Glutenfree, vegan & paleo matcha overnight chia with hemp seeds, pistachios and cherries

It looks like a lush Christmas dinner dessert. But it is actually ‘just’ an overnight chiapudding. The green you see not only comes from the pistachios, but also from matcha powder and hemp seed. Both give a nice tangy flavour, that’s just a bit different than your ordinary overnight chia. Topped with cherries for a full sweetness. Together the bright red and the green form a luscious colour burst. This dessert is not only glutenfree and dairyfree but also vegan and paleo proof as well.

Overnight chia

Overnight chia is a wonderful way to make pudding without dairy. Of course coconut cream is always a nice go to as well, but I don’t want all my meals to taste like coconut. And in this dessert the pistachios and hemp seeds combine so good with chia seeds. Way better than they would with coconut milk!

How to make chia pudding

Chia seeds form a nice jelly like layer when you put them into any kind of fluid. That can be water but also any vegan milk, coffee or juice. Usually you need three times the amount of fluid: so one tablespoon of chia seeds and three tablespoons of fluid.

Ingredients

• Chia seeds – The base for this pudding.
• Almond milk – Used as fluid to combine with the chia seeds to make the pudding.
• Matcha – I used just one tablespoon, but you can double that if you are used to the flavour.
• Hemp seeds – I used raw, whole seeds.
• Cherries – You can either use fresh or frozen.
• Pistachios – Unsalted.
• Pistachio butter – Homemade or storebought.
• Honey – Preferably raw.
• Maple syrup – To substitute the honey for vegan
• Salt – I use Celtic sea salt. If you use pink Himalayan be sure its the real deal and not contaminated.

Pistachio butter

Pistachio butter (sometimes called paste) is to pistachios what peanut butter is to peanuts. It is made only from pistachios that you process in the foodprocessor. First you chop them into tiny pieces, then it becomes flour. And if you process them even longer the oil comes free and you get a thick, oily paste. Of course store bought paste will work just fine. But be sure to buy with no additives!

Roasted or raw pistachios?

For a nice green colour you can use raw pistachios. Removing the brown skin makes it even more green. To do so you can blanch the pistachios and rub them in a clean cloth, just like you would do when making white almonds. Roasted pistachio butter has a deeper flavour than butter made from raw pistachios. But roasted will not leed to the lush green bowl shown in my photo.

Raw honey

Make sure you buy raw honey with no added sugar. Honey that has been heated won’t crystallize. Which seems like a good thing. But honey contains healthy enzymes from the bees and those enzymes will loose their benefits when heated over 110F or 43C.

Other chia pudding recipes

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