Tropical coconut chia pudding parfait

Enticing to look at and so good to eat, these magical parfaits have excited health food aficionados, pleased an old meat-and-potatoes curmudgeon, nourished the sick, delighted a young child, and brought joy to anyone who scoops up a spoonful and tastes it.

To me, chia has always been a clay animal that sprouts green hair. If you don’t remember chia pets, never mind…

Luckily, I have a daughter who keeps me updated on food trends, particularly those geared towards vegetarians. So, I now know that these little seeds can do more than sprout. They can soak up a ton of liquid and then thicken said liquid into a pudding-like texture. And, they’re also really good for you. Go know!

Unlike old-fashioned puddings, chia pudding doesn’t need to be cooked, so there’s very little time and effort involved in whipping this up. That said, since I’m using canned coconut milk, which needs to be heated to become homogenous, I’m tossing this in a small saucepan. If you use another liquid you won’t need to do this. I just love coconut anything.  

Turned into a parfait, layered with an array of tropical fruits, this is as gorgeous to look at as it is to eat.

Chia pudding makes a great grab-and-go breakfast, a super snack, and if you make it a bit sweeter, a delicious dessert.

Ingredients:

• 1 can unsweetened full-fat coconut milk (Asian brands work well. Look for one without additives.)

• 4 tablespoons (more or less according to taste) honey, maple syrup, or agave,

• ½ cup chia seeds (either black or white—they’re equally good)

• a pinch of salt

• ½ teaspoon vanilla paste or extract

• I’m adding ½ teaspoon pistachio extract. You can use any additional pure extract, to add any flavor you’d like to introduce. It’s optional.

• I’m also adding a pinch of crumbled saffron threads dissolved in a tiny bit of hot water, also optional.

As you can see, you can use your creativity to add anything you’d like.

Toppings:

• 1 star fruit, sliced into stars

• 1 banana, sliced or diced

• mango, diced (fresh or frozen)

• rambutan (if you can find it. Canned lychees are a substitute.)

• 1 dragon fruit, removed from shell and diced

• 1 mango

• A few strawberries, sliced (not tropical, but nice here)

• Sliced almonds, roughly chopped macadamia nuts and/or pistachios

• Shredded coconut for the top

• whipped cream or coconut whipped cream

It’s fine if you don’t have all of these fruits; feel free to add others that you like.

Method:

• Warm the coconut milk with the sweetener and salt until the solids are melted. Remove the pot from the heat. Stir in the chia seeds, the saffron and its soaking water if using, and the vanilla and other flavorings if using.

• You can use a whisk to combine the ingredients, in which case you should then pop in the fridge, let it rest for half an hour, and then give it another stir to make sure all the seeds don’t stay on the bottom.

• There’s another choice: I find that using an immersion blender or a food processor helps to break down the seeds a bit, both making it more homogenous and do a better job at thickening the pudding.

• Let the pudding rest overnight in the fridge.

• When you’re ready to serve the chia pudding…

• Set the slices of star fruit to the side and combine all the other fruits. In parfait glasses, layer some coconut chia pudding, some of the mixed fruit, more pudding, more fruit, ending with fruit on top. I like to do 2–3 layers of pudding. You can add nuts to the fruit layers or just use them on top.

• To finish the parfaits, put the shredded coconut into a dry sauté pan and stir over medium heat for a few minutes until it turns golden. Watch carefully that it doesn’t burn. Squirt some store-bought canned whipped cream or coconut cream onto the top (or make your own!).

• Sprinkle the toasted coconut over the top. Make a small cut in a slice of star fruit and slide it onto the top of your parfaits as a garnish.