Chocolate Chia Pudding with A Prickly Pear Heart
Enjoy the Abuelita chia pudding recipe, when you combine these flavors of Mexico in one tasty chocolate, chia and prickly pear dessert.
It only takes 3 ingredients to make the rich and creamy vegan pudding, so it is easy to make.
The dessert only takes a few minutes to prep, but you need to wait about an hour for the pudding to set.
A prickly pear garnish shaped like a heart tops off the chocolate pudding, which looks pretty.
The flavor of the fruit also goes perfectly with the pudding.
Abuelita
Abuelita is the endearing Spanish word for ‘granny,’ and the Mexican style chocolate syrup and drink mixes are delicious.
The chocolate has a distinctly Mexican flavor that is similar to ‘regular’ chocolate, but has cinnamon flavor added.
It tastes a bit spicy and is delicious for hot chocolate and for chia pudding.
The syrup is easy to use for this recipe, but I usually the tablets when I’m making Mexican hot cocoa.
Chia Seeds
Adding healthy fat, fiber and other good nutrition to your diet is easy, when you eat chia.
These tiny seeds are from a plant in the mint family and are packed with goodness.
When soaked in liquid they get a pudding-like texture that also has a nice little crunch from the seeds.
These are Melissa’s Chia Seeds that come in a convenient 5 oz. package.
What Kind of Liquid for Chia Pudding?
You can use water to make chia pudding, if you’d like.
However, I prefer the creamier pudding you can get by using milk or a milk alternative.
Also, this adds more nutrition to the pudding than water does.
I’ve made this pudding with almond milk and hemp milk, which were both good.
Use whatever type you prefer and have on hand.
Prickly Pear
Prickly pear are the fruit from nopal cactus and they have rightfully earned their prickly name.
Like the rest of the cactus plant, the fruit has sharp spines on the outside and you really don’t want to get pricked.
Inside a prickly pear fruit, however, is a different story.
The fruit is sweet, juicy and delicious, kind of like a kiwi or melon flavor.
It has hard edible seeds that you can either swallow or spit out, whichever you prefer.
After you peel the fruit, it can be sliced and then cut into a heart shape.
Alternative Garnish
Prickly pear is absolutely delicious and pairs well with the chocolate cinnamon flavor of the chia pudding, but not everyone has easy access to them.
If you don’t have a prickly pear, you may substitute another fruit for the garnish.
A red dragon fruit or cherry in cut into a heart shape would look nice and taste good, too.
If you are using small cherries, you may want to add a few to each serving of pudding.
Abuelita Chia Pudding Recipe
Prep Time: 5 Minutes
Chill Time to Set: 1 Hour
Yield: 2 Servings
Ingredients
1 cup Milk Alternative
¼ cup Chia Seeds
2 T Abuelita Syrup
Garnish
Prickly Pear
Supplies
Bowl
Measuring Cup
Measuring Spoon
Spoon
Knife
Instructions
1) Measure the milk alternative, chia seed and Abuelita Syrup into a bowl and stir.
2) Refrigerate for an hour or more to set, stirring once or twice to prevent lumps.
3) Make 2 hearts out of pieces of prickly pear cactus fruit for the garnish.
4) Divide the set pudding into two servings and top with the heart shaped fruit garnish.
5) Serve and enjoy!
More from Mama Likes To Cook
Check out my vegetarian recipes, so you can get more great ideas for baking, cooking, blending and juicing.
Chia Recipes
- Chia Seed Lemonade
- Hemp and Cherry Protein Chia Pudding
- Blueberry and Fig Chia Pudding Cake
- Red Grape and Chia Smoothie
- Chocolate Almond Chia Pudding
- Matcha Chia Smoothie
- Chocolate Chia Overnight Oats
Prickly Pear Recipes
- Exotic Fruit Salad in a Papaya Boat
- Prickly Pear Jam
- Halloween Dragon Eye Nectar