Chocolate Chia Pudding

As you already know, I am newly infatuated with chia seeds.  There is a recipe on the back of the Trader Joe's chia seeds I bought last week so I decided to give it a whirl.

 

It's no-cook and has just 4 ingredients.  What's not to love??!

 

I made some slight substitutions (almond milk instead of coconut milk) and made it this way:
1/4 cup chia seeds
1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
Drizzle agave syrup
2 heaping Tbsp cocoa powder

Stir it all together and put in the fridge for 2-3 hours.  I came back a few hours later and it looked like this:

 

....Uhhhh.  I'm not so sure about this....

Eek!  I was a little scared.  It certainly didn't look very appetizing.  I think it was the cocoa's fault; it was very hard to mix.  Mental note: Next time mix the cocoa with the almond milk before adding the chia seeds.

 

I transferred about half of the prepared pudding to another bowl and "fluffed" it up a bit.  Looking a bit tastier now.  More like real pudding!

 

Pudding!

 

I took a tiny bite.  The verdict: It's actually pretty good! I polished off the entire bowl.  It tasted a lot like chocolate pudding and has the texture of tapioca. Next time I'm going to make it with canned coconut milk for a creamier pudding and stevia instead of agave syrup.

It's a delicious snack, is Paleo 'legal', and contains protein and lots of fiber.  One tablespoon of chia seeds has 3g protein and 6g fiber. I ate half the recipe so it worked out to 6g protein and 12g fiber per serving - not bad!  Plus, it's a really enjoyable and, um, effective way to add fiber to the diet.

 

And let's not forget how easy it was to make.  Always a clear winner in my book.

 

I'll be making this for breakfast sometime soon: Vegan Vanilla Chia Pudding.  Maybe tonight, even thought it's nearly midnight and I still need to squeeze in a workout.