PB&J Chia Pudding Parfait
Dessert for breakfast? Yes, please! Who wouldn’t love a little peanut butter and jelly in their belly every morning? This PB&J Chia Pudding Parfait is sweet, satisfying, and packed with plant-based nutrition.
The vegan chia pudding is super easy to put together––you’ll love the vanilla flavor and fantastic, fluffy texture. The strawberry compote is simple and straightforward, taking only 10 minutes to make. It’s so yummy, you’ll have to stop yourself from eating it right out of the pan. Trust me on this.
Top with a few tablespoons of drizzly melted peanut butter and you’re guaranteed to fall in love. Transform this parfait into a decadent dessert by sprinkling on some sweet treat toppings or keep it clean and light with additional fresh fruit.
Base Chia Pudding Ingredients
Chia Seeds – These magical seeds act as a natural thickener and create a lovely pudding consistency when mixed with water, or in this recipe, plant milk. Plus, these tiny superfoods are high in healthy omega-3 fatty acids, calcium, fiber, protein, manganese, and magnesium!
Plant-Based Milk – You can use any plant-based milk of your choosing—almond milk, soy milk, hemp milk, cashew milk, coconut milk, rice milk, and beyond. Just keep in mind this recipe was created using unsweetened milk. If you use a sweetened vanilla soymilk, you might want to pull back on the maple syrup and vanilla extract.
Maple Syrup – Maple syrup is our sweetener of choice because of the extra complexity of flavor. But you can swap it for agave nectar, vegan honey, granulated sugar, coconut sugar, or any other sweetener of your choice!
Vanilla Extract – A dash of vanilla extract gives this pudding a warming, comforting, almost cake-like flavor.
Special Peanut Butter and Jelly Add-Ins
Can you believe that something so yummy can also be super healthy, too? Not only does our PB&J Chia Pudding Parfait taste like the most tempting morning treat, it’s full of antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and much more!
Strawberries – You can use store-bought jelly, jam, or preserves for this recipe, but it’s even better when you make your own! We use frozen strawberries, sugar, and chia seeds to create a very quick and delicious strawberry compote that works beautifully with this chia pudding.
Peanut Butter – We used peanut butter in the recipe for a classic peanut butter and jelly vibe, but feel free to use any nut butter of your choosing! Cashew butter, almond butter, walnut butter, vegan chocolate hazelnut nutella, or even a nut-free sunflower seed butter would all work beautifully.
How to Serve Up Your Chia Pudding Parfait
This perfect little vegan chia pudding can be dressed up or down as you desire. No matter how it’s served, it’ll still be scrumptious!
- Glorious Glassware – Make your breakfast extra special with a beautiful presentation. This is a great time to take advantage of any opulent or elegant glasses hiding in the kitchen cupboard. Find your favorite and fill it up to the brim with all of the ingredients.
- Vary Your Berry – Instead of using sweet strawberries for the compote, consider substituting blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, strawberry rhubarb, or even dark cherries. You could do the same with the nut butter, too. Almond butter would work well with blueberries and cashew butter pairs perfectly with cherries. So many delicious options!
- Pour Into a Pie Crust – Another idea is to use a pre-made, vegan-friendly graham cracker crust and pour your chia pudding inside as a filling. Refrigerate overnight. Then, top with your compote and add a decorative drizzle of peanut butter on top. You could even add extra berries or shaved chocolate, to fancy it up a bit more. Almost like our heavenly No-Bake Chocolate Pie.
- Lucky Layers – Vary the way you layer the elements in this parfait. Use a tall, slim glass to make small, but frequent layers of pudding, jam, and peanut butter. Or, use a short, wide dessert container and make only one large layer of each. This parfait is even excellent, just plopped into a bowl without any elegance at all!
- Terrific Toppings – You can always add a crunch factor with candied walnuts, coconut strips, chocolate chips, crushed graham crackers, hemp seeds, or homemade vegan nutella.
Simple Storing
You can store any leftover vegan chia pudding covered in the fridge for a day or two. After that, it’s better to make a fresh batch. If you keep each of the parfait ingredients separate, they will stay fresher longer. This recipe does not freeze well.
When you’re ready to make another portion, you can easily throw all of the elements together in a new glass. You might wish to use more or less of each to make a more personalized parfait. Some days, you may want more of the sweet compote and, on others, you may want more creamy chia pudding. It’s all up to you!
More Plant-Based Puddings
PB&J Chia Pudding Parfait
Ingredients
Chia Pudding:
- ½ cup chia seeds
- 2 cups unsweetened plant-based milk
- 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 tablespoons peanut butter, for garnish
Strawberry Compote:
- 2 cups frozen strawberries
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1 tablespoon chia seeds
Instructions
Chia Pudding:
- In a bowl add the chia seeds, plant milk, maple syrup, and vanilla extract and mix well. Cover and place in the refrigerator to chill for at least four hours or overnight.
Strawberry Compote:
- Place strawberries, sugar, and chia seeds in a small saucepan and bring to medium heat. Cook for approximately 10 minutes, stirring and mashing the fruit occasionally to combine.
- Serve the chilled chia pudding garnished with peanut butter and strawberry compote, or assemble in snack-sized ramekins for future enjoyment.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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Leave a Comment
Love this chia pudding! I’m not vegan but love integrating some plant based recipes every week.
Wow this looks so delicious!
This looks absolutely spectacular! What a lovely treat!
This chia parfait is the perfect healthy dessert! Yummy!
Totally in love! This recipe is so delicious in every way. I’m a huge fan of peanut butter and also chia pudding, but never thought to put them both together. Omg – it’s my new favorite dessert!!
This is seriously so good AND so healthy! One of my favorite desserst.
I love that this is sweet and yet healthy too! And I love the idea of thinning out the nut butter! Genius!
This is WAY better than any PB&J I’ve ever had! Love that it’s fancy enough to serve at a dinner party but fun enough for kids to enjoy too.
Wow, this looks so good! Love the chia with pb & strawberry jam.