit, but I’m sure it would work out. You may have to adjust the proportions of the recipe, though. I might add more chia seeds since the fruit will add liquid to the recipe.
Erika
July 9, 2014 at 8:54 pmMmmmm… So good! My first taste, while mixing, had a celery aftertaste so I added a bit more maple syrup and now I don’t want to share…,I’m tempted to each my husbands serving too. The cayenne definitely comes through… But in a great way. You get that little bit of heat in the back of your throat. Great balanced dessert.
Kiersten Frase
July 11, 2014 at 5:21 pmCelery – wow! I’ve never heard that one before. To me, the chia seeds don’t really have much of a taste, but maybe there’s something in them that I’m not picking up on. 🙂 I’m glad you enjoyed the recipe!
Robyn
August 30, 2014 at 6:27 pmOh my gosh! I just made this for breakfast today. This recipe is to die for! it is so creamy but so light. And doesn’t have the heavy richness of the avocado chocolate puddings. I could eat tonnes of this. Yum yum yum!
Kiersten Frase
September 4, 2014 at 1:05 pmThank you for your comment – I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe! 🙂
Lizzie
February 5, 2015 at 12:10 amI came here because I was drawn in by the delicious-looking pudding (and I’m totally going to try it!). However, I didn’t expect to laugh so much. When I got to the “artfully spilling things” section I was actually laughing aloud. Thank you for sharing and being hilarious.
On a more serious note, I’ve tried to blend chia seed pudding before and nothing changed. I am wondering if my blender is just not powerful enough, or if I should get a food processor, which might work better? Thanks for posting.
sherah kraan
February 19, 2015 at 9:42 pmOh my word!!! I think I’ve just found my new favorite low carb dessert! (I made it with 1 T. Ground chia and sf syrup and ground erythritol. To.die.for!! Thank you!!
Sonja
June 23, 2015 at 8:22 pmOmg! Came across this googling vitmaix recipes that should arrive by thursday evening and i think itll be my first recipe!!! Ive been wanting to try a great healthy chia pudding but im not a gritty tapioca sorta pwrson. This is perfection! Kudos!
Zoe Blarowski
January 19, 2018 at 2:00 pmHi! I’m a writer with Care2.com and I’d love to include a link to this recipe in one of my articles. Is it alright if I also use one of your photos? Thanks!
Katie Trant
January 22, 2018 at 2:02 pmHi Zoe, you’re welcome to share a photo and a link back to our page, but please don’t include the recipe in your article.
Zoe Blarowski
January 25, 2018 at 1:03 pmSure thing, thanks Katie!