Peanut Butter Chia Pudding

I love peanut butter and so this rich and creamy chia pudding really hits the spot. I tend to have it as part of my breakfast or as a mid-morning snack, but it makes for a tasty dessert as well. Add some sugar-free dark chocolate chips and chopped peanuts for more flavor and texture. See below the recipe for macros with these additions. Other topping options can be found there as well. For those with peanut or nut allergies, the pudding can me made with almond or sunflower seed butter instead. Using Sunbutter, a North American brand of sunflower seed butter, is also a lower carb option.
Yield: 4 servings of a little over ½ cup (130g) each, totaling a little over 2 cups (520g)
Macros (per serving): 275 calories | 13g protein | 20g fat | 5g net carbs
Prep: 15 minutes | Set: overnight (or 8-10 hours)
Equipment required: a blender (optional). I prefer a bullet blender for this recipe. ✎
Storage: refrigerated for up to 3 days.
Ingredients:
  • 1¼ cups (300ml) unsweetened soy or pea milk or plant-based milk of choice ✎
  • ½ cup (128g) unsweetened peanut butter, almond butter, or sunflower seed butter ✎
  • ¼ cup (50g) granulated allulose or equivalent in keto-friendly sweetener of choice
  • 1 teaspoon sugar-free vanilla extract
  • a pinch of salt (i.e. half of a ⅛ teaspoon)
  • ¼ cup (40g) chia seeds
Directions:
  1. Put all ingredients apart from the chia seeds in the cup/carafe of your blender and blend to smooth. I prefer to use a bullet blender for this. If you don't have a blender, whisk ingredients until smooth in a medium-sized mixing bowl.
  2. If using a bullet blender, slowly add the chia seeds to the blender cup while whisking to prevent clumping. If using a traditional blender, transfer the mixture to a medium-sized mixing bowl and whisk in the chia seeds.
  3. Whisk periodically for about 5 minutes to prevent chia seeds from clumping in the bottom of the cup/bowl. Alternatively, you can put the lid on your blender cup and shake periodically.
  4. Cover the blender cup or bowl and refrigerate overnight, or for roughly 8-10 hours.
  5. Divide into 4 servings and enjoy cold or at room temperature. 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.
With Pictured Toppings: top a serving of peanut butter chia pudding with 1 tablespoon (12g) sugar-free dark chocolate chips (e.g. ChocZero Dark) and 1 tablespoon (10g) oil-roasted salted peanuts, chopped. Macros (per serving): 385 calories | 16g protein | 30g fat | 6.5g net carbs ✎
Make It Lower Fat/Calorie: increase the soy/pea milk to 1½ cups (360ml) and replace the peanut butter with ⅓ cup (40g) sugar-free peanut butter powder/flour. If your peanut butter powder contains sweetener, halve the sweetener in the recipe and then add additional sweetener to taste. This swap will roughly halve the calories to about 135 per serving. Overall macros will depend on the product used.
✎ Notes:
  • If you only have a blender with a large carafe, it may be difficult to properly blend the ingredients because there isn't enough contents in the blender. An immersion blender would be a better option if you have one available.
  • 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.
  • Made with almond butter, the macros per serving are 280 calories | 12g protein | 21g fat | 4.5g net carbs. Made with Sunbutter the macros per serving are 295 calories | 12g protein | 22g fat | 3g net carbs.​
  • According to package labels, oil-roasted peanuts typically contain more net carbs than what American national nutritional data suggests. Check your labels. National data has been used in my macro calculations.​
  • 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 chia seeds (Bob's Redmill), the chocolate chips in the topped option (ChocZero), and the sunflower seed butter (Sunbutter) in the note given above.
  • 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.