Chia pudding with summer fruits

Blueberries, apricots and banana, plus chia seeds and acacia honey makes a fresh and invigorating summer breakfast

I’m usually quite reserved when it comes to wonder-foods and super-foods or other inventions that are promising to heal you from illnesses that you don’t have or transform you over night into a super-man (or super-woman).  When I first heard about chia, my initial reaction was something like “yeah, right!” – and I moved on. But somehow these little seeds kept coming in and out of my way, and eventually I gave in. I bought a packet in exchange of a small fortune and decided to give it a go. The label read something about some aztec warriors who fed themselves with these seeds and then went straight to fight. I still hope that it was a joke that I was unable to get due to my limited understanding of subtleties of the English language.

Anyway, here I am, with my packet of chia, scouring the internet for a recipe with these precious little seeds. Oh, and there were plenty! From sweet or savoury doughs, to smoothies, lemonades, puddings or even salads. Throwing a handful of chia seeds over a bunch of green leafs didn’t seem very inspiring, and as much as I love a smoothie, I haven’t got space for a blender in my tiny kitchen, so my first thought was that of adding a tablespoon or two into a loaf of sourdough. To be honest, I didn’t felt that it made any difference, so with great disappointment I put the chia package on the back of the cupboard – and forgot about it…

…until last month, when some pretty girls were giving away free samples of chia pudding at the Taste of London Festival. It was a fresh, light, flavoursome and super-refreshing pudding, with chia seeds soaked in coconut milk, and mixed with fruit puree. I.WAS.HOOKED! I went back to them asking for more samples and even ended up buying a few pots. On my way back home, all I could think of was my expatriated packet of chia seeds: I had big plans for it!

Since then, I have been soaking chia seeds in all kinds of liquids: water, orange juice, cow’s milk and coconut milk, even greek yogurt. By far, my favourite is coconut milk, but I am yet to try the almond milk and I would definitely give it a try with goat’s milk. Today’s recipe is with full-fat cow’s milk, but really you can use any kind of milk. For the topping I used a combination of bananas, blueberries and apricots and a teaspoon of acacia honey. You can use maple syrup if you don’t like honey, or even some dark muscovado sugar.

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Chia pudding with summer fruits

Ingredients

(serve 2)

• 50 grams chia seeds
• 200 ml full-fat cow's milk
• 1 teaspoon acacia honey plus extra, for serving
• 2 ripe bananas
• 2 apricots
• 2 handfuls of blueberries

Instructions

• Put the chia seeds in a glass jar with a lid. Add the milk and one teaspoon of honey. Stir and leave to soak overnight in the fridge.
• To serve, put the chia pudding into two bowls, add the fruits and a teaspoon of honey.

Enjoy!

Andra Constantinescu

I am a classically trained chef, with a BSc in Culinary Arts and a Masters Degree in Food Business Management.

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