Miniature superfood dressed into a dessert form to please us all. Chia pudding is the perfect dessert for reprehensionless indulgence. Tasty and low carb!

The chia is the edible seed of the plant Salvica Hispanica which few of us have seen hoovering in the breeze on the endless fields. It’s because the plant is native to South-America and since the Aztecs, its cultivation wasn’t particularly encouraged.

It wasn’t discouraged either but comparing to the pre-XVI. Century usage, when chia seed was even used to pay for the priests and rulers, its popularity somewhat suffered. It was considered one of the most important crops of the era right next to corn, beans and amaranth.

Who knows how long the chia seed would lay in relative obscurity if there wasn’t an explosion in a way we live our social life and not seeking constantly ways to eat without getting fat or more importantly, ill.

With the new wave of diets constantly spreading in various social platforms on the internet, it’s hard to miss chia seed nowadays. Miraculously, it fits into all the regimes we can find out there, be it gluten free, low carb, keto, sugar free, paleo, dairy free or probably anything.

It’s everything free, yet it’s not like eating a polystyrene balls as it is full of nutrition of various sorts that even skimming through them would make people tired, let alone reading about them here.
The kind of downside of it is that if the shell of the seed is not broken, our body can’t digest the seeds, thus all the goodies inside would go through the digestive system without even tipping their hat.

Chewing them well or for those who aren’t into moving their muscles much, grinding the chia seed before consumption would be advisable nutrition-wise. It’s worth to mention though that swallowing a spoonful of dry chia seed is not to cleverest thing to do.

Chia seeds attract water and capable of absorbing up to 12 times their weight in liquid. This sounds great as the expanded seeds will take more space up in our stomach making us feel full with almost no calories intake. It doesn’t sound so great if the dry swallowed chia seeds start to expand in volume before reaching the stomach, blocking the way down forcing us to visit the emergency room instead of chilling on the couch.

Be mindful of the water absorbing needs of the chia either in seed or ground form. Drinking enough water is important to manage a healthy and balanced daily routine; it’s even more important when incorporating chia into our diet especially in dry state.

Soaking chia in any kind of liquid will result in a gel like texture thing that can be spooned down to our delight any time of the day. Having prepared chia pudding the night before, makes a perfect chia pudding breakfast with little to none invested time and energy.

We can be creative with chia though. Using almond milk or any kind of dairy free milk will result the same consistency but totally different flavors providing us a nearly limitless variation of meal options, snacks or desserts.

Adding cocoa powder to the milk will end up having a chocolate chia pudding while layering it with fruit and nuts provides never seen dimensions coming alive in front of our eyes. When we reach for chocolate and whipped cream, we are charting out from the breakfast field to another realm where healthy and wonderfully delicious things live together in harmony making each other better as a whole bite after bite after bite.

Ingredients

1/4 cup chia seed
1 cup / 250g Milk or milk substitute
2 tablespoons / 40g Honey or sweetener of choice (optional)
1 teaspoon / 5g Canilla extract
Optional for raspberry chia pudding
- 1/2 cup Fresh or frozen raspberries
- 1/2 cup whipped cream
- Raspberry syrup for decoration

How to make Chia pudding

Put chia seed, vanilla extract and optional honey or sweetener of choice in a medium size mixing bowl.
Pour in the milk of choice or any liquid of choice. Leave the bowl in the fridge overnight or at least 15 minutes to let the chia seed do its magic. When its texture gets creamy and thick it’s ready to be used. Make layers using fresh or frozen fruit. Decorate the top with whipped cream and chocolate chips.

Enjoy!

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