Name: Chia & Fruit Jelly Pudding
Prep time: 10 min
Ingredients: 400 ml fruit juice; 2 tablespoon chia seeds; 1 tablespoon powdered gelatin; lemon juice (honey or spices to add if you want to make the flavour sharper); fresh fruit to decorate any type to go with the flavour of your fruit juice

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Fruit jelly pudding made with fruit juice, chia seeds and topped with fresh fruit. Simply made in less than 5 minutes, this is the perfect light and healthy low-calorie summer dessert!

This Chia & Fruit Jelly Pudding Recipe can be made well in advance and then served with fresh fruit, ice cream and drizzled with homemade brown sugar syrup.

If you’ve tried my Fruit Jelly Ice Lolly Recipe, I think, you like this one too!

Why make this recipe?

Super easy to make
Great for summer
Use any kind of fruit juice you have
Healthier than regular jelly because of the chia seeds
Low in calories (around 170 calories per glass)

PUDDING & DESSERT RECIPES

Time saving tip

If you want your chia seeds to soak up more fruit juice, prepare them well in advance. This can be easily done up to 24 hrs before you want to make the jelly recipe.

The chia seeds will carry on absorbing the fruit juice even when they are mixed with the fruit jelly and setting slowly in the fridge. Because of the chia seeds absorbing qualities, this fruit jelly will also set a lot quicker than regular jelly.

What makes this recipe work

This Chia & Fruit Jelly Recipe is very versatile. You can use any kind of fruit juice you have, add as much or as little chia seeds as you like and serve the jelly with any kind of topping you like.

Pro tip

Certain fruit juices might not allow a firm set. For example juices with pineapple, kiwi and papaya react with the gelatin and it could be difficult to achieve a proper set.

But, because we are using fair amount of chia seeds, you should have much problems in achieving reasonably firm set with any type of fruit juice.

Adding less liquid will also make the jelly set faster and achieve a firmer set.

Note on Ingredients

Fruit juice

I’ve used mango fruit juice for this recipe, but over the years, I’ve made with other flavours, including fresh orange juices, fruit smoothies, fruit juices from concentrate or freshly made fruit juices. The best thing about this recipe, is that you can pick any fruit juice you have at home and make it into this jelly pudding.

Chia Seeds

I’ve used darker chia seeds, but you can use both black or white chia seeds.

I’ve noticed that the black chia seeds turned my mango fruit juice a bit darker colour. I’m not sure whether it was the colour of the chia seeds or because they reacted with the acidity in the fruit juice, but it’s something to bear in mind.

If you want to make a clear fruit jelly, I’d suggest to use the white chia seeds.

MORE RECIPES WITH CHIA SEEDS

Gelatine

I’ve used powdered gelatine, which is easy to dissolve and use.

Flavourings

Depending on how flavoursome your fruit juice, you might like to add extra ingredients, such as lemon juice, spices or sweetener.

Note on the recipe instructions

It’s important to mix the chia seeds with the plain fruit juice first and leave them to soak a little bit. They will carry on soaking whilst they are setting in the fridge.

I also make sure that I don’t boil the gelatine, only bring it to a simmering point and then stir gently to make sure that the gelatine is completely dissolved before adding the plain fruit juice with chia seeds.

Wait a little bit for the jelly mixture to cool down, then stir again – to distribute the chia seeds more evenly and finally pour into your glasses.

Always taste your jelly pudding before you pour it to your glasses to set, to adjust the flavour to your liking with lemon juice, honey or spices.

How to make this jelly recipe vegan

To make my Chia & Fruit Jelly Pudding Recipe vegan, you’ll need to swap the gelatin powder with agar agar (or vegan jello powder). The amount (for agar agar) is half of the gelatin powder, meaning that you’ll need to add 1 1/2 teaspoon of agar agar to make the same amount of vegan jelly.

The other difference is that you’ll need to use as much of the fruit juice as possible with the agar agar. I usually split the fruit juice to 1/3 (and mix with chia seeds) and use the 2/3 fruit juice with the agar agar.

You will also need to bring the agar agar mixture to boil and then boil for 5 minutes to make sure that your recipe will set well. Make sure you stir the mixture gently as you boil it.

Add the chia fruit juice part, stir completely in and pour into prepared glasses. Chill in the fridge for 2-4 hrs.

Toppings that go well with Chia & Fruit Jelly

Fresh Fruit
Marmalades – like my low sugar Orange Marmalade Recipe
Fruit Sorbets – such as my Blueberry & Lemon Sorbet recipe
Vanilla Ice Cream
Flavoured Syrups like my homemade Earl Grey Sugar Syrup
Lemon Curd or homemade curds like my Mango Curd Recipe

Serving size & can I scale up or down this recipe?

This recipe will make 2 large glasses (or pudding bowls) or 4 small ones. You can easily half the recipe you wish or double (or triple) it if you are catering for a large party of people.

How to serve Chia & Fruit Jelly Pudding

Serve the Chia & Fruit Jelly straight from the fridge (to keep it cold) topped up with your choice of fruit, ice cream or syrups.

Can this recipe be made in advance?

My Chia & Fruit Jelly Pudding is perfect recipe to make in advance. You can easily prepare it 1-2 days in advance of your summer garden party and the jelly will keep well in the fridge.

How to store jelly pudding

Initially you want to keep your Chial & Jelly Pudding in the fridge to set, but you could keep it for a while outside of the fridge (it won’t go off or dissolve in a heat). If you have any leftovers, fridge is the best place for jelly as it will keep it nice and firm.

If you’ve made far too much jelly and you know you won’t be able to eat it within 2-3 days, you can also freeze jelly. It wouldn’t be my first choice of storing jelly, but it’s still better than throwing it away.

The freezing might result in slight separation between the jelly and chia seeds, but if you add some extra fruit and syrups on the top when you defrost the jelly, it will be absolutely fine and taste O.K.

How long can you keep this Chia & Jelly pudding

I usually eat mine within 2-3 days, but on occasion when I’ve kept them for longer, they were absolutely fine.

The Chia & Jelly puddings seem to dry out a little if you keep them for longer period of time, so I’d suggest to make sure that you cover them with something like a cling film. You can also make them into a small jam jars and use the lids to cover them.

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