Chai Chia Pudding

Packed with Power

You may have heard of the many nutri­tional ben­e­fits that the tiny chia seeds con­tain. The seeds found in the Salvia His­pan­ica plant pack a real punch and have recently been gain­ing in pop­u­lar­ity. The list of what makes the chia seed so good for you is quite long.

Among other nutri­ents, chia contain:

• 2 times the pro­tein of any other seed or grain
• 5 times the cal­cium of milk
• 2 times the amount of potas­sium as bananas
• 3 times more iron than spinach
• Loads of omega-3 and omega-6
• Plenty of antioxidants

Chia is a com­plete pro­tein and pro­vides all the essen­tial amino acids. Addi­tion­ally, chia seeds are very easy for the body to digest.

More infor­ma­tion on the power of chia seeds can be found here.

Great for Runners

As Christo­pher McDougall out­lines in his national best­seller, Born to Run, these healthy prop­er­ties are excel­lent for endurance ath­letes. In par­tic­u­lar, an increas­ing num­ber of ultra­run­ners have been con­sum­ing chia seeds before and dur­ing train­ing runs and races. The recent cham­pion and new record holder of the Moun­tain Masochist 50 mile trail run, Geoff Roes, report­edly eats chia seeds, as does leg­endary ultra­run­ner Scott Jurek.

When com­bined with a plant-based, unre­fined sugar, such as agave or raw honey, chia deliv­ers sus­tained energy. The seeds actu­ally cre­ate a phys­i­cal bar­rier in the stom­ach between car­bo­hy­drates and diges­tive enzymes. This results in a slower absorp­tion of sugar into the blood stream, mean­ing pro­longed energy rather than “spik­ing and bonking.”

The chia seeds also hold up to 9 times their weight in water so pro­vide a good, long deliv­ery of water to the body. Obvi­ously, this is excel­lent for long runs.

With all of these ben­e­fits it’s easy to see why they Tarahu­mara Indi­ans in the Cop­per Canyons of Mex­ico drink the stuff reli­giously while they run 50–100 miles or more. You can prac­ti­cally live off chia and water!

Exper­i­ment­ing in the Kitchen

I have enjoyed mak­ing the Cocoa chia Shake and Gluten Free Gra­nola with Chia Seeds and also reg­u­larly sprin­kle ground chia on my cereal, soups, and sal­ads. I recently began exper­i­ment­ing with whole chia seeds and have been work­ing on recipes that cap­i­tal­ize on the chia seed’s abil­ity to turn into a gel when com­bined with liquid.

In one of my recent exper­i­ments I tried com­bin­ing the Indian fla­vors of masala chai with chia. The results were quite delec­table. Here’s the recipe.

Chai Chia Pudding

Time: 15 mins. prep, 15 mins. to 12 hours wait
Serv­ings: 2
To Serve: Best chilled.

Not only is this recipe easy to make, it’s fun to say! Chai Chia. Just don’t try and say it five times fast. This recipe is good for two serv­ings or one large dose if you’re about to run a marathon!

Chia Gel

• 2 Tbl whole chia seeds (Nav­i­tas Nat­u­rals is one brand)
• 1 cup non-dairy milk (I use rice milk, but soy, nut, would work just as well)

Add chia seeds and milk in a bowl and let sit for at least 10–15 min­utes. Soak­ing the chia for at least 12 hours will release more nutri­ents allow­ing you to gain the full ben­e­fits of this super­food. Store the mix­ture in the fridge while it forms into a gel.

Pud­ding

• 2 tsp agave or raw honey (for best health benefits)
• 1 tsp Garam Masala spice mix (blend of the 5 “c” spices – cin­na­mon, cloves, corian­der, car­damom, cumin – plus nut­meg and black pepper)
• Drop of pure vanilla extract

Stir into the chia gel the agave/honey, spices, and vanilla extract. Serve in a bowl and gar­nish with what­ever the hell you want or just gulp it down immediately.

If you’re going to con­sume it on the run, add some more water or milk so you can drink it down while on the go from a bot­tle or flask.

Let me know what you think!

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