Protein chia pudding: a recipe with 35 g protein per serving

A chia pudding with roughly 35 g of protein per serving: exact weights, ten minutes of work, an estimated calorie count and a no-powder version.

Most chia pudding recipes land somewhere around eight to ten grams of protein per serving, which makes them a dessert rather than a meal. This version gets to roughly 35 g per serving with ten minutes of actual work and a night in the fridge. The one thing you have to get right is the ratio of seeds to liquid.

Prep time and servings

Prep: 10 minutes. Cooking: 0 minutes — nothing gets heated. Chilling: at least 4 hours, ideally overnight. Servings: 2.

The ratio that holds the texture together is about 1 part chia seeds to 8 parts liquid by weight. Less liquid and you get a paste you eat with a fork; more and it runs off the spoon.

Ingredients

60 g chia seeds (about 6 tablespoons)
500 ml semi-skimmed milk, 1.5% fat (unsweetened plant milk works too)
30 g protein powder, vanilla or chocolate (one scoop)
200 g Greek yoghurt, 2% fat
150 g raspberries, fresh or frozen
10 g honey (one teaspoon, optional)
a pinch of salt and, if you like, half a teaspoon of cinnamon or a few drops of vanilla extract

Method

Put the protein powder and the salt in a large bowl and add only about 100 ml of the milk. Stir into a smooth paste with no lumps — this single step prevents almost every texture problem later.
Pour in the rest of the milk and stir through the Greek yoghurt. The mixture should stay pourable, roughly the consistency of a thin milkshake.
Add the chia seeds and stir for a full 30 seconds, scraping the bottom of the bowl. The seeds clump the moment they take on liquid, so the first stir matters most.
Leave it at room temperature for 10 minutes, then stir again and break up any clumps that formed while you were doing something else.
Divide between two jars or bowls, cover, and chill for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight.
Stir before serving. If it has set too firm, loosen it with 20 to 30 ml of milk per portion and wait a minute.
Top with the raspberries. If they are frozen, let them sit for 10 minutes or warm them briefly and stir in the juice they release.

Nutrition per serving

These are an estimate per serving, worked out from the weights above and divided by two. The real figure depends on your particular protein powder and on the fat content of the milk and yoghurt you use.

Calories: about 450 kcal
Protein: about 35 g
Carbohydrate: about 43 g (roughly 11 g of that is fibre)
Fat: about 16 g

More than half the fat comes from the seeds themselves, and so does most of the fibre. That combination is why the pudding sits better than a breakfast of the same calories built on white bread.

Variations and swaps

No protein powder. Drop the scoop, take the Greek yoghurt up to 350 g and add 15 g of ground almonds. You land at roughly 27 g of protein per serving for a similar calorie count. The same yoghurt-instead-of-powder trick drives a protein smoothie made without protein powder.

Fewer calories. Leave out the honey and switch to 0.5% milk. That takes about 40 kcal off each serving and barely touches the protein. Going the other way, 15 g of peanut butter per portion adds around 90 kcal.

Fruit. Raspberries give you the most volume for the least sugar, but sliced strawberries do the job just as well. Banana is the sweeter option and adds roughly 25 g of carbohydrate across the whole recipe.

Dairy-free. Soya milk is the only plant milk that keeps the protein near where it started; almond milk costs you around 8 g across the recipe. Swap the Greek yoghurt for a soya-based yoghurt and use a plant protein powder.

If the texture puts you off. Some people never get on with chia seeds in the mouth. For the same kind of make-ahead breakfast on a different base, try overnight oats with protein.

When to see a doctor

Chia seeds push your fibre intake up quickly. If you normally eat very little fibre, start with 30 g of seeds for the whole recipe and drink more water; a few days of bloating is common. Persistent stomach pain, blood in your stool, a known bowel condition or any difficulty swallowing are all reasons to check with a doctor before making this a daily meal. Never eat the seeds dry — they swell once they meet liquid.

The short version

60 g of chia seeds, 500 ml of milk, 200 g of Greek yoghurt and one scoop of protein give you two servings of roughly 450 kcal and 35 g of protein. Ten minutes in the evening, breakfast sorted. On mornings when you have a pan and fifteen minutes, oat and egg protein pancakes cover the same job.