No-Added-Sugar Vanilla Bean Chia Pudding with Easy Cherry Sauce combines creamy vanilla pudding with sweet, intense cherry sauce; it’s an irresistible combination!
Chia pudding revolutionizes the making of pudding! Gone are the days when you have to stand over a hot stovetop, stirring your heart out. Chia pudding makes itself; all you do is combine chia seeds and liquid and stash it in the fridge overnight.
Also gone is the time when pudding was full of unpronounceable non-food “foods”, like what you’d find in the store-bought pudding mixes. Making chia pudding at home lets you use wholesome, nourishing ingredients.
And lastly, having pudding equate to something that’s heavy laden with sugar is also a thing of the past. You can sweeten your own homemade version of chia pudding with any healthy sweetener that fits into your lifestyle, like fruit (like mashed banana or pureed dates), stevia, honey, maple syrup, coconut sugar, etc.
This No-Added-Sugar Vanilla Bean Chia Pudding with Easy Cherry Sauce starts with a vanilla-laced creamy chia pudding base and is topped with an easy cherry sauce that’s sweetly aromatic and intensely cherry flavored. It’s the perfect breakfast to start your day, or the perfect dessert to end it with.
How to Make Chia Pudding
Chia pudding is so easy to make! When you mix chia seeds with liquid, it forms a type of gel, with a texture similar to pudding (although a bit more slippery, not all that different from tapioca pudding). All you have to do to make chia pudding is combine seeds with liquid (and add any flavors you like, such as sweetener, vanilla, etc.). I usually use a ratio of 3 tablespoons seeds to 1 cup of liquid (to make 2 servings)
What Kind of Milk or Liquids Can Be Used for Chia Pudding
I’ve used nut “milks” (such as almond), whole milk (cow’s milk), and a combination of heavy cream and water. I’ve also used coffee in combination with cream for a mocha-flavored pudding.
How Long Chia Pudding Lasts in the Fridge
I like to divide my pudding into individually portioned servings, which I store covered in the fridge. If you store them this way, chia pudding lasts up to 5 days in the fridge. If you’re trying to meal prep in advance, individual servings of chia pudding can make a great breakfast to grab on the go and bring to work eat at your desk.
Ingredients Used in This No-Added-Sugar Vanilla Bean Chia Pudding with Easy Cherry Sauce
A lot of the ingredients are pantry staples, but if you’re wondering what brands I use, here they are:
- Chia seeds
- Stevia packets (this kind is a blend of organic stevia/organic erythritol)
- Vanilla
- Almond extract
- RealFruit Instant Pectin
Other Delicious Chia Pudding Recipes
- Cinnamon-Vanilla Chia Seed Pudding from An Edible Mosaic
- Banana Bread Chia Pudding from Vegan Richa
- Keto Toasted Coconut Chia Pudding from The Keto Queens
- Creamsicle Chia Pudding from Fed + Fit
- Low-Carb Overnight Black Forest Mocha Chia Seed Pudding from Healthy Sweet Eats
- Yields: 5 servings
- Serving size: 1/5 of recipe
- Calories: 218
- Fat: 15
- Saturated fat: 6
- Trans fat: 0
- Carbohydrates: 18
- Sugar: 10
- Sodium: 78
- Fiber: 7
- Protein: 4
- Cholesterol: 32
- 1/2 cup (120 ml) heavy whipping cream (see Note)
- 1 1/2 cups (355 ml) water
- 6 tablespoons chia seeds (I use Chosen Foods)
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 pinch salt
- 2 packets stevia
- 1 (340 g/12 oz/2 1/2 cups) bag frozen cherries (see Note)
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 packet stevia
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/8 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 teaspoon RealFruit Instant Pectin (optional; to thicken the sauce a bit)
- 5 teaspoons 90% dark or stevia-sweetened chocolate shavings, for garnish (optional)
- For the pudding, whisk together all ingredients in a bowl. Cover and transfer to the fridge to sit overnight and turn into pudding (give it a stir every so often if you think of it).
- For the sauce, add the frozen cherries, water, and salt to a medium saucepan over medium heat. Cover the saucepan and cook until the cherries are softened, about 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Keep an eye on it and turn the heat down if necessary so it doesn’t boil over. Once the cherries are softened, turn off the heat, stir in the stevia, vanilla, almond extract, and pectin, and use a fork to mash the cherries a bit. Cool completely.
- To serve, layer the pudding and sauce in individual glasses. Top with chocolate shavings if desired.
- Store leftovers covered in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Frozen Cherries: This is a great way to use frozen cherries because in this recipe, the cherries don’t have to hold their shape. If you have access to fresh cherries, you can always wash, de-stem, de-pit, and flash-freeze them to make this when cherries are out of season. Or if you have an excess of fresh cherries on hand during cherry season, you can go that route and make this recipe with fresh cherries instead, you might just need to add a splash more water.
Low-Carb Version: Although this recipe has no added sugar, it isn’t exactly low carb. With 11g net carbs per serving (mostly from the cherries) you can probably fit it into a low-carb lifestyle. Or if you need to reduce the carbs a bit, an easy way to do this is to use only half of the cherry sauce (which will cut the carbs in about half).
Disclosure: This post contains Amazon affiliate links to products we believe in, which means that even though it doesn’t cost you anything extra, Healthy Sweet Eats will receive a small amount of money from the sale of these items.
Hello and welcome! I'm Faith and I believe you can have your cake and eat it too. For breakfast.
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