My Favorite Chia Seed Pudding
This creamy chia seed pudding recipe tastes like a creamsicle! You're going to love this healthy gluten-free treat—enjoy as a snack, dessert or breakfast.
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on August 28, 2024
I’m sharing my new go-to breakfast recipe today—chia pudding. I’ve not been a big fan of chia puddings in the past (this creamy blended treat being the sole exception).
This citrusy version completely changed my mind about chia pudding. This vanilla-orange chia pudding tastes like sunshine in a bowl.
Now, I wake up craving chia seed pudding. Which is awesome, because I can make individual servings of chia pudding today, and enjoy them for the rest of the week. Breakfast is ready!
The Best Chia Seed Pudding
Fresh citrus, vanilla and honey are a perfect match for chia seeds. Especially when you’re using a base of creamy homemade cashew milk. You can also use store-bought almond milk or coconut milk, but I really love the rich, neutral flavor and creamy texture that cashew milk provides.
This easy recipe doesn’t require any cooking at all; it just needs an hour-long (or overnight) rest to give the chia seeds time to plump up. The resulting tapioca-like pudding tastes similar to a Creamsicle or an Orange Julius.
Watch How to Make Chia Pudding
My #1 Chia Seed Pudding Tip
You must stir the mixture early on to prevent clumps from forming. After you initially mix it together, let the mixture rest for about 15 to 20 minutes. Once the seeds have begun to gel, stir again.
Here’s why: As the chia seeds absorb moisture, they gel up and become somewhat sticky. If they stick together in a clump, they won’t plump up, and you’ll end up with a very disappointing clumpy-hard-but-wet mixture. So, just remember to stir!
How to Serve Chia Pudding
Enjoy this chia pudding for breakfast, dessert, or as a snack. It’s a creamy, filling, and healthy treat, no matter how you serve it.
Chia seeds are high in fiber and Omega-3’s. In fact, Aztec warriors relied on them for energy. This chia seed pudding will keep you going for a while!
More Chia Seed Recipes to Enjoy
- Creamy Chia Pudding
- The Easiest Berry Chia Jam
- Overnight Oats (Recipe & Tips)
- Toasted Oatmeal with Strawberry Chia Jam and Coconut Whipped Cream
- Tropical Acai Bowl
As always, please let me know how you like this recipe in the comments! I love hearing from you, and your star ratings encourage other readers to give this recipe a try.
My Favorite Chia Seed Pudding
This creamy chia seed pudding recipe tastes like a creamsicle! You’re going to love this healthy gluten-free treat—enjoy as a snack, dessert or breakfast. Recipe yields 1 serving; multiply as necessary or see recipe notes for how to make 4 servings all together.
Ingredients
Per serving
- 1 cup homemade cashew milk, almond milk or light coconut milk
- ½ teaspoon orange zest, preferably from an organic orange
- ⅛ teaspoon vanilla extract, more to taste
- 3 tablespoons chia seeds
- Recommended toppings: drizzle of honey or maple syrup, sliced bananas, fresh or defrosted berries or my berry chia seed jam, shredded coconut, toasted chopped nuts…
Instructions
- In a small jar (these are perfect) or bowl, combine the milk, orange zest, and vanilla extract. Taste, and if you’d like a more pronounced vanilla flavor, add another ⅛ teaspoon vanilla extract. Be sure to measure out the extra vanilla extract rather than just pouring more in—it’s easy to go overboard.
- Whisk in the chia seeds. Let the mixture rest for about 15 minutes, then whisk the mixture again to break up any clumps. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 2 hours (or overnight), until the chia seeds have absorbed enough moisture to achieve a pudding-like state. If you think of it, give it a stir sometime along the way to break up any clumps of chia.
- Before serving, stir once again to break up any clumps of chia seeds. Serve with a drizzle of honey or maple syrup on top and any additional toppings you might like. This pudding will keep well in the refrigerator, covered, for about 5 days.
Notes
Make it vegan: Drizzle maple syrup on top instead of honey.
Make it nut free: Use a nut-free milk, and don’t top with nuts.
Change it up: I haven’t tried yet, but I bet this recipe would also be tasty with other citrus zest varieties.
To make 4 servings at once: Combine 4 cups milk, 2 teaspoons orange zest and ½ teaspoon vanilla extract. Add up to ½ teaspoon more vanilla extract for a more pronounced vanilla flavor. Whisk in ¾ cup chia seeds, whisk again after about 15 to 20 minutes, and refrigerate overnight.
Recipe update 3/15/17: My recipe originally included orange juice for extra orange flavor, however, it’s come to my attention that the acidity level of orange juice can prevent chia seeds from plumping up—this depends on the pH of the orange juice and the other liquid involved. I’ve edited the recipe from the original ¾ cup milk, ¼ cup orange juice, and ¼ teaspoon orange zest to the recipe you see above. It’s just as good and more reliable! My sincere apologies to anyone who had trouble with it before—what you see up there now is actually how I’d been making the pudding in the first place, and I’ve verified that it works with all of the milk options provided above.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
I accidentally added too much zest–a whole orange worth. Could that be the reason my chia pudding is bitter?
Hi! That could be. You could try adding some salt and a little sweetener.
Make sure your zest doesn’t contain any of the white under the skin, only the orange part. The white is very bitter and will ruin the flavor of your zest.
You say that orange juice would stop the seeds from plumping up but would the recipe work with oat milk or cow’s milk. My son is vegan so I will try that version first but wonder whether it would adapt satisfactorily for me as a non-vegan.
I still love cow’s milk (I am ovo-lactose instead). So is there a reason cow’s milk would not work with this recipe?
I want to give it a go if chia seeds do help sleep
Thought it was strange that this recipe just called for zest. Then I saw your explanation as to why. Have you tried it with the 3/4 cup milk and allowed the chia seeds to plump, then add in 1/4 cup orange juice? Just curious.
It’s sad you got no response to this. I was thinking the same thing and another thought I have is whether adding a small amount of baking soda to the juice would make a difference. The baking soda would increase the pH of the juice without significantly altering the flavor. I read that mild acid should have minimal effect on the ability of the seeds to plump up so why not up the juice pH. To raise the pH of orange juice, approximately 3.5, to a very mild acid level of 6, only 6 grams of baking soda would be required.
Another consideration is using almond milk which is alkaline and would react with orange juice to raise its pH. Cashew milk is slightly acidic which may be why Kate had the problem with using an acidic milk with acidic orange juice.
I made this salad this week and I’m already addicted to it. It’s so delicious!!! I love everything about it. I love arugula and I like beets, never thought of putting them together. Love the crunch of the pistachios and the radish, and the creaminess of the goat cheese. The dressing, amazing!
Perfect Chia Seed Pudding recipe! I’ve tinkered with many different ratios and your ratios are perfect! 1 tbsp chia seeds to 1/3 cup milk. My chia seeds from Nutiva never fails me. Gels up perfectly every single time.
It fully expanded when I checked after 3.5 hours, but I do like keeping them overnight. I love the orange zest here. I will be adding orange segments to top off my chia pudding – it’s citrus season after-all. Extra sunshine in a bowl :)
Thank you, CeeCee! I’m glad you loved it. Thanks for sharing your variation.
So I made your one serving chia seed pudding, it was very good! I used vanilla almond mild (didn’t have any extract). My only question is mine wasn’t as congealed as others in the past. Is it supposed to be runny or thick like actual pudding?,
Hi! Did you stir it at all in the chill process?
Absolutely delicious!!!
I made a bunch of this for my vegan food swap (6 individual jars and a tasting portion of a 3-serving recipe), and I found that 3 tablespoons of chia was too much chia proportionately–the pudding was too thick. Fortunately, an easy fix was available: adding whatever mylk I had on hand and stirring very well. Additionally, for the orange flavor, I added a heaping spoonful of frozen orange juice concentrate to the already set pudding and stirred it in. It was lovely! I will absolutely use this recipe again with my augmentations. Thanks Kate! (I’m going to do this again with frozen lemonade and either lemon extract or meyer lemon zest. Can’t wait!)
Loved it thanks so much ❤
I love this. Do you. Have a nutrition breakdown?
Hi Cath! The nutrition information can be found below the notes section of the website.
Yum! I made this with coconut cream and lime zest. It was delicious!
I’m happy you liked it, Nicky!
Do you think this recipe will work with oat milk? And if I use coconut milk, do. you recommend from the can or bought in the milk-style containers?
Looking forward to making this! I love your blog and cookbook – We rely on it for so many meals!
I didn’t try it with this, but you can try it. Let me know what you think!
I made mine with oatly creamer- it was so yummy!
Totally addicted – and that’s a good thing!
I love it! Thank you for your review, Kris.
In your recipe for 4 servings, it states 4cups milk to 3/4 cup of chia. Is this the right quantity of Chia seeds? I’m new to Chia puddings.
Hi, yes that would be correct if you were increasing the recipe amount x4. I hope you love it!
Can you add protein powder to this? And if so, do you add it before it sits overnight or do you stir it in when ready to eat?
Hi Eileen, I haven’t tired it so I can’t say for sure.
A tip on acidity … if you add a tiny punch of bicarb it will cut the acidity and the mix will gel perfectly.
I learned this when I owned a cafe and needed to cut the acidity in coffee to prevent soy milk curdling. I experimented with OJ and chia seeds with perfect results.
Thanks for the advice to go back and stir: I don’t usually do that and my chia pudding are always a bit more liquidy than I’d like. Will let you know how it turns out :-) Already giving 4 stars for your very clear instructions and for the “creamsicle flavour” idea: can’t wait to taste this!
Lovely recipe!! Made a smaller size for a snack (1/3 cup milk + 2 tbsp seeds) and the texture is perfect! Thanks for the tip to mix after it has started to gel, i think this is why my previous attempts were a but too liquidy. The taste is amazing: just like CreamSicles, I never thought of this flavour combo, it’s brilliant!!
I’m glad it was a great recipe for you, Annie! Thank you for your review.
Absolutely delicious! Easy to make ahead of time. I’ve used cashew as well as almond milk varieties, such as honey vanilla. I like extra vanilla and sometimes add a little orange blossom water and a touch of pink salt. Yum!
I’m glad you love it, Kelly! Thank you for your review.
I’m not a huge fan of zesty tastes so I added dessicated coconut and hazelnut coffee syrup instead. Served with chopped walnuts and banana………I’m hooked!!! My family love the original recipe so happy days! Thank you from the UK ❤
Great to hear, Tracy! I appreciate your review.
I made this to take to work the next day..it is delicious. This is my new go to. The orange zest is the best taste.
Excellent breakfast or brunch! I replace the zest with whatever fruit extract flavoring I have available (I have had success with high quality Orange, Lemon, and Lime extracts). I also break up the clumps every 5 minutes (up to 3 times) using a mini whisk as this gives me the desired consistency and result.
Thanks for the great recipe!!
I am thinking of making this, but only have cows milk at the moment. Should this be ok to use?
I haven’t tried it so I can’t say for sure. If you try it, let me know!
I just made it with cow’s milk and it seems to be fine. Love the orange rind in there, Kate. Thx.
I tried this receipe and it didn’t form into a pudding texture. Did I do something wrong? Should I not put a lid on it? It was left over night and still milky with no thickness. The chia seeds also didn’t form into expansion.
Hi, did you stir it during the time you let it set at all? What milk did you use and were your chia seeds older?
I used cashew milk. I did stir it an hour later or so and repeat as o checked on it. It’s been about 20 hours now and the chia seeds finally expanded but not much. It’s still very liquidy. I tried it again today with regular 1% I hope this works. I was very excited to try this. Fingers crossed. Thank you
This is a great basic chia seed pudding recipe to build on using one’s own favourite flavour combinations! The texture was great so the ratio of milk and seeds is perfect. I’m not a fan of the orange zest flavour, though, so I will try a different one next time. Thanks for this great new staple in my breakfast rotation!
Has anyone tried it with semi-skimmed cow’s milk ?
Can I use Soy milk?
You can try it. I don’t prefer soy milk. Let me know what you think!
This worked out so well! I used shop bought milk (all I had was coconut) and it was delicious. Thank you!
You’re welcome, Abigail! I appreciate your review.
Really enjoyed this and it was extremely easy to make. I doubled the batch and made it all in one larger Pyrex to be divvied up later. Added a few healthy drizzles of maple syrup and a pinch of salt up front, otherwise followed instructions. Used oat milk. Served with a generous mix of cashews, pistachios and pepitas for flavor and texture. Light and refreshing. Good amount of orange flavor. Will definitely make again
Wonderful to hear, Blythe!
This was delicious the second time I made it with store-bought almond milk. I think the first time around, I did not add enough sweetener. I added orange segments as toppings and that did not work. It made the taste bitter. Using dried coconut instead was a great topping.
It is quite a genius idea to use orange zest in this way. I use a little-less-than 1:3 ratio as I like my pudding to be not so “tight” or dense. Thank you Kate.
LOVE YOUR RCIPE FOR CHIA PUDDING BUT PLEASE CHANGE THE FORMAT SO I CAN PRINT JUST THE RECIPE OFF ON ONE PAGE ONLY AND ALL THE OTHR INFO AN A SEPAATE PAGE INSTEAD OF HAVING 3 OR MORE PAGES TO PRINT OFF IN HALF PAGES OF IRRELEVANT MATERIAL PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE.
Hi Liz, are you using the printer option? You can choose which pages are printed in your printer settings. I hope that helps!
Sometimes, it is difficult to get mix in the fat from coconut milk. So I heat it on very low temperature until it melts. Then you end up with a very nice consistency.
Can I use 2% milk?
You could try it. Let me know how it goes!
Thanks!!
Its look delicious and healthy.
This is the best ever. I followed your link to the homemade cashew milk as I had all the ingredients. Half batch of cashew milk, made in a quart jar attached to my blender blade attachment = Double batch of yummy orange chia pudding. Very little cleanup this way as I took off the blade attachment, and mixed everything else in the quart jar, put on a lid and popped it into the fridge with a little shake every so often at first. Super yummy and thank you!
So I’m confused with your measurements and I guess it could just be a Canadian/American difference as I know our gallon measurements are different. So you call for 3 Tablespoons chia seeds to 1 cup of liquid. But then you call for 1/4 cup of seeds per 4 cups of liquid. In Canada 4 tablespoons equal 1/4 cup which would work with your larger amount but not for the 1 cup amount. Hmmm it’s a conundrum but I figure if the 4 tablespoons, which I will use, makes it too thick I’ll add the orange juice that some of the other cooks did. I’ve actually never even thought of this difference when cooking other American recipes, interesting!
This is so delicious! I’ve been using this recipe as a base minus the orange zest. I’ve tried several different toppings on it, including kiwi purée, by far my favorite is cut pieces of Cara Cara oranges on top! The flavors are just so amazing together!
I will definitely try the recipe! I’ve been following you for a long time and love your recipes. I have shared your blog with many friends. Five years ago I moved to Florida from KC. I love the soundtrack for this video. Is it one of the local musicians in KC? I would love to find it. It reminds me of home. ❤️
Hi Michelle, thank you for your support as a longtime reader! The music is licensed for content creators.
Thank you for this I’ve just been diagnosed with a basket of disorders and have to look again at everything I eat now.looking forward to trying this recipe I’ve never used chia seeds in my life but my daughter have me a tiny shop bought chia seed desert and it was quite nice .
Made the 4 cup version and glad I did! A easy and refreshing take on chia pudding.
I LOVE this recipe! I added 2 tablespoons of protein powder for a little protein boost. Delicious!!
I have a huge problem with the fat content. Not only is it a disturbing total amount of fat but its individual amounts of the four fats is so unhealthy. The fat content of your creamy chia seed pudding is so much healthier.
Is the fat content of this recipe a typo?
Hi Irene, cashew milk does have a relatively high fat content. The information in the nutrition content shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
I used a mandarin orange for my rind and added the whole thing. It just didn’t have enough orange taste to it for my liking. Maybe a regular navel orange would have been better. Texture is kind of slimy even compared to tapioca pudding.