Chocolate Chia Pudding with Peanut Butter Caramel

Ch-ch-ch-chocolate chia pudding! Like many millennials, I knew these little seeds from the cheesy advertisements where you plant them in a terracotta pot shaped like some famous person’s head, and then watch as they sprout neon green sapling hairdos. Really, I had no idea that they were remotely edible, let alone incredibly amazing in their texture and nutritional quality. You’ll find this chocolate chia pudding to be creamy and delectably rich. When blended with banana for a bit of natural sweetness, and then topped with a salted peanut butter caramel, this decadent pudding is one of those super easy to make desserts that’ll satisfy your need for something chocolate, without leaving you feeling worse for wear post-eat.

Every problem has in it the seeds of its own solution. If you don’t have any problems, you don’t get any seeds. 

– Norman Vincent Peale

The Trick to Chia Seeds

If there’s anything that you take away from this post about chocolate chia pudding and chia seeds in general, it’s this: only eat chia seeds if they’ve been fully hydrated first!

Chia seeds have an incredible capacity to expand to great size when wet. Basically, they’re the gremlins of the seed world. They develop this gelatin-like coating which gives them an amazingly smooth and silky texture that we’ll take full advantage of in this chocolate chia pudding.

So with that said, you’re going to want this signature chia seed expansion to happen before you eat them, rather than after, so that you know just how much volume of chia you’re actually eating.

Therefore, let this chocolate chia seed pudding sit in the fridge for a 8 hours – this will allow the chia enough times for maximum expansion and also give this chocolate chia seed pudding the best texture overall.

Also, if you’re looking for another delicious pudding recipe, check out this Cinnamon Rice Pudding with Salted Date Caramel!

Little deeds are like little seeds, they grow to flowers or to weeds. 

– Daniel D. Palmer

3 Ingredient Peanut Butter Caramel

The peanut butter caramel for this pudding is actually something that I make often, mostly as a binder for homemade granola bars. It’s not really a caramel per say, but it has a lot of similar qualities of one: sticky, slightly sweet, and easily drizzle-able. And on top of all that, it’s deliciously peanut butter-y, too.

When zigzagged across this chocolate chia pudding, not only does it provide a complimentary flavor to the rich dark chocolate pudding, but also a temperature contrast, too. The peanut butter caramel fresh off the stove is warm and delightful, while the pudding is cool from the fridge. The combination is a wondrous thing.

Here’s the basics of the peanut butter caramel.

• Smooth Natural Peanut Butter
• Brown Rice Syrup
• Vanilla Extract

That’s it. Simply combine the peanut butter and brown rice syrup together in a small sauce pan over low-medium heat until they meld together, stirring occasionally. Remove it from the heat, whisk in the vanilla, and you’re ready to drizzle it over the chocolate chia seed pudding.

I would highly recommend that you don’t forgo this element, as I believe it completes the pudding, and really takes it to another plane of pudding perfection.

If you can look into the seeds of time, and say which grain will grow and which will not, speak then unto me.

– William Shakespeare

Chocolate Chia Pudding Recipe Video

Dreams are the seeds of change. Nothing ever grows without a seed, and nothing ever changes without a dream.

– Debby Boone

Pudding It In Your Mouth!

I’ve since made this chocolate chia pudding about 3 times, and it’s turned out fantastically each time. I’ve discovered that it’s best with these additional elements on it, one of which is not featured in the photographs.

• Sea salt flakes
• Fresh banana slices (not featured but should be!)

The sea salt flakes help to balance the sweetness of the caramel and highlight the other flavors within the pudding, while the slices of fresh banana allude to the banana-y base of the pudding itself (banana is first blended with the plant-based milk that you soak the chia seeds in later on).

But you can also just make this chocolate chia pudding on its own, too. It’s a wonderful pudding that allows you to reap the health benefits of the extraordinary chia seed in an amazingly tasty way.

Judge each day not by the harvest you reap but by the seeds you plant. 

– Robert Louis Stevenson

May you have good food in good company,

That Vegan Nephew