Smoked Chocolate Chia Seed Pudding

A chocolate chia pudding dessert smoked with hickory wood.

Sometimes a 'health food fad' is meant to disappear. Sometimes it goes away for a little while and you forget...and then remember you are OBSESSED and give that freaking fad mouth to MOUTH to bring it back to life. The first time I posted about chia pudding on the blog was January 2014. It's time to bring back the chia pudding in a new way. So let's make it chocolate and smoke it. That's right. We are going to smoke chia pudding to flavor it with hickory.

The reason chia became such a 'super food' fad was because of the fiber and omega 3 content they contain in such a tiny package. And while their gelling ability can be a major turn off in some cases it's what makes the pudding work. And you're getting a lot of chia in each serving (and therefore major nutrition benefits). That's not even touching on the greek yogurt protein benefits. And chocolate is just good for your soul, so there.  

Let's talk about the smoking process. Smoking is something most people are familiar with in the context of meats and fish. Maybe even cheeses (there's a smoked mozzarella we buy at our farmer's market that blows my mind). But there is the potential to smoke many other things. A few years ago we bought a smoking gun (see the photo below). We used it a handful of times but kind of kind of forgot about it. It's one of those kitchen things that is completely unnecessary but quite fun. I mean, the one we got is called The Smoking Gun for goodness sake. You get to light wood chips on fire! This process only takes twenty freaking seconds of smoking. Because what we're smoking is a dairy base with a bit of fat, it easily absorbs the flavor. Magic.

Smoked Chocolate Chia Seed Pudding 

serves 4

/// Ingredients ///

• 1 Cup Vanilla Almond Milk (Pacific Foods makes a good one)
• 1 Cup 0% Greek Yogurt
• 2 T Maple Syrup
• 1/4 Cup Chia Seeds
• 1 1/2 T cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• hickory wood smoke
• Chocolate shavings

/// Directions /// Whisk almond milk, yogurt,  maple syrup together in a bowl. Pour in chia and chocolate and cinnamon. Whisk until thoroughly mixed. Cover with plastic and let sit for 30 minutes in fridge. Whisk again and place in the fridge overnight. To infuse chocolate chia pudding with smoke, insert hickory chips into smoker and light. Place smoke tube onto the lip of the bowl under plastic wrap and fill bowl with smoke for a few seconds. Remove tube and completely cover bowl. Leave smoke for  20-30 seconds. Remove plastic wrap and stir chia pudding. Add to bowl and top with shaved chocolate.