Written by Mindy, Contributing Writer
Chia seeds are an amazing powerhouse of nutrition that boast a lengthy list of health benefits. Although I’ve heard of the many wonderful benefits of chia seeds for quite some time now, I only recently decided to “take the plunge” and try them out! And I’m so glad that I did – I’m hooked!
The many health benefits of chia seeds combined with the fact that they are so versatile and easy to consume, make this superfood a definite winner in my book. If you’ve never tried chia seeds before, I highly recommend them as an easy and affordable way to get some extra nutrition in your diet!
Benefits of Chia Seeds
- Rich source of Omega-3 fatty acids (contains more than salmon!)
- Easy for your body to digest and assimilate
- Won’t go rancid like flax seeds
- Does not contain estrogen like flax seeds
- High in antioxidants
- A complete protein
- High in calcium, iron, and potassium
- Neutral taste (very easy to add to a variety of dishes)
- Help keep you hydrated
- Give you physical energy and endurance
- Can be made into delicious, healthy, and easy homemade pudding (my personal favorite!)
Photo by Little Blue Hen
Chia seeds can hold up to nine times their weight in water. When they come into contact with a liquid they turn that liquid into a gel similar to a loose “jello”. This property makes chia seeds perfect for thickening a variety of dishes including this delicious chocolate peanut butter pudding!
This recipe would be easily adaptable to other varieties of pudding as well. Experiment with different flavors such as vanilla, berry, lemon, peach, maple, etc. The possibilities are endless!
Chocolate Peanut Butter Chia Pudding
Ingredients
- 2 cups milk (may substitute coconut or other non-dairy milk)
- 1/2 cup chia seeds
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1/4 cup natural peanut butter
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup coconut sugar OR desired sweetener to taste
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients in a high-power blender or food processor. Blend or process until completely smooth. You may eat it right away, but it is best after it has been completely chilled in the refrigerator.
Other Ways to Use Chia Seeds
- Add some to your oatmeal
- Put in salad dressing
- Add to your morning smoothie
- Make a gel and use in place of eggs in baking
- Add to homemade granola or granola bars
- Add some to a bottle of water or kombucha to make an extra hydrating drink
- Use as a substitute to flax seeds in any recipe
Simple and Frugal Soft Drink Recipes
This is great! I just bought some chia seeds because I had heard good things about them, but didn’t know how to use them. Thanks for the recipe and the resources!
You’re welcome! I hope you like the chia seeds 🙂
A pudding you can make in the food processor!?? I am hooked. Can’t wait to try this, and I do happen to have chia seeds in my fridge!
Thanks for the article and recipe! I cannot wait to try the pudding!
I add them to baked goods and make other types of pudding with them. Usually I just let them absorb the milk/liquid for a good half hour – hour and they soften/expand like crazy! I haven’t ever tried blending them b/c I don’t mind the texture, but the kids might appreciate it! And honestly, this trimester of my pregnancy I’ve had a bit of an aversion to the idea of eating gloppy chia, too. So maybe this will be better for me right now! 🙂
Anjanette, I saw a lot of recipes that didn’t blend them either and I want to try it like that sometime also. I’m not sure about the texture though! I’m thinking that I will prefer it smooth, but we’ll see 😉
It ends up a little like tapioca, but with little crunchy centers. They are very good like this! I am very excited to try them blended up though!!
I have never used them! I see them often and wonder…what on earth!??! Ha ha…now I know how to try 🙂
That’s what I thought for a long time when I saw them too, Nikki 🙂
I had a question about the pudding. Do you soak the chia seeds before you blend them or do you just throw them in as is? Never even seen or heard about chia seeds but I will be on the look out!
HannahZ, you don’t have to soak the chia seeds, just through them in the blender or food processor with the rest of the ingredients. If you can’t find them locally, Amazon has some good prices on chia seeds too 🙂
I’m excited to try this, Mindy! I love pudding and I’ve been looking for more ways to use chia since I started learning about them a few months ago. So far, I’ve done things like add them to yogurt, put them in my homemade granola, blend them into smoothies, and use them in my bread (or on top of my bread, mixed with oats and other seeds).
I hope you like it, Stephanie! That’s a great idea to put them in or on top of your bread. I’ll have to give that a try 🙂
Just bought a bag of Chia seeds to add to smoothies and oatmeal – I’ll be trying this recipe too – my daughter adores chocolate and peanut butter. Thanks for sharing!
You’re welcome, Pam! Enjoy 🙂
This looks so delicious, Mindy! I can’t wait to try it!!
Let me know how it turns out for you when you do, Erin 🙂
Sounds yummy! I also have never used chai seeds, you’ll have to come over one day and make this with me! (so I don’t mess it up!) I love anything (well mostly) chocolate-y!
Me too, Rachel. I’m a chocolate girl 😉
Just tried this with a can of coconut milk and made up the difference with heavy cream. That combo makes a very thick pudding! Tastes great so far, can’t wait until it chills fully. Might use more liquid or less chia when not using plain raw milk.
I’m sure that was very thick, Kelly! Thanks for the tip and I’m glad that you gave it a try. 🙂 If you’re using a can of coconut milk you could probably make up the difference with water also to get the consistency closer to that of plain raw milk.
When adding them to things like granola or yogurt, do they need to be ground up to get all the health benefits???
Jill, you can grind up the chia seeds if you want to, but unlike flax seeds, they don’t HAVE to be ground up to get all the health benefits. It doesn’t have a hard seed coat like flax does, so your body can more easily digest it and utilize all of its goodness.
wow! i am so excited to try this! i love pudding, but hate sitting over the stove constantly stirring it. i am also happy to have a pudding recipe that i can use raw milk in!
thanks so much!
I sprinkle them over yogurt with hemp seeds and honey. Also add them to homemade granola, baking, etc… They have a nice crunch and no real flavor that I’ve noticed anyways. 🙂
So glad you shared this! I have heard of Chia seeds but I wasn’t too sure about how to use them. I am totally going to try that pudding!
Can honey be used as the sweetener instead of sugar? If it can, would I still use 3/4 cup or would I use less?
Jill, yes, you could use honey as the sweetener in this recipe. I’m not sure how much you would need, but I would definitely say start with less. Maybe start at 1/4 cup and then add more as needed until it is sweetened to your preference.
I use chia in my morning smoothies and also in overnight refrigerator oatmeal. Your pudding recipe looks delicious – I’m going to try it too!
We just had this for dessert tonight. Yummy! We are planning to grind the chia seeds next time though. Some of the kids were a little weirded out by them. Has anyone made it without the peanut butter? Can you just leave it out or do you have to change any of the other ingredients?
I’m glad you liked it, KariAnn! If your blender wasn’t able to get the pudding to a smooth consistency when you added them with the rest of the ingredients, then grinding them before hand would be a great idea to get that smooth pudding consistency. You could also try making it in your food processor as that would do a good job at getting the chia seeds smooth also.
This is the only variety of chia pudding that I have ever made, but it is very versatile. I would definitely say that you could leave out the peanut butter for a nice chocolate pudding. You could experiment with other flavors of pudding as well! 🙂
Thanks for the recipe! Most of the ones I’ve seen were vegan, so this is a nice change! I tried it without the peanut butter. Instead I added some coconut milk powder. It was great! Thanks!
I have avoided chia seeds so far because my son was allergic to sesame, and some people said that those with sesame allergies have a greater chance of being allergic to chia. But his last blood test showed that his sesame number was really low, so I’m thinking I should give the chia seeds a chance!
Love the benefits of the chia seed. I am a distributor for Mila- they process the chia seed in the highest and safest combination of Omega-3, fatty acids, proteins, and antioxidants… There are so many ways to incorporate Mila in the diet and the benefits are numerous. Thanks for the recipe- we are definitely trying it 🙂 You can check out our website http://www.lifemax.net/htripp and FB page Mila ~ World’s Healthiest Whole Raw Food for more info and benefits.
I am excited to try this version of a chia pudding recipe! Thank you for sharing. There’s just something about chocolate and peanut butter together…mmmmm 🙂 I think this will be the most delicious chia pudding I’ve tried!
One tip for those fellow choco-holics out there…whenever I make a chocolate chia pudding recipe, I use dark chocolate almond milk instead of plain milk. I’m sure any favorite chocolate “milk” will do. Regardless, it will really adds to the intensity! I even cut back on the sugar a little as I’m a dark chocolate fiend…lol
Thank you again for sharing…great website!
I tend to have hemp hearts at home, not chia seeds. I wonder if they’d work equally well. The pudding sounds delicious.
Great post! I sent this right to a coworker who has been downing Chia seeds lately 🙂
So yummy! I am eating some right now and it’s not even chilled yet. I did blend the seeds first into a powder and used coconut milk. I also added 1 T of Vanilla, but not sure if that changed the flavor at all. This sure beats my preggo M&M craving!
I’ll definitely have to try this. I have tons of chia seeds sitting in my pantry. I didn’t like the consistency of my smoothies and veggie juices when I added them, too “gelatinous” for me. Now they won’t go to waste! Thanks 🙂
yeah, the “pudding” is pretty gelatinous. The flavor is fine, but the consistency is sort of like snot – not to be rude, just the best way I know how to describe it. Bummer, was hoping it would be great! I’m almost eating it as medicine, because I know there’s some good stuff in it, but I don’t like the taste. Seems like others love it though, so that’s good.
Hey Michelle! The pudding definitely should not have that consistency 🙂
When you blend everything together the chia seeds should become completely smooth with everything else, and the result should be very similar to a traditional thick pudding. If your blender isn’t powerful enough then your chia seeds could remain whole or only partially ground up which would give it that weird consistency.
My suggestion would be to grind the chia seeds (in a coffee or spice grinder) before you make the pudding. I have a Blendtec which does a great job at grinding the chia seeds along with everything else, but other blenders may not do such a good job. I’m sorry that it didn’t turn out well for you! I hope that you’ll try it again grinding the chia seeds first – I promise that it really is yummy! 🙂
I just made this strictly following the recipe and it seems super liquid-y to eat right away. It’s in the fridge chilling, we shall see! But I did lick the spoon. I’m preggers, so it was fun to lick the spoon of a treat – I can’t eat raw cookie dough or other baked goodies!
how many servings does this recipe make?
I made it for myself and my 3 kids that are old enough to eat (none for the newborn :), and there was enough for them to each have a good kid sized bowl, and a larger one for me, plus enough left for one adult sized bowl. So maybe it would serve about 4 adults or larger eaters?
Thank you for this recipe! I just linked to it on my blog today. Thrilled to have found “Keeper of the Home” in my search for “chocolate chia pudding. Can’t wait to come back for more visits!
I have recently started eating chia seeds and love them. I have made quinoa with coconut milk, dried cranberries and toasted pecans. I then make oatmeal and mix in the quinoa and chia seeds. Very filling and tastes wonderful. I like a spoonful of honey with it.
if i wanted to sprout my chia seeds would I need a different seed than I buy at the co-op?
Hmmm, I haven’t tried, but I’m pretty sure they’re all the same thing and that they should sprout if you try.
I got a sample of chia a couple of months ago and just let them sit on the breakfast bar, ’cause I had no idea what to do with the darn things. Tonight I got some more from the grocery and will try the pudding myself. Grinding the seeds will be the first step. I only found this on Facebook by accident, but thanks for posting!!
OK, I don’t know if it’s the plain, unsweetened almond milk I used or the Somersweet, both of which work great in other “alternative” recipes. . .but this just tastes WEIRD.
OK, so after letting it sit overnight in the fridge, the strange taste went away and it was absolutely delicious. HOWEVER–do NOT eat more than one bowl at a time, or preferably, in a day. If you do you will have. . .issues.
Is there a Yuck Button?
I followed this recipe exactly, using the best quality ingredients!
It is awful!!!!!! It doesn’t taste like any chocolate pudding I have ever tasted.
I won”t try this one again!
This is definitely not yuck! I just made it and thought it was fantastic! My husband, who’s always suspicious of healthier treat options, really liked it too. I ended up using organic sugar because I didn’t have the coconut sugar (going to try raw honey next time), and I added a bit more cocoa and used a little less vanilla, but it was wonderful and protein rich. Going to be loving this as a snack/ dessert. Would be excellent topped with homemade whipped cream!
I made this tonight – used almond milk, and just 1/4 c. honey instead of sugar. It’s great! I didn’t even blend it – but I really like tapioca and such so if you’re texture sensitive you should probably blend it… otherwise you kinda have to chew. It wasn’t too sweet, which is what I wanted. This is a great dessert/snack – and waaaay healthier than ice cream 🙂 so thanks!! My boyfriend liked it as well.
Just made this tonight. It was simple, delicious, and healthy. Thank you so much!
I made the pudding just as you had written and it was wonderful. I can’t wait for my husband to try it. I’m always “sneaking” him something healthy
I ground up my Chia seeds in my Nutribullet… Do I need to alter the way I use them now? I want to try them instead of pectin for jams… Thanks for any idea/opinion you have!
I’ve tried Chia seeds a few ways, but the easiest so far (without a blender) has been to soak, then add them to jelly when making PB&J’s
Yummy stuff…needed another way to use my chia seeds. I am not a fan of peanut butter so I used (1) banana instead, original almond milk, and (1) Tbsp of honey to sweeten. I even threw in a scoop of my plant protein powder. I am always making smoothies and never thought of throwing in some chia seeds…thanks for sharing your recipe.