Protein chia pudding: a four-serving recipe with 25 g protein

A chia pudding with around 25 g of protein per serving: exact quantities for four jars, ten minutes of prep and an estimate of the calories and macros.

A standard chia pudding made with seeds and milk lands at roughly 8 g of protein per serving, which is too little to count as a meal or as a post-training breakfast. This version is built to hit about 25 g per serving, and it takes ten minutes with no pan involved. You make it once and it keeps for four days in the fridge.

Prep time and servings

Prep: 10 minutes. Cooking: 0 minutes. Servings: 4.

On top of that there is chilling time: 4 hours minimum, ideally overnight (8–10 hours). Each serving comes to about 300 g, so a full 350 ml jar.

Ingredients

60 g chia seeds (about 6 level tablespoons)
700 ml semi-skimmed milk (2.8% fat) or unsweetened plant drink
60 g vanilla protein powder, whey or plant based (roughly 2 scoops)
200 g Greek yoghurt, 2% fat
20 g honey or maple syrup
200 g berries, fresh or frozen (blueberries, raspberries, strawberries)
1 tsp vanilla extract, optional
a pinch of salt and 1/2 tsp cinnamon, optional

Method

Pour 700 ml of milk into a large bowl and add the 60 g of protein powder to the liquid first. The order matters — powder that lands on chia seeds never dissolves properly.
Whisk for 30–45 seconds until the mix is smooth and there is nothing gritty left at the bottom.
Stir in the 200 g of Greek yoghurt, 20 g of honey, vanilla, salt and cinnamon. The yoghurt does two jobs here: body and extra protein.
Add the 60 g of chia seeds and whisk for another half minute so they stay spread through the liquid rather than clumping in the middle.
Leave the bowl at room temperature for 10 minutes, then whisk again. This second pass breaks up the lumps that almost always form in the first few minutes of swelling.
Divide between four jars, roughly 300 g each, and put the lids on.
Chill for at least 4 hours, overnight if you can. It is ready when a spoon stands upright in it.
Stir each portion before eating and top with 50 g of berries. If it has set too stiff, loosen it with a tablespoon or two of milk.

Nutrition per serving

These are an estimate per serving, worked out from the quantities above and divided by four. The real number shifts with your protein powder, the fat content of the milk and the fruit you use, so allow for about 10% either way.

Calories: around 285 kcal
Protein: around 25 g
Carbohydrates: around 24 g (about 9 g of that is fibre)
Fat: around 11 g

The fibre is what separates this from most sweet breakfasts. Nine grams per serving is roughly a third of a typical daily target, and nearly all of it comes from the chia and the berries.

Variations and swaps

No protein powder. Swap the 60 g of powder for 250 g of low-fat quark and drop the milk to 550 ml. Protein stays near 24 g per serving, the texture is thicker and slightly tangier. The same swap carries a quark-based protein ice cream.

Chocolate. Add 10 g of unsweetened cocoa and another 50 ml of milk. That is about 8 kcal more per serving and a noticeably darker flavour.

Dairy free. Soya drink is the only plant option that keeps protein close to the original; almond drink pulls it down by roughly 4 g per serving.

Fewer calories. Leave out the honey and use 1.5% milk — a serving drops to about 240 kcal with the protein untouched.

More calories. A tablespoon of peanut butter per jar adds roughly 95 kcal and 4 g of protein.

If the seed texture is not for you, a semolina protein pudding gets you similar numbers without any seeds, and oat protein pancakes are the warm version of the same breakfast.

When to see a doctor

Jumping from 10 g of fibre a day to 25 g leaves some people bloated and crampy for the first week or two. Introduce the pudding gradually and drink enough water alongside it. Never eat chia seeds dry and without liquid — they swell fast and can lodge in the oesophagus. Persistent stomach pain, blood in your stool or unplanned weight loss are not recipe problems and need a proper check.

In short

Ten minutes of work in the evening gives you four servings at roughly 285 kcal and 25 g of protein each. Dissolve the powder in the milk before the chia goes in, whisk twice, and leave it overnight. For the mornings when nothing is prepped, a five-minute breakfast with 30 g of protein covers the same gap.