Nutty Overnight Chia Hemp Pudding

This pudding is rich in whole-food fats, plant-based Omega 3s (i.e. ALA), and selenium. Make it with a fortified plant-based milk for additional vitamins and minerals that may lack in a vegan diet. Enjoy this pudding as part of a nutritious breakfast or as a between-meal snack. Chocolate, lower-calorie/fat, and nut-free options can be found below the recipe. Topping options can be found there as well.
Yield: 4 servings of a little over ½ cup (135g) each, totaling about 2¼ cups (540g)
Macros (per serving): 275 calories | 11g protein | 22g fat | 2g net carbs
Prep: 15 minutes | Set: overnight (or 8-10 hours)
Storage: refrigerated for up to 3 days.
Ingredients:
  • 1 cup (240ml) unsweetened soy or pea milk or plant-based milk of choice ✎
  • ½ cup (120ml) canned full-fat coconut milk or low-carb plant-based cream of choice
  • ¼ cup (50g) granulated allulose or equivalent in keto-friendly sweetener of choice
  • 1 teaspoon sugar-free vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon or pumpkin spice (optional)
  • ⅛ teaspoon salt
  • ⅓ cup (53g) hemp hearts
  • ¼ cup (25g) pecans, roughly chopped ✎
  • 2 medium (9g) Brazil nuts, roughly chopped ✎
  • ¼ cup (40g) chia seeds
Directions:
  1. Prepare the pecans and Brazil nuts as per the ingredient list.
  2. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together all ingredients apart from the chia seeds. Slowly add the chia seeds while whisking to prevent clumping.
  3. Whisk periodically for about 5 minutes to prevent chia seeds from clumping in the bottom of the bowl.
  4. Cover the bowl and refrigerate overnight, or for roughly 8-10 hours.
  5. Divide into 4 servings and enjoy at preferred temperature. Pudding can be briefly microwaved if a warm porridge-like dish is preferred. Top as desired (see some ideas below).
Topping Ideas: low-carb fruit (e.g. raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, or starfruit), 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 Chocolate: add ⅓ cup (29g) unsweetened cocoa/cacao powder, ¼ cup (60ml) additional soy/pea milk, and increase the sweetener to ​½ cup (100g). Omit the cinnamon. Divide into 5 servings of a little over ½ cup (135g) each, totaling about 2¾ cups (675g). Macros (per serving): 240 calories | 10g protein | 19g fat | 3g net carbs
Make It Lower Fat/Calorie: replace some, or all, of the coconut milk with 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 255. Replacing all of the coconut milk reduces the calories to 235. Another option is to omit the pecans. This would reduce the calories per serving to 230.
​Make It Nut-Free: replace the pecans and Brazil nuts with ¼ cup (35g) sunflower seeds. Note that this increases the net carbs per serving to roughly 3g net carbs.
✎ Notes:
  • 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.
  • Another nut can be used in place of pecans if preferred. Using an equal weight of walnuts, almonds, or hazelnuts will slightly reduce the calories/fat and slightly increase the protein and net carbs. The impact to macros is minimal.
  • Brazil nuts are an excellent source of selenium, which is one reason I've included them in this recipe. A single Brazil nut contains 165% of your daily requirement for selenium.
  • 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), hemp hearts (Manitoba Harvest), 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.