A vibrant pink chia pudding made using dragon fruit powder, this brilliantly colorful tropical breakfast is a treat to eat that can be enjoyed any time of year! It goes great with Tropical Granola. This recipe is dairy-free, vegan, gluten-free, oil-free, refined sugar-free, and satisfies a whole food plant-based lifestyle.
Chia pudding makes a wonderful breakfast or snack during the summer. It's satisfying, yet cool and light. It's quick and easy to make a big batch to keep for the week, so you can dig in whenever you'd like.
What you'll love about this chia pudding
It's pink! In general, this is one colorful chia pudding. It's a gorgeous pink-purple that is all natural, thanks to dragon fruit powder. Mango and lime add their own bright color magic.
It's quick and easy to make, which is really nice for a summertime breakfast. It can be ready in as little as 5 minutes, though I recommend giving it a little longer to achieve a thicker consistency.
While this is a cool breakfast for summertime, it can really be made any time of year. That's because fruit powder is used instead of fresh, seasonal fruit.
This is a high fiber recipe with protein and other nutrients.
Ingredients and substitutions
Dragon fruit powder is simply dried and ground dragon fruit, and the color it gives to food and drinks is striking. It's also referred to as pitaya powder, and it is becoming more widely available at health food stores and online. Thrive Market now carries an organic freeze-dried dragon fruit powder and I really love it. The bag isn’t cheap, but it lasts a long time - this recipe only calls for a tablespoon per four servings and the amazing color you see pictured is achieved. It adds a little sweetness and that beautiful purply-pink color, plus antioxidants, fiber, potassium, and magnesium. But it’s mostly that color that draws me in - eating a colorful dragon fruit chia pudding is a sunshiny way to start the day.
Chia seeds are of course used here, either black or white seeds. They provide omega-3s in addition to fiber and protein.
Just a touch of maple syrup is needed. You could also use date syrup.
Lime juice and zest add brightness and flavor as well as vitamin C.
Plant-based milk of your choice is used for the liquid. I recommend oat milk.
Instructions
This is a recipe where all you have to do is stir the ingredients together. So easy!
It’s the chill time that can take awhile, depending on the consistency you prefer. So, if you want it to be extra thick and creamy, it’s good to remember to make it the night before. But, you don’t have to. Chia pudding is softened and certainly edible after just 5 minutes - it’s just won’t have thickened much by then. After a half hour, it’s a pretty nice consistency - still not as creamy as overnight, but if you forget to make it the night before, you can still have it. I like it pretty much any way I can get it when it’s too hot to cook and I just want something nice and light.
Recipe FAQ
Can other fruit/veg powders be used if I don't have dragon fruit powder? While you could use other pink or red-hued powders like hibiscus, beet, pomegranate, or berry, the color of dragon fruit is unique and won't be achieved by other powders unless you spend time fussing with combining a few. Perhaps purple carrot and pomegranate?
This pink dragon fruit chia pudding goes with:
Pink Dragon Fruit Chia Pudding Recipe
Ingredients
- ½ cup chia seeds preferably white so that the pink can shine
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup or date syrup
- 1 teaspoon lime zest or zest of one lime
- ¼ cup lime juice
- 1 tablespoon dragon fruit powder aka pitaya
- 2 cups plant-based milk unsweetened, like oat milk
Optional Toppings
- fruit-sweetened jam
- fruit of choice I like mango with this
- granola Tropical
- cacao nibs
- macadamia nuts
- hemp seeds
Instructions
- In a bowl or jar, stir together the chia seeds, dragonfruit powder, lime juice and zest, and maple syrup with about ½ cup of milk. Once incorporated, stir in the remaining milk until well combined.
- Eat after letting it set 5 minutes, or, for a thicker consistency, chill covered in the fridge for about a half an hour. Stir well again and serve. For firmer chia pudding, refrigerate for another hour or more. An easy way to do this is to make it in the evening so it can chill overnight.
- Add toppings and serve. Can be stored in the fridge for up to a few days.
