Breakfast

Blueberry & Banana Chia Pudding

Blueberry & Banana Chia Pudding

Chia pudding has a texture problem, and everyone who has quietly abandoned a jar of it halfway through knows exactly what it is. Whole seeds swell into little gel-jacketed beads that pop between your teeth, and no amount of good intentions makes that pleasant if it is not for you. Blending fixes it outright: break the seeds up before they ever meet the milk and they thicken the whole lot into something closer to a set mousse — deep purple, faintly sweet, and completely smooth from the first spoon to the last. A banana does the sweetening, the blueberries do the colour and most of the flavour, and the seeds quietly bring the fibre, the protein and the omega-3s along without announcing themselves. Four ingredients, thirty seconds of noise, and three breakfasts sitting in the fridge waiting for you.

Makes 3 pots · Prep 5 mins · Cook 2 hrs · 4 ingredients · 4 steps

Ingredients

  • 1 large banana (the spottier the better)
  • 150g blueberries (fresh or frozen)
  • 500ml milk
  • 80g chia seeds

Method

  1. Fill the blender. Everything goes in together — banana broken into a few pieces, blueberries, milk, chia seeds. There is no order to get right and nothing to soak first; the seeds are going to be broken open rather than left to swell whole, which is the entire point of doing it this way.
  2. Blend until smooth. Give it 30 seconds on high. Stop when the colour has gone even and there are no flecks of seed left against the side of the jug — any grittiness you can still see now is grittiness you will still feel once it has set.
  3. Pour into pots. Split between three jars or glasses straight away. It starts thickening from the moment the blades stop, and a mixture left to stand in the blender sets into something you have to spoon out rather than pour.
  4. Chill until set. At least 2 hours in the fridge, and overnight if you can — that is when it goes from thick drink to proper pudding. It will be noticeably firmer in the morning than it was at bedtime, which is the texture you are after.

Good to know

  • Blending is the whole recipe. Left whole, chia seeds soak into individual beads with a slippery skin around each one, and that is the texture people mean when they say they do not get on with chia. Broken up, they behave like a thickener instead and disappear completely.
  • Give it the full 30 seconds even when it looks done at 15. The colour evens out long before the seeds have actually gone, and a batch pulled early sets with a faint sandiness through it.
  • The banana is the only sweetener, so how ripe it is decides how sweet the pudding turns out. A yellow one gives you something quite restrained; one covered in brown spots is sweet enough that nobody asks for honey. If your banana is on the pale side, a spoonful of honey or maple syrup in the blender sorts it.
  • Frozen blueberries work as well as fresh and are usually cheaper. They also blend colder and come out a deeper purple, so the pudding looks better for it — no need to thaw them, just add a few seconds to the blending.
  • Any milk does the job. Whole milk gives the richest set, semi-skimmed is barely different, and oat milk is the best of the dairy-free options because it brings its own slight sweetness. Almond and soya both set fine but taste more of themselves.
  • 80g of chia to 500ml of milk is the ratio that gives a spoonable pudding. Drop to 60g and you get something loose enough to drink from a bottle; push past 100g and it sets close to jelly.
  • Keeps in the fridge for three to four days, which is exactly what makes it worth doing. Blend on a Sunday evening and three weekday breakfasts are already done before the week starts.
  • Toppings are where it stops looking like baby food. Fresh blueberries scattered over for something to bite, crushed nuts for crunch, a dollop of yogurt for tang, a drizzle of honey for sweetness — or all four, which is the version worth photographing.
  • Filed under breakfast, but a pot of this after dinner is a perfectly good dessert, especially in a smaller glass with the honey and nuts on top. Nobody eating it would guess it started out as a health-food breakfast.
  • Jars with lids beat open glasses. The surface can dry to a slight skin overnight in the fridge, and a lid — or cling film pressed down onto it — keeps the top as smooth as the rest.