Today is National Chia Day! If you're posting on social media, be sure to tag #NationalChiaDay.
In the 80's, the word 'chia' immediately brought to mind the Chia Pet. Cha-Cha-Cha-Chia! Today, chia is touted as a 'superfood' with applications in baking, as an egg replacer, or as a thickener, but it's most well known as the star of chia pudding!
Chia puddings sound like a dessert, and there are lots of dessert style recipes out there, but they also make a great breakfast! I've tested many chia puddings over the years, and this is my favorite in terms of flavor and texture. If you're looking for a quick demo on National Chia Day, this makes a great feature along with your favorite personal blender!
Apple Pie Chia Pudding
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups non-dairy milk e.g. soy
- 3 dates, pited
- 6 tbls chia seeds
- 1 tbls nut butter e.g. almond
- 1 apple, cored and diced
- 1 teaspoon vanilla paste
- ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Toppings
- ½ cup chopped bananas, berries, granola or other topping as desired
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients in a personal blender, such as NutriBullet. Blend until smooth, ~1 min.
- Serve immediately, or refrigerate.
To Blend or Not To Blend Your Chia Pudding
Nutritionally, there is some debate about whether blending the chia seeds provides more benefits than leaving the seeds whole. Some sources say that whole and blended chia are nutritionally equivalent1, others claim that blending makes the nutritional components more accessible and more easily digested2.
Nutritional considerations aside, blending obviously provides a much smoother and creamier texture than the "whole seed" puddings, which can be appealing to chia pudding skeptics.
Blending has the additional benefit of making a thick pudding in a matter of minutes, while whole chia seed puddings can take a while to set up and may clump if not stirred periodically while thickening.
Black or White Chia Seeds
Customers will find two commonly available varieties of chia seeds, white and black. Nutritionally they are quite similar3, and either can be used to good effect here.
Personal Blenders vs. High Speed Blenders for Chia Pudding
For blended chia puddings, I prefer a personal blender. The volume is exactly right for this recipe and I like that personal blenders have more accessible blades, making it easier to clean the sticky pudding from their undersides. High speed blenders will generate wonderful, creamy results so this preferences is solely because of the cleaning.
