Berry Chia Pudding

This recipe combines two of my favorite things, chia pudding and berries. Plus, it's delightfully pink, which brings me joy. Fruit intake can be scarce on a ketogenic diet due to the high sugar content of most fruits. Fortunately, certain berries are very low in sugar. Strawberries and raspberries are two of my favorite fruits and so I eat them regularly, often with breakfast. To know what other fruits may be accessible to you on a keto diet, see the food list on my free resources page.
Yield: 4 servings of ¾ cup (180g) each, totaling 3 cups (720g)
Macros (per serving - blackberry): 230 calories | 7g protein | 16g fat | 4g net carbs
Macros (per serving - raspberry): 235 calories | 7g protein | 16g fat | 4.5g net carbs
Macros (per serving - strawberry): 220 calories | 7g protein | 15g fat | 4.5g net carbs
Prep: 20 minutes | Cool & Set: 3 to 4 hours
Storage: refrigerated for up to 3 days.
Ingredients:
  • 8 ounces (227g) low-carb berries (i.e. blackberries, raspberries, or strawberries), mashed ✎
  • ¼ cup (50g) granulated allulose or equivalent in keto-friendly sweetener of choice ✎
  • ¼ cup (60ml) water
  • a pinch of salt (i.e. half of a ⅛ teaspoon)
  • ½ 13.5-ounce (400g) can (i.e. 200g) full-fat coconut milk
  • ½ cup (120ml) unsweetened soy or pea milk or plant-based milk of choice ✎
  • ½ cup (80g) chia seeds
Directions:
  1. Put the mashed berries, water, sweetener, and salt in a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer on medium-low heat, reduce heat to low, cover with a well-fitted lid, and simmer for 5 minutes. Check that it doesn't bubble over.
  2. Remove the berries from the heat and whisk in the milks. Slowly add in the chia seeds while whisking.
  3. Whisk periodically for about 5 minutes to prevent chia seeds from clumping in the bottom of the pan.
  4. Cover and refrigerate for roughly 3 to 4 hours until cooled and set.
  5. Divide into 4 servings and enjoy cold or at room temperature. Top as desired (see some ideas below).
Topping Ideas: low-carb yogurt (some yogurts may be sugar-free but contain a lot of starch, making them higher in carbs), additional low-carb fruit, chopped nuts or seeds (not cashews), unsweetened shredded coconut, nut or seed butter, and vegan keto chocoloate chips (e.g. ChocZero Dark) or cacao nibs.
Make It Lower Fat/Calorie: replace some, or all, of the coconut milk with additional soy/pea milk. Note that this will produce a less creamy textured pudding. To compensate, you could mix in some low-carb plant-based yogurt. Replacing half of the coconut milk with soy/pea milk reduces the calories per serving to about 210. Replacing all of the coconut milk reduces the calories to 175. The protein in the pudding will aslo increase slightly.
✎ Notes:
  • Fresh or frozen berries can be used, but for some unfathomable reason, national nutritional data shows frozen berries to be higher in net carbs. Macros for this recipe are calculated with fresh fruit.
  • It's common to see blueberries portrayed as low in carbs, but they actually have about twice as many net carbs as the berries I've mentioned here, and are in fact higher in carbs than many other fruits that are touted as not keto friendly. If made with blueberries, a servings of this pudding would have 8.5g net carbs. That said, adding a few blueberries here and there in balance with other low carb foods is certainly possible on a keto diet. You can still enjoy them.
  • Some or all of this sweetener could be replaced with some sugar-free berry-flavored drink mix/squeeze/drops to enhance the berry flavor.
  • Using an alternative milk will likely reduce the amount of protein in the pudding. Be careful of higher carb plant-based milks. Oat milk tends to be quite high in carbs. Choosing fortified plant-based milks can help you meet your daily vitamin and mineral requirements.
  • In the photo, I've used Alpro No Sugars Plain soy yogurt, which has no net carbs. Alpro products are available in the UK/EU, but unfortunately not in North America.
  • Excessive chia consumption can cause digestive distress. If unsure of your tolerance, I'd suggest a 2-serving limit of this pudding. In addition, this pudding is quite high in calories for a small portion of food. If enjoying it as part of a full meal, I'd suggest pairing it with some bulkier food items so you're not left feeling hungry. 
  • Macros for this recipes are calculated with American national nutritional data (i.e. NCCDB & USDA entries in Cronometer) for all ingredients apart from the coconut milk (Aroy-D) and chia seeds (Bob's Redmill).
  • Macro numbers are rounded. Numbers equal to or greater than 10g are rounded to the nearest whole number (e.g. 10g, 11g, 12g, etc.) and numbers below 10g are rounded to the nearest 0.5g (0.5g, 1g, 1.5g ... 9g, 9.5g). Any numbers below 0.5g are given as is (e.g. 0.1g, 0.2g, etc.). Calories are rounded to the nearest multiple of 5.