Vegan Mint Chocolate Chia Seed Pudding
This vegan mint chocolate chia seed pudding is silky smooth thanks to ground chia, and packed with gut boosting benefits!
It’s come to my attention that not everyone loves mint chocolate…but I can’t get enough of it! I grew up eating After Eights and Mint Melties so it’s such a nostalgic flavour combination for me. Which is why this vegan mint chocolate chia seed pudding has me excited about chia puddings again.
If you’ve shied away from chia puddings in the past, know that this is NOT your standard chia pudding, because I’ve used ground white chia instead of whole, so it is silky smooth and reminiscent of the puddings I used to eat as a kid. No tapioca-like texture, just silky, chocolatey, minty goodness. It’s also vegan, gluten free, and packed with good-for-your-gut ingredients.
It blends up in five minutes, meaning the only hard part is waiting for it to firm up!
Why Chia Seeds are So Dang Good For You
As a gut health dietitian, Chia seeds are high in fibre, which you might be surprised to learn is mostly insoluble fibre – the type that sweeps your gut clear – with some soluble fibre, which forms a gel in the gut. This gel is especially soothing to irritated guts, and regulates elimination. Each serving of this chia pudding actually has 7 grams of fibre!
Chia seeds in their ground form will help make their powerful nutrition even easier to absorb. So all of their nutrition – like a surprising amount of calcium, magnesium, iron and copper.
You can read even more about the benefits of chia seeds here.
A couple of tips + tricks for making this blended vegan mint chocolate chia seed pudding
Good quality peppermint extract really helps here: peppermint oil is an evidence-based anti-spasmodic, meaning it helps to sooth irritated gut muscles. I used Simply Organic Peppermint flavour (not sponsored!), which is made from pure peppermint oil.
However, to make this more therapeutic, you could also use pure peppermint oil. It’s very potent; start with 1/8 teaspoon and only add more after tasting.
Also, hot tip: you don’t need to soak the cashews if you have a high speed blender.
More gut-loving recipes with chia seeds
- Matcha Mango Chia Pudding
- Nourishing Strawberry Blueberry Smoothie with Chia Seeds
- Quick Strawberry Balsamic Chia Jam
- Protein-packed Black Forest Overnight Oats
Vegan Mint Chocolate Chia Seed Pudding
Ingredients
- 2½ cups unsweetened almond milk
- ½ cup ground chia seed, plus 1 tbsp (15ml) (learn the benefits of ground chia seed)
- ¼ cup raw cashews, soaked for four hours, then rinsed
- ¼ cup raw cacao or cocoa powder
- 5 tablespoons pure maple syrup
- ¾ teaspoon pure peppermint flavouring or extract
Equipment
- High Speed Blender
Instructions
- If you like, soak the cashews for four hours, then drain and rinse. Place in blender.
- Add almond milk, 1/2 cup + 1 tbsp (140ml) chia seed, cacao powder, maple syrup and peppermint flavouring. Blend until smooth.
- Pour the chia mixture into four jars or dessert cups. Chill, covered for four to eight hours to firm up. Chia pudding keeps well for up to five days, so you could make on Sunday and enjoy all week!
