Chia Pudding Dirt Cups

A Dessert by Any Other Name….

If it has a ton of nutrition, fiber and protein…does it still count as dessert? Do desserts have to inherently be nutrient-poor and spike your blood sugar? Definitely not, in my opinion. A dessert to me is a sweet, indulgent-feeling treat. Dessert can actually be a really helpful way to reach your nutrition goals! I especially find desserts helpful for getting healthy fats and calories into my children (nice cream, chickpea chocolate chip cookies, protein milkshakes, date balls with nuts and seeds).

Dr. Joel Fuhrman (clearly the guy I quote the most around here if you haven’t noticed….) even encourages people to eat dessert every day. Of course, he says it should be a nutritarian dessert meaning it’s free of added sugar, oil, salt, refined foods and animal products. He says eating dessert after dinner can be a very healthy habit if you make it a signal to yourself that eating is done for the day, and to not eat again until breakfast the next day.

This is actually nearly a Joel Fuhrman approved dessert (if you left the pinch of salt out…which I don’t recommend….it just adds so much). It is sweetened only with dates which makes it incredibly filling with all the fiber. He would probably say it has too many dates in it per serving (recommends just one date per serving to not eat too much sugar), but oh well! I do my best to make things healthy and appealing to the masses.

If you don’t like Chia Pudding

I have a dirt cup recipe in my cookbook, as well, but it uses a tofu pudding base. It’s very yummy and more smooth than this. My kids love it!

The Dirt

The “dirt” is my favorite part and it is SO good for you with the walnuts and flax seeds snuck in there. You can use any nuts and seeds, however. Pumpkin, sunflower, almonds, peanuts….whatever you have.

Add mandarin orange segments from a can, fresh strawberries, or even gummy worms on top if you like. Enjoy handing your family their cups of dirt!

I used deglet noor dates for this recipe since they are very inexpensive. I get a big bag at Costco for about $10.

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Chia Pudding Dirt Cups

Delicious and actually full of fiber, protein, and nutrition! Sweetened only with dates.

Course Dessert, Snack

Keyword dairy-free dirt cups, date-sweetened, dirt cups, vegan

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

chill time 4 hours hours

Servings 4 dirt cups

Author Faith Ralphs

Ingredients

Chocolate Chia Pudding

• 2 cups plant milk
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup pitted dates (I used deglet noor dates)
• 1/2 cup plant-based yogurt, plain or vanilla (optional but delicious!)
• 1/2 cup chia seeds

Dirt

• 1/2 cup nuts or seeds of choice (I use almonds and walnuts)
• 1/2 cup pitted dates (I used deglet noor dates)
• 1 TBSP cocoa powder
• 2 TBSP groud flax seeds
• 1 dash of salt
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Toppings

• fruit, such as mandarin orange segments or strawberries, or gummy worms if you wanted

Instructions

• In a blender, blend together all the pudding ingredients EXCEPT chia seeds. Blend until the dates are totally smooth. Stir in the chia seeds, or blend them in if you don't want the chia texture. Let it chill in the fridge at least 4 hours, or overnight.

  If you'd like smooth pudding, you can also run it through a blender after chilling.
• Make the dirt in a food processor by pulsing all the ingredients together until they resemble coarse dirt.
• Assemble the dirt cups by putting some pudding and then heaps of dirt on top.
• Add fruit or gummy worms on top if you'd like, or just enjoy your cup of dirt as is!